Leaving / Arriving Church
Categories: spirituality, swansea
Tags: Church
Date: 03 May 2007 23:03:38
Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.
Another fantastic cartoon from Dave there. And so true, in so many cases. I remember when I was searching for a church in Swansea, when I first moved away from home. I wanted to have the chance to experiment, try out a various of churches and decide *myself* which type/denomination / tradition, I was most comfortable with. I tried numerous churches, on several different occasions each. For a little while it was a toss up between a local Baptist church, which was well attended by students that I knew, and the local Methodist church which felt more familiar in its service structure, sermon length and general atmosphere, but didn't have the students and young adults. For a couple of months I was chopping and changing between the two - not feeling settled or happy in either church, although I did feel more at home and comfortable at the Methodist church.
One weekend however, I went away to the Methodist Youth Conference, where there was a big discussions about how to bring more 20/30 year olds back into the Methodist church. On the train, on the way home, I decided that I couldn't not got to a Methodist Church, just because it didn't have many people my age in regular attendance. How was this supposed to be improved, if I didn't go in the first place?! You can't encourage 20/30 year olds back into the Methodist church, if you're not going yourself! How can you improve anything within a church, if you don't stay there for long enough, because you don't like the way it's done?!
The following Sunday I went to church and met, for the first time, Sarah and Mike - two regular student attenders at the church, at that time. Since then the numbers of students and young adults have increased - there is now usually a good handful of us, even though we've sadly lost Mike in that time.
I am very glad that I chose to make Sketty Meth my home church, and I'll certainly miss it when I move away. Will just have to add to the numbers of 20/30 year olds elsewhere...