I didn't make it to the church I promised I'd go to- for the second week in a row! Doh! Woke up this morning with swollen glands and a headache, and mustering up the energy to go to a church where I would be a clear outsider didn't seem doable. I'm postponing the visit to Church of God of Prophecy to December 5th.
That may seem funny, but I actually have all of the churches I'm going to written in my planner and I don't want the whole chain to derail because I played hookie one Sunday. When I came up with this idea, I wanted to make sure I would be exposed to a theologically, economically, politically wide range of churches, so I carefully picked churches that I found different enough to visit.
Here's the schedule. I'm going to stick to it!!
9/26- Unitarian Universalist (Yeah, I know this isn't a Christian church, but I'm interested.)
10/03- United Methodist
10/10- Bread of Life Foresquare
10/17- Southern Hills Mennonite Church
10/24- First Lutheran Church (ELCA!)
10/31- Church of the Nazarene
11/07- I'll be in Malibu for a family wedding :)
11/14- Grace Episcopal
11/21- Seventh Day Adventist
11/28- Driving home from Thanksgiving with family and a friend :)
12/05- Church of God of Prophecy
I can't believe this is bleeding into December. I planned on just visiting 10 churches in this stint, but, obviously, the number has grown.
Also, I have been emailing pastors and asking for their personal testimonies as to why they believe in God and why they chose the church they're at. Out of the four churches I've visited so far, I've only heard back from one. I'll continue to email pastors and I really am interested in their answers, but I hope that the odds of responding improve. I'm very interested, lately, in where people are at spiritually and why. If you, dear reader, have time and feel brave, I would even be curious about your story. Christian, atheist, unsure, Buddhist, apathetic- whatever it is, I'm curious. My blogger stats tells me that this blog has been viewed by people in the US (obvio), Canada, and even Denmark! Oh, the internet! If you'd like to go from anonymous to visible, and care to share where you're at, feel free.
And I thought we were the only ones emailing pastors! My husband did this for a few churches before visiting so we don't drag our children to church after church. But in the end, you really have to connect with the people and the worship style of the church. If a church has sermons online, I would recommend checking them out and looking for a sermon on doubt. You will learn alot from the church by listening to how the pastor approaches doubt.
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