Church can be fun

OK, so it's kind of an odd title. Some of you probably think that church should always be fun, or at least good, or desirable, or comfortable, or some other positive adjective. But some of you probably disagree; you go to church "because it's the right thing to do", for lack of a better description. Verses like Hebrews 10:25, or Acts 2:42 tell you that God expects believers to meet together regularly, and you go, but never really feel comfortable. Maybe it's not a comfort issue, but rather that you're bored by the sermon, don't like the style of music, dislike how friendly (or standoffish) everyone else is, or that you feel like everyone is just pretending to be happy since it's a Sunday.

For the large majority of my adult life, I definitely fell into the second group of people. For me it was an issue of being judgmental of everyone I saw at church for various reasons, and I ended up feeling miserable when I left. There have been other issues at some of the churches we've attended over the years, but the root cause was that I was just not willing to be a part of the church like God commanded us.

And I didn't know how to change that. Each time we moved and found a new church, I'd try to make myself go to a small group, participate in church functions, go to the Wednesday night service, and 'get connected'. That usually lasted little more than a month before I just decided I was better than everyone else, and go slinking back to my old ways. I prayed about it all the time. I WANTED to feel at home in a church, to feel like I was worshiping and fellowshiping with others as the body of Christ. I wanted church to leave me feeling closer to God. I wanted to learn, to be fed, to be able to share and give and grow.

Since I know that God is able to do anything, to answer any prayer, to change a heart and a mind when someone seeks Him earnestly, I also know that He had a plan for the last few years of my life. I'm still not sure what it was, but that's OK too. But what I do know now, is that He is AMAZING, and has given us an awesome church for the two months that we're here in San Diego.

This is really about God changing my life, and not about how amazing the people are at church, but I do want to share a bit about that too. We arrived in San Diego on a Saturday night, and despite wanting to skip church the next day (I came up with plenty of excuses for myself), I really felt God telling me that this was important. So to Google I went in search of a new (albeit temporary) church home. There's a lot of churches in San Diego, but I narrowed it down to a handful before going to bed, leaving a final decision for the morning.

We decided on a small church called San Diego Bible Church about 20 minutes from where we're staying, and headed out to see what it was all about. When we left church a few hours later, I didn't really understand what happened. It was not at all the sort of church I was looking for. It wasn't the sort of music I usually liked, it had very, very friendly people who 'made' us wear a name tag and then greeted us, listened to us, talked to us, loved us, and made us feel at home. (For those of you who don't really know me... ... well, I'm not an overly social person, and that sort of stuff usually makes me pretty uncomfortable). Just about the only thing that my rational mind told me it liked was the preaching, which was deep, concise, clear, and unambiguously straight from God's Word.

But you know what? I couldn't wait to go back. I wanted there to be a Sunday night service so we could go to that. I wanted to get to know everyone there. I wanted to meet and spend time with the pastor. It was... weird.

So what's up with that? God was there, not just in the church, but in me. The small things that might have irritated me didn't matter. Instead He just showed me the unique personality of every person there. He filled me with a desire to worship Him, to love others, and to draw near to His side. It made no sense, but it was wonderful.

So. Sounds like a great first Sunday, but would it last? Or was it just a one-time thing where God had come through? Turns out that God has some sort of plan for us here in San Diego, and it involves us being in a church that honors and serves Him wholeheartedly, and a church that we love being at. Last Saturday we were able to get in (very last minute) on a church trip to Ensenada Mexico for the day to help out a sister church down there. Really cool experience, and I think probably the first "missions-trip" I've actually ever been on.

One more thing, and then I'll stop. I know I've been talking a lot about this church, but it's been really exciting to me to see God work in my and Naomi's life through His servants there. On Monday nights, Pastor Steve has a Bible study at his house where he goes through the upcoming week's sermon and holds a Q&A time along with some solid teaching. We'd wanted to go since the first Sunday, but either work or other previous obligations meant that today was the first opportunity we'd had. We showed up at his place at 5:30 this evening, and wondered why there weren't more cars in his driveway. After he invited us in, we found out that they'd cancelled it for the week since so many people were out of town for the holiday weekend. Since we hadn't been before, we weren't on the list of people they called to let them know. Instead of that being it, though, Steve invited us to stay and talk for a while. We ended up having a great discussion (about Calvanism, Armenianism, limited vs. unlimited atonement...) and then doing the whole Bible study anyway, just the three of us. He asked pointed questions about the text, explained the background, translated portions from the Greek to make the passage clearer... it was just fun! I don't know if I've ever described a Bible study as 'fun' before, but it really was. I learned a lot, and came away with so many more questions to ponder, and an immense desire to spend time in the Word.

So I'm writing a lot more than I originally intended. I suppose I'll stop here. I want to share some of what I learned tonight, but maybe another time. But for anyone who was praying for us to find a good church here in San Diego, know that God answered your prayers in a tremendous way.

Things I've learned:
- There's some things in our lives that we're incapable of changing on our own, but God is not limited by our past.
- God hears us every time we pray, and even when we can't fathom why He doesn't answer how we want, He does have a purpose, every single time.
- Living out the answer to a prayer is the most amazing thing I've ever experienced!

Ahh.... I want to keep writing, but this is too long and I don't want to lose anyone. More later