finding a new church...week 7 (for real)

It's *actually* week 7 this week, unlike last week when I accidentally claimed it.  :)

We debated this week over whether we should go to the church we had liked the best up until this point, or try a new one.  After some very scientific methodology--aka writing "new church" and "________ church" on pieces of paper and making Jeremy pick a hand--we decided to try a new church!

I did a little more research, this time specifically for UMC churches, and found 3 or 4 that we hadn't visited (that have contemporary service(s)) and sent an email to Jeremy.  He looked around at them, picked one, and that's where we went!

We both got the impression that this was going to be a medium - large sized church, and were surprised when we got there and found that the sanctuary was probably only set up to hold 100 or so people (there were probably 70-80 at the service we went to, they have two of them).  it was also a little awkward, because they're in the process of searching for a director of music/worship, and one of the candidates was there leading worship today.

Several people came up and said hi to us, which is rare (as I touched on last week).  But, with the size of the congregation, it was easy to see that we stuck out like sore thumbs.  (In fact, at one point when the pastor was talking about how good it was to see old and new faces, I swear he looked right at us, lol)  It was very nice, though, to feel like we might belong instead of feeling like just a couple more faces in the crowd.

The music was pretty good...we recognized every song, though I couldn't tell if the whole congregation knew the songs.  Some of them are songs that I love but hadn't heard sung in church in a while (this and this).  One thing that was most interesting to me was that this week's candidate was female.  That simple fact isn't the interesting part, just that it made me realize that I can't even remember the last time (before today) that I had been in the congregation worshipping with a female worship leader.  Considering I was really the only chick who lead songs at Covenant, I am used to dudes.  :)  And our search has proven to be the same (except for the church on week....2 or 3?  A chick lead one or two songs, but not the whole set).  At any rate, she did a good job overall, but definitely had a moment of completely going "rock star" one one of my favorite songs to sing, which was distracting, but otherwise quite talented.

The sermon was pretty good...they just started a new series (and opened with this video, which almost made me cry).  I was a little distracted by the sound (even during the music) because they really kept the pastor's mic HOT and at some points I felt like I was being yelled at, but overall it was good.


We met the pastor for a few minutes afterwards, and were a little shocked to find out that he grew up in Asheville!  So, we talked about that for a few moments and headed out.  On our way out, one of the ladies who talked to us before the service actually remembered our names, and said goodbye to us by name.  You know, I've known for a LONG time how much people love to hear the sound of their own name, but today was the first time in a long time that it actually had such an impact on me.


Seems like this church really could be a place we could stay.  We're not entirely sure yet, and I think we want to visit one of the other churches again, and of course this one again, but we just might be on to something.  Thanks, God.  :)