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Well I have two churches, sister kind of has three at the moment. ><
First Church is our main/home church. When my father was first born again, we started going to the Catholic church because that was how he was raised. However, after a while, he felt as if the Holy Spirit didn't want him there. He also realized, that the message wasn't straight forward God's word and/or some things just didn't match up with His word. Also, if you had a question about the Bible, or the message preached, tehre was no one you could ask about it. The Minister would be too busy. So then we went to a bunch of different churches, all of them my father really felt the Holy Spirit pushing him out of. Finally, my dad felt led to the church that was truly God's church. They preach His word, they follow and listen to Him, they made sure that their teachings lined up with God's, they made sure to let us know that we should always make sure that their teachings as well as everyone else's held true to His word, and they never watered down the Gospel. Everyone is family there and loves Jesus and His word. You can go up to the Pastor at any time, call him right up, shoot him an email, anything about anything. He'll listen and love. His wife is just as great, they are very in love with and are devoted to the Lord.
When we first arrived, they had events. Coffee house night or something like that, children's worship, picnics, volleyball match which usually went with the picnics. But now a days, it's kind of quiet. We don't even have children's worship anymore or a worship band. They've started doing more leadership dinners lately though it seems.
But we may not have a lot, however that doesn't matter. We have our hearts singing to God with the worship leader just singing with praise. We have our children go down stairs after to listen to His truth. We listen to our Pastor preach His word with conviction, truth, and the Lord in his heart. I sadly haven't been there in a while though. : l Point though is that, it shouldn't many things we have going on in or outside the church, it matters solely if the Pastor is truly in His word. It's hard to find churches like that these days sadly. : ( Most will do anything to get members, because numbers are everything to them. : ( Please don't read this as "events are bad" >.< It's always nice to have events, especially those that help people outside of the church and show them that we really do care about them. : ) As the Pastor at my second church recently preached, we should have discipleship unashamed as individuals and working together with the church outside of the church to spread His word, ^^
My second church, is about a 40 minute drive away. I go there with my currently 7yr old sister because we have family that go there. Also, because when my cousin was old enough to start the youth group, she dragged me along. >.< Anyway, I grew some friendships, and I just really like the church. It's very friendly, they obviously love Jesus, they do have stuff going on that I like especially for my sister, and for the most part they seem right in His word. Also, as I said before, family is there and now friends. I don't really have many people I can socialize with, my age, at my home church. And I'm not good at socializing in the first place. D : I usually prefer to be around older people. They are wiser, calmer, and I strangely just feel more comfortable around them. : o
I will be honest though, that there are little pet peeves I get there. Like, before church starts they have Sunday school for everyone including the adults, which I have gone to once before. The teacher though was using the New Living translation, and said it was his favorite to use, but I kind of have an issue with that translation. D : -Another thing was they count the people every week. I first realized this, when I saw it on the back of a bulletin. "We received this much in donations. This is how much all of the things we need to pay for add up to. This is how many people came this week." Then I did actually see the guy walking through getting his quick head count. Then a few months ago when I went, a message was preached on keeping numbers in the church. -Third, the newish worship leader, which apparently happens to also be the Pastor's son. I'm thinking that I might just subconsciously and badly thinking on things I've heard about him before. The only one I can actually remember being, that he once was doing worship, they went back to the pews for the sermon and such, but when it was time for the ending worship he wouldn't come up and was found sleeping. He seems nice enough, but last time I went he kind of seemed like he was trying to put on a show. Like the worship, was his own little concert. I also, just felt...like something was maybe 'off', like maybe he wasn't really singing fully to God. I feel like maybe I'm just being too judgemental, because I don't really know that much about him in the first place. I have been praying for him either way though. And if anyone even reads this far >.< Then I ask you pray for him too. I think actually I should put a prayer request in the prayer sub-forum... That would be smart. >.<
The third, my sister goes to for something that is basically a mix of Girl Scouts and Awana, called Caravan. I have been there a few times to pick her and her friend up either by myself or with my mother. Also a few years back, my mom found someone from the church through a local home-school site. I went with her to the church, we made pies for some church fundraiser, it was fun and interesting, but...again I'm not good with socialization and I never saw the girl again. to be honest, I don't really mind though, because I didn't really feel much of a 'click', plus I said something that was a bit of an awkwardness moment, just by not organizing my thoughts into words all too well. D :
It seems like an nice enough church, but I really don't know that much about it. My mom mentioned it to my dad a while ago (because she's mad that our church doesn't have a lot of stuff for my sisters and I.) he wasn't enthusiastic about it. I don't really care much, but I'd rather stay with my home church where I know the word is preached with truth and conviction. : )
All in all, I have nothing against events, but I think that the church's number one focus should be preaching the word in truth so that it builds us up in Christ together with encouragement from our fellow believers in him. ^_^
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