Church is new. At the end of March my husband and I both felt led to commit to Riverlife Church. The church is a growing, multi-generational Church of God. In April we added a second worship service and Ron and I attended volunteer training. Ron is now running sound every other Sunday and I am singing on the worship team and volunteering with the children’s ministry. We have attended all 3 membership classes and will be received into membership soon. We just finished an amazing week of VBS where I had the privilege of teaching the Bible lessons. VBS and the 2 weeks of set building before it allowed us to meet a lot of church families outside of our music/tech ministry areas. We have made several new friends and it has honestly been a long time since we have felt so happy and such a perfect fit in a church family.

Home is new…again. As you know, Summer and Aaron are getting in November! A large part of my time and resources are going towards helping plan their wedding and creating the items for their reception decorations. You can follow our wedding preparations right here on the blog! Jordan has been in town for 2 weeks to be lighting director for YEX youth camp. I got to spend 3 days with him while he was home…it did this mom’s heart good! He gets home November 8th for his winter break.

Work isn’t new…yet. As I said in February, the Lord keeps stopping me for applying for jobs. I truly feel that I am not working a regular job right now so that I can focus on the wedding. The Lord has sustained my husband’s income, even through the summer, which is always a difficult time for us. I think 2015 will be the year of a new job for me. I will wait on God’s timing and provision.

My Blog has a new look. I’ve been wanting to re-vamp the look of The Mom Maven for a long time. Then one day while trying to make a minute change I really messed up my theme. Since I had to re-install and start the design from scratch, I spent the time to create a new logo, layout etc. I hope you like the changes.

In many ways I feel like in my 50th year I’ve been given new life. I am excited to see what the rest of this year has in store!

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Changing Churches: A View From the Pew 

I sat down with the intentions of starting the book and let’s just say I didn’t get up for a while because I read the whole book in one sitting! Dottie breaks the book down into three sections: 1. A Journey in Three Churches 2. Interlude:Guide for Leaders and Leavers 3. Lessons for Changing Churches. Section 1 is where Dottie tells her story about her spiritual journey and changing churches multiple times over about 20 years. Section 2 is a nuts and bolts guide which discusses the grieving process leavers go through, valid reasons for leaving, steps toward leaving,  and searching for your new church home. Section 3 includes Ideas for the Sheep where we are reminded how to be good followers, Ideas for the Shepherds where she reminds church leaders how a shepherd leads his sheep. Next Dottie covers what is and isn’t important in choosing a church and then she gives us a brief overview of world religions and new religious movements so that we know what to watch out for and who to witness to in our day-to-day relationships.

The Mom Maven’s Thoughts

This book came to me at the perfect time. We had completed our initial visits of the 6 churches and my husband and I agreed on some and not on others. I enjoyed Dottie’s stories of her personal experiences in the beginning of the book but the last 2 sections really spoke to me. They touched me so much I took notes and discussed them with our friends who are preparing for a potential job relocation and will again be searching for a new church home in their new city.

Reading through the 7 valid reasons for leaving your church my husband and I felt our situation met 2 of these reasons, plus the fact that God had told us both we were released. This validated a nagging in the back of my mind that we were being selfish in leaving. In the last section of the book Dottie speaks about what I have been calling the big 4 important things to look for in a church. These are Music, Prayer, Communion and The Message.

Music

While I don’t agree 100% with the book’s thoughts on music, I am a contemporary Christian musician and I have been a worship leader and a choir director, I believe there is definitely a need and a place in the church for music other than traditional hymns. I do agree that music should be theologically sound and performed with excellence.

Prayer

Prayer should take place during the service, and not just concerning the offering. It can also be done with items such as wood rosaries.

Communion

Communion should be reverent and personal and include Scripture, prayer and explanations. This is where there were red flashing lights going off in my head as I read the book. Church #1 that we visited served communion in the aisles as people were leaving the service. It was like drive-thru communion. It was not sacred, personal or reverent. Those who choose to receive communion on any given week clog up the aisle for those trying to leave the sanctuary and I didn’t like it at all. My husband visited this church a 2nd time, without me-he love the music and the preaching, when he arrived home, I asked him if communion was served the same way again and he admitted it was. When I shared this book with him I explained to him why that church had to come off our list and he agreed.

The Message

During The Message we should be confronted with biblical ideals and we should leave challenged.

The three churches still on our list meet all of the big 4 important things so now we are focusing on things like opportunities for spiritual growth through classes and Bible studies, opportunities to use our gifts to serve the church and the ability to create friendships and feel a part of a church family again. Please pray for us as we continue this journey and if you are on a similar journey I hop you will check out Changing Churches: A View From the Pew.

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