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--I promise I don't always wear this hat.--

Before we start, I'd like to point out the difference between blogging and bashing. What I'm about to write is blogging, I am purposely not bashing. Just thought I'd share that before I started talking. So!
 I once read a post on StuffChristiansLike, an amazing blog that has ministered to me like WOAH, where the author wrote about leaving a church, and how it can go well, or sometimes it can't. Then he asked 'have you ever left a church? how'd that go?' What I'm learning is that...it's hard to leave a church. However, the church I left, awesome as it was, actually preached against one of my passions [yay for tattoos!] and also, I wasn't okay with them speaking out against gay people. There's enough of that in the world, and I mean come on, what happened to the love? Basically, it was just time for me to leave. The people were awesome, but I definitely didn't feel called to be there. However, I missed the people and they missed me, so I decided to join a small group of there's, and join one at my new church as well. 

------And then everything blew up last night---------
Last night I met with two members of my old church, and they informed me that I couldn't go to the small group I had been going to (at my old church, led by two of my beastly friends - shout out to Michelle and Jo, y'all be awesome) because I didn't go to their church. I go to NCC now, and unless I could come back to my old church, well......
[It was phrased like it was my choice. Which it wasn't]

My view on all this? I love that all believers have one thing in common:
JESUS.
We love him. He loves us. We're called to love everyone. To help everyone. 

I definitely feel called to have this big network of believers, friends and relationships in my life that are spread out everywhere. Mainly because that's been my life, I have friends in different states and countries, and they're all believers. It's awesome. I can't wait to move and still have my church family here. Church family to me being: people at your church, and other churches, who are family. I have people from my old church that I know I can always count on. It's my goal to build those relationships at my new church as well, I definitely already have two of them there. It wasn't weird for me to join a small group at my old church, honestly it was a blessing. Fitting in a small group into your schedule can be hard, and the one small group I wanted to go to at my new church was on a day that I was working, ironically for another small group at the new church [child care provider = beast job sometimes]. It let me connect and share with Christians, it provided support while I braved the waters of a new church, alone.

Old church: Well, turns out small groups are just for people at that church. They're to build intimacy within the church. Also, every month or so you serve the church as a group with your small group. And since I couldn't fulfill those requirements...looks like I'm out of a small group. Odd that the actual leaders of the small group didn't feel that way. But that's how it is.

So this Sunday is my first time at a small group because I finally got out of providing child care, even though I did love that job. 

And you might be wondering why I'm sharing all of this. I share on this blog. Go back and read, and you'll see that what I'm going through and what I'm thinking on, is on this blog. This isn't me bashing. Am I saying the name of my old church and encouraging people not to go there? Nope. They have an amazing worship team and great people. They serve the community, and hey...they have cool small groups! 

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