The Quest for a Church Home, Part III

4 churches and no positive feedback, until yesterday. It has been 2 months and we still haven’t found a church home. One of the things I have realized is that life doesn’t feel right when you are not connected to a church. I don’t see how some people can “church hop” month-to-month and feel satisfied. A piece of me feels empty without a church community.

Part of this elongated search I want to blame on Crosspoint. If it wasn’t for Crosspoint, I would have never become more perceptive about church, how Christ’s bride is structured, and how it functions in the world. My time at Crosspoint really fueled my passion for the church. Ever since I have left Abilene, I have been searching for the next Crosspoint and I realize that I will never find the exact same thing we had in Abilene. Not that any church is perfect, but Crosspoint might have been the closest thing I have ever found.

Of all the things I learned from being at Crosspoint, there are two influential things I experienced about church – you have to like the place you attend and you have to find a church that fits you. As Jerry said back when Crosspoint started, “Church should be fun.” Not that this is exactly biblical, but I think it’s on target whenever I think and discuss church. There should be anticipation and excitement in going to church, not boredom and discontent with the status quo. You also have to find a place where you and the church are singing from the same hymnal in terms of philosophy, ministry, etc.

We had planned on attending UBC and seeing what they had to offer last month, but it has been hard finding an opportunity to attend this semester. This is the church that experienced the tragic death of Kyle Lake back in October, so we wanted to allow some time to pass before going to UBC. This is also the home church of the David Crowder Band, which shouldn’t be a reason to go to church just because I can attend a free concert every Sunday.

But when we attended UBC yesterday, it was affirming. It felt like church to me. There was room for creativity, expression, and mysticism. I walked away from the gathering wanting to come back next week. Sunday's preacher was Gideon Tsang, from Liquid in Austin, TX. Really good, narrative style, and kind of spacy. And worship was well, incredible (but Crowder is not there every Sunday when he is at conferences and touring). Even if they don’t currently have a pastor, I have to be reminded that the church is about the people and not a single person. It just makes it a little hard to attend a church that is in transition, but that’s okay. They have a missional, emergent/postmodern structure, that focuses strongly on building community. And they are a fairly young congregation made mostly of Baylor students and young couples. Hopefully I will get the chance to meet with their community pastor in the upcoming weeks to talk more about ministry philosophy and ways for Alison and me to get connected to their community. This has been a big answer to prayer and I hope that we have found a place that we can call “home.” More to come in the upcoming weeks…