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My husband and I decided yesterday to begin going to a different church. That's a huge decision for us, and it wasn't an easy one. I've only been a Christian now for just under three years, but during those three years we've attended an awesome church here in our city. It's a very large church -- I guess you could call it a mega-church for our area. The congregation is somewhere between 3,000 -- 4,000 people, and they have three services on the weekend. We have absolutely loved going there. The worship music is out of this world. There's a full band and it's very up-beat and kind of "rock" in style, yet it's extremely moving and very engaging. The pastor is amazing, too. His sermons are very Bible-based, and extremely relevant. He's a very knowledgeable man who respects the Bible in every aspect, and teaches it so wonderfully. I can very honestly say that I would not be who I am today, and have come as far in my faith as I have without that man's teachings. So if we love it so much, why are we leaving, you ask?
Well, the answer to that is because of several reasons. I know others in my sphere of influence have had "church issues" so I wanted to throw this out there to see if anyone else has been in my situation. Or, perhaps others can draw comfort from what we're experiencing, and feel supported that they can make the same kind of move if so inclined. Holler at me if this is you!!
- The first reason why we've decided to leave is that the church is simply too big. We walk in every weekend before church, and we walk back out after church not having ever said a word to anyone. The few times we did attempt to talk to people and chat, we've never seen them again. The pastor has no idea who we are, and after almost 3 years of attending, we still feel like "newbies." When you walk in through the doors on Sunday, you feel like you're in a mall. The atrium is packed full of people, and if you're lucky you can fight your way through the crowd to get a donut or bagel. Randy tells me stories of the church he grew up in (which was a small, country Southern Baptist church). He said that his father often played golf with the pastor on Saturday mornings. And when his mom died, people from the church came over every day with food for him and his dad. Randy said that they did not have to cook one thing -- not for breakfast, lunch or dinner -- for over a month due to the kindness and compassion of the church women. I can guarantee that if I passed away, no one from the church would even know, let alone help Randy out by bringing him food. And I laugh at the thought of him playing golf with our pastor. It literally reminds me of a mall, where the people working there say hi to you, but the people there otherwise just brush past you without ever looking your way. No one strikes up conversation with you or even says "hello" or "good morning." The few times I've tried it, people looked at me like they should know me, and then appeared to be perplexed when they realized they didn't. And as for our pastor... well, he's great. But he's kind of like Bigfoot. You might catch a sighting of him here or there before the service, and you almost feel compelled to whip out your camera phone and take a picture. Other than on-stage, you just don't see him. But if we did, I think we would be too intimidated to say "hello."
- Which brings me to point # 2 -- our church is pretty clique-y, and the "celebrities" have turned the place into something overwhelming and untouchable. I think it's so awesome that our pastor has become friends with several local area celebrities and that they are now part of the congregation. It's truly very cool that he's using well-known people to help the outreach and spread the message of Christ. But when Chuck Gaidica comes up on stage to talk about a new project he's working on with the pastor, you can't help but feel that you've come to some sort of
