one home down... one to go

for those who don't know (which shouldn't be too many as i'm sure i have about two readers besides the wife) andrea and i have been looking for a couple of homes in salem. the first being a house to live in and stop torching our money on rent... the second being a new church. we're still looking for that "right" home but we believe we've found our church home. more on that in a bit.

i don't know if anyone else has ever had to leave their hometown church and go through the process of finding something to feel at home at... but it is very difficult. i especially had a hard time because i only recently became a Christian and calvary fellowship in eugene was my first true church as a believer. because of this i will always have a special biased leaning toward that church and since danny o'neil, the pastor there, did our marriage counseling and the actually marrying of us, i will always remember calvary in a very happy and awesome way.

so getting past all of this religious baggage (for lack of a better term) we have had the daunting task of church shopping. as there are hundreds of churches in the salem area... we went off recommendations from family, friends and coworkers. but having never had to look for the right church, as calvary just fit right off the bat, how do you narrow down your options and finally settle down at the right church. it's surprisingly a lot like looking for the right home. you have a list of things you want in a church - good worship, great message through sermon, ways to plug in and feel like a part of the fellowship and most importantly the Godly values you believe in.

the trick is realizing you need to find the best church for you... not the perfect church since that probably doesn't exist.

we tried a few out but one would be terrible worship but a good message and a huge congregation... while another would have good worship but the church is going through finding a new pastor and seems only focused on that task. so it was hard weighing those differences and much like finding a house, deciding which things were deal breakers and which ones we could let go in order to settle in.

after months of searching... we tried out salem alliance. while it is much larger than we thought we'd be comfortable with... there are enough services and programs get into we feel confident we'll be able to plug into to the program. we love the uplifting worship that mixes old hymns of tradition with newer songs by artists like chris tomlin and the message has been great too. the church is also very active in community outreach. not to convert people... but to simply support folks in need and offer to pray for them. being someone who has never really been into the idea of Bible thumping or good deeds for the purpose of conversion rather than simply to do good deeds... this really appeals to me. the only downside so far is we've yet to have the same pastor in 3 weeks of attendance... but this could be due to the main pastor being sick.

on a more personal note: i'm not one to usually admit to feeling God or being open about the emotional side to my beliefs... but i will admit that our first visit to salem alliance had me on the verge of tears. i believe this is due to two reasons... one; it was beginning to feel like we weren't going to find a church we liked and would just have to settle for one that only kind of felt right... and two; during the worship i felt like i was where God wanted me. i can't explain it in words but i'm sure fellow believers know what i'm talking about.

so hopefully this is it.