Finding a Church

Fourth Day of Christmas

I was glad to get email from two of you. I'm having a new round of email problems. I plan to spend some of Tuesday on the phone with AT&T trying to get this straightened out. 

Monday is faith journey day. Last Monday I talked about the health difficulties of 2011. That first year also saw us seeking a new church. In this whole series over the next couple of Mondays I"m gong to be really frank. I hope I don't hurt any feelings. Let me know your disagreements.

 

One of our criteria was finding a church that our son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren could go to with us.

 

There is a cliche to the effect that "You only have once to make a first impression." There were six United Methodist churches during that first year here that we went to only once. Here's the list and here's why.

First was Christ, Chapel Hill. The church is absolutely beautiful. It's location was not good for us. We live on the east side of CH, in a small part of CH that is in Durham County. We felt good about the service there. One thing went wrong. It takes only one. The bulletin advertised an upcoming Missions Dinner. I was thinking we might go. Then I saw the price--$85.00. I don't remember whether that was per person or per couple. Whichever, it signaled to us that this church might be out of our price range. I thought that maybe most or all that money was probably going to Missions, or maybe it would just a very upscale dinner. If it were the former, they would have been better to have us just make contributions. I know I have at least two of you blog readers at Christ. Please don't be offended. But do take note. I remember a controversy at First, N. Wilkesboro over going from $5.00 to $6.00 for our Wednesday evening meals.

We went to Orange UMC once. It was like a larger version of the rural churches I had pastored in my 20's and 30"s, very low church. Those were the kind of churches I was trying to get away from. 

Our family, John, Jessica, Madeline, and Jack went to Amity once. They felt like they were the youngest people there. After the service, they were too much fawned over. One church member said she really wanted them to come there. They were the kind of family that could keep the church from dying. John and Jessica told us they didn't want to go there again.

We went to Aldersgate once. It had an historical advantage for me. My mentor when I was a youth, Susan Allred, had been pastor there for a number of years. I liked Donnie. Still do. But the church was way too small for us. It has since closed, and like the Wesley Foundation building at UNC, been taken over by the 

Catholics. 

 

We went to Resurrection once, not to a service, but just to check out the building. It had the advantage of being geographically the closest to us (though not to our family members). We went into the sanctuary. Not good, but okay. We started to the education building, but the doors were locked. We went to the administrative offices. The administrative assistant was there. We asked if she could let us see the education wing. She said she only workef till noon and that it was already 11:55. She didn't have time to show us, but we could come back on Sunday.  We didn't. The church is still there, but it has changed its name from Resurrection to something more trendy and non-theological. I can't remember what.

We went to Carrboro once. I had an odd connection there. When I pastored a three point charge in Chatham County, I had dated the choir director there. She was long gone buy this time. More significantly it was in Carrboro, where our extended family lived. The service was fine, but the church was small. The pastor did visit us the next week. We really liked her. She was the only pastor in our entire 10 years in Chapel Hill who has ever visited us. The church was just too small for us. She was moved the next year.

We went to two other churches more than once. I'll talk about them next Monday.

Faithfully,

Christian