Categories: family, life-in-general, beautiful-husband
Date: 19 February 2009 10:01:31
What do you regard as ‘your’ church? I know there are many wibblers who have moved in the last year or two and are adjusting to a new church ‘family’ …. I sometimes wonder about that church ‘family’ concept. It’s great to know the people you worship with, and spend time with them, and develop relationships. But is it wrong, unhelpful, bad for you, if you don’t, particularly? I seem to have developed a three ‘body’ 1600km wide church at this point, and it seems to be suiting me very well …. I attend a church about 20mins away in Wynyard TAS, pentecostal (though a tad more ‘traditional’ than they’d like to think they are, in all truth!), which is a church plant from the very large (not Hills*ong) Pentecostal church I attended in Sydney. I quite like the church, the people are great, I have a few minor issues with the pastor but I’m not the only one who has those particular issues :), but generally it’s a good church. I don’t feel led to take on any role at all (and yes, I am well aware of what it is like to get a word from God about where He wants you in a church … in this case I’m assuming He’s happy for me to be happy doing nothing except attending on a semi-regular basis) and I don’t go every week. I also attend, when back in the Southern Highlands of NSW (where I grew up and where my parents and siblings all reside), the Anglican Church which I attended from the age of 2. It’s a great church and they’ve welcomed Mr Tasmania as one of their own J, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it will always be my ‘base’ church, which is no bad thing, as the teaching is solid if not always particularly inspired or up to the minute. There’s a whole heck of a lot to be said about attending a church where people have known you since you were a little tacker (a lot to be said about NOT attending that church as well, but I think if you manage to get people to understand that you’re an adult, not still 2 years old, things go a lot better!) especially when they welcome you back with open arms whenever you visit :). And then there’s the ‘church on remote’ … a very good friend of Mr Tasmania has recently started a church plant in P*rt Macquarie, NSW, another plant from the original church in Sydney. This is a church we support with part of our tithe, is the church we would attend if we lived there, and he is the pastor I would call first (well, actually, the PAID pastor I would call first … in the event of a pastoral ‘situation’, if I couldn’t talk to Mr Tasmania, I’d be talking first to my parents (who have their moments but are generally exceptionally wise) and then the BroBoss, KombiBro, and either/or/both ChilliGirl and The Amazon … all of whom are Christian, practical, and sensible, and all read their Bible a lot more than me!). As a result, I actually am finding that I feel like I have a very well rounded church situation – ‘home’ church, ‘base’ church, and ‘church on remote’, a number of pastors available if necessary, and about the only thing I really miss is singing … but I don’t have to be in church to sing :)