Been a while since I've posted here!

But as one of my goals for this year is to post just about every day, this blog is to be resurrected as well.

Today was a red-letter day, I guess. After God knows how long, Hubby and I actually went to church.

Yup. Sat in a morning service among a group of believers and worshiped -- I think.

This church is the only one of the three SBC fellowships within walking distance that we hadn't yet tried. (Seriously, we have three SBC churches on less than a mile of road. Almost literally a church on every corner!) The one we tried first is across the main drag in our neighborhood and down about a block. Its sanctuary is directly across the street from our car repair garage, but they didn't use the sanctuary when we visited them. The congregation -- of which our neighbors were part at the time -- met in the gym. They had a praise band and projected the song lyrics on a screen. The preaching wasn't bad, but the acoustics certainly were! Sunday school met in the little rooms off the back of the sanctuary. I don't remember much about the class other than there were quite a few young families represented.

Now this congregation has merged with another, smaller group, changing their name to accommodate both. They're renting out their sanctuary to a Hispanic church of the Catholic persuasion ... which is bursting at the seams whenever there's a service.

The second one we tried is literally just around the corner from us. It has a small, older congregation, many of whom are not from the neighborhood. They used pre-recorded music and, again, projected the song lyrics on the screen. The problem I found with this was, not being into contemporary Christian music, we often knew neither the lyrics nor the tunes. They used the official Southern Baptist Sunday school materials. The youth group, which the boys visited, was made up of kids mostly from another town entirely. No one from their school was in it. The preacher, an older man, taught on tithing the week before Christmas. We came back after the holiday, when he was back from vacation, and he started a new 5-part sermon series on ... tithing. Yeah. Right.

These folks came to the door on Saturday to let us know where the church was and invite us to service. It was this, plus a rather pointed comment from my sweet MIL about being in church, that propelled me out the door today to try the third of these SBC bastions.

This third church is down the other end of our street and across the main drag from us. It's a very visible church at the top of a hill and they have one of those animated LED signs down by the highway. It's been around for a long time and bears the original name of the area. (Most people call the neighborhood by the newer name, the one the first SBC church I mentioned bears.) Today they met in the fellowship hall as the sanctuary's heating system was broken. We've actually been in the sanctuary before; the elementary school held one of its end-of-the-year 5th grade award ceremonies there.

Music was very traditional -- all hymns we've sung a thousand times -- using an actual hymnal and played on a piano. The preacher was younger though the congregation seems to be older. He read an entire chapter of 1 Timothy, but didn't seem to stay focused on the text. (He also told a long story that he never finished.) Hubby had trouble hearing him at times, and didn't sing, which made me sad. I was pleased to see that the song leader was a (very pregnant) woman and that the church used women as deacons and ushers. This church also has AWANA (from age 2 through high school) which is a point in their favor IMO.

We may go back and give them another try. It usually takes two or more visits to decide whether or not a congregation is for us. I may ask about the teens, too, so I can get a feel for whether or not they go to the same HS as Boy #2. Might be good for him to have a few schoolmates to hang out with.

At least I can report to the MIL that we did go to church... :)