For 52 Churches, we took a year off and visited a different Christian church every Sunday. When the year wrapped up, we returned to our home church.
This time it’s different. Throughout More Than 52 Churches, we interspersed our church visits with regular attendance at our home church.
This provided a balance, a stability to keep us anchored in church community, as we visited others.
Attending our home church required a fifteen-minute trip to get there, going past many other options that were more accessible and more inviting.
For much of my life, I couldn’t figure out why we drove past other churches to go to our church of choice. Yet we never went to the closest one.
Since each Christian church worships the same God, follows the same Savior, and reads the same Bible, it shouldn’t really matter which one we go to. Yes, this is theoretical. I do understand why most people don’t go to the closest church.
For years, I’ve longed to go to church in my community, worshiping and serving with my neighbors and family.
Now we do.
It’s Church #67, the “Satellite Church.”
After our initial visit, we returned the following week, and came back the week after that, staying for their after-church meeting to learn more about their community.
Soon going there turned into a habit, and we got involved. This may explain in part why the allure of visiting other churches grew dim.
This church is within walking distance of our house, three-quarters of a mile away. (For full disclosure, this is the second-closest church. There’s one a tad nearer. We visited it, but one of us didn’t care for it.)
We now know that several of our neighbors attend our church, as well as two of our children and grandchildren. Weather permitting, I walk to church each Sunday. Candy drives.
This way we can leave church together and head for lunch with family.
It’s all good.
It’s our new church home.
Read the prior post in this series, the next post on How to Be an Engaging Church, or start at the beginning of our journey.
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Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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