This has been a great weekend! We ate Jason's Deli Friday night, first time we have eaten out in a long time. It's kinda our goal to see how long we can go without eating out. I was just craving a bunch of salad and it's the only buffet I condone. I had my last long run Saturday morning. Thank God for tapering. I saw a t-shirt that said, "While you were sleeping in, I was running." That's the truth Lover. The wind was a doozie and my mile time drastically improved during mile 5 when a Chihuahua started chasing me. I would have turned around and kicked it if I didnt' love Chihuahuas so much. Aye Aye Aye! Then we all got dressed, ate lunch at The Olive Garden, and then I got new tires! Yes, four new tires! No more bald tires that are all different sizes and brands AND I got a sweet hook up from an old high school friend. Oh, yeah and I now have a spare tire. I know! I haven't had a spare tire in quite some time. What if you would have had a flat Brandi? I would have ran to where I need to go! Then, I dragged Jerry to Sam Moon. Jerry hates. Bailey likes. We went to church this morning and then grilled hamburgers in the Blackyard (that's the backyard incase you can't figure it out). Good weekend.
I started going to church when my Dad remarried, so I went to Sunday morning, Sunday evening, Wednesday night church since I was seven years old. We even went Thursday nights when it was family gym night. I'm not going to complain about that, because that's where I started my love of volleyball and started playing at 8 years old. When I moved out I stopped going. I got tired of being dragged down to the altar. I'm not going to lie, I haven't been to church in a long time. I would occasionally go when I was home from college, if I didn't have a hangover, but not too often. It's one thing to not go when you don't have kids, but there comes a time when kids need church, that is if you're a Christian. We have been wanting to try the church where Bailey attends school, Chapel Creek Fellowship, a nondenominational church, so finally this morning, we did. They have three different services, so there's NO excuse why you would miss church. Genius.
This is where my blog may get hairy: Please don't tell me about your church, I'm not going to visit it.
What happened to church?!! I remember the beating of Sunday School, the hours of preaching, wearing dresses, panty hose, heels, hair had 3 pounds of Rave in it, you bring your Bible, you got the option of using the church's Bible incase you didn't have yours, hymns, uncomfortable pews, long altar calls, and hour long fellowship with people after church while you were dying to eat lunch. Man my church sucked. Lord forgive me, but it did.
First, everybody is in jeans in this 'contemporary' church! Like denim. Including the preacher. No tie. No suit. Just jeans and a button up shirt. They call him by his first name too! The music is nothing like what I grew up in. Yeah, we had guitars, a piano, drums, and a base player. Oh by the way I grew up in an Assembly of God Church and Jerry grew up Nazarene. You probably don't even know what that is. Google it. This church was different. It was like a Christan concert during the music part. It was so loud, there were three guitar players, a keyboard player, drums, base player, three singers, and lights flashing creating a pretty cool lighting effect. I was waiting for pyrotechnics. Why wasn't church like this when I grew up? Have I been out of the church loop that long?
I always hated growing up, kids would ask what religion you are and I had to explain my penecostal/assembly of God background. I would always hear, "I'm baptist". Okay. Who cares as long as you believe in the Lord. Maybe that's why there's more nondenominational churches now. Pretty cool if you ask me. This church had the projector to display everything you need including the bible you didn't bring, your assigned number for when your child is acting a fool. They even go as far as to giving you a church program with the sermon on it with notes, and you can fill in blanks. When did Christians get so lazy? Sheesh.
Overall, very different church experience than what I was expecting. I guess I'm just old fashion and was looking forward to singing, "I'll Fly Away" or "Amazing Grace". Next Sunday I have Cowtown, but the following Sunday, this family will be going back to broaden our church horizons.
Today's sermon was 'Being Confident In God and taking the plunge'. I think we took the plunge today.
'Trust in the Lord with all your heart & do not lean on your own understanding.' Proverbs 3:5 (NAV)
Church is VERY different these days.
ReplyDeleteI agree about the music. The church we go to does throw in a few old school hymns (to a contemporary beat) and I usually try to rock those out!
My husband just can't figure out why it is so loud in there!!!! I guess we're just old school.