Church

So, I went to church today. hmmm I am not sure what to think. I really liked everyone that I met and talked to. It is a pretty relaxed atmosphere for the most part (more to come on that in a few) and everyone was very welcoming and inviting. I started out the day at Sunday school, which I really liked (this was the first time going for me) because it got in depth on some parts of the bible. Today was mostly Genisis and God creating everything. I figured that is a great place for me to start and coincidentally it was what they were discussing today. Pam, the pastor's wife, was there again welcoming me with open arms. It is really weird for me with that. I don't know why really but it is. We were talking before class started and she actually got tears in her eyes. I am not sure why and I didn't know how to react. So I pretended like I didn't notice...I don't know if that is the right response or not but it is what it is.

Then it was time for (I don't remember the name of this part ) small group thing. It is basically a meeting of about 30 min from what I can tell of prayer requests and getting to know one another. Ours lasted about 15 minutes and the leaders were a girl that I have seen around town with the kids karate class (she has 2 kids a boy and a girl) and her husband. She is super nice and has a purple streak in her hair. Her son about 7 or so has a mohawk. So she seems to be someone that isn't intimidating to me. Her husband also helps lead. He also smokes. That was kinda nice too, to know that others wanted to have a "smoke break" too since I have yet to kick the habit. So score 2 for making me feel more at ease.

On to service. This is where I got kinda uncomfortable. Everything up until this point had been WONDERFUL. So I am not sure what the difference was. To start off, they have a band. two guitars, a keyboard, a set of drums, and two singers. That was REALLY cool. It wasn't just the normal hymns. It was done with a lot of flair and passion. I was really liking it and everyone was kinda singing along. Then people got up and started swaying and dancing either in their spots in the pews or in the aisle. 2nd weird thing. I saw two people (husband and wife about my age) that were both barefoot. They both had shoes with them but not on their feet. This is not a hippie church by any means. It has the regular older people you expect to find in church, a good majority of my age people, quite a bit of kids & teens. But there were a lot of people that were wearing jeans & tshirts. (very cool in my opinion. I hate the fashion show, women must wear dresses or skirts part of church. Then people started praying out loud during the service. ( I was thinking wth?? lol)

The head pastor started doing his sermon and he is a VERY passionate man. I love how everyone really seemed to feel what they were being preached to about and really feeling the Lord. Then people got kinda louder during parts of his sermon. Then he choked up a few times, then started talking about his past as an alcoholic and a bunch of stuff that was really nice to know but it was just pretty weird. I am not sure if this is how most churches are since I only have a spattering of knowledge of most churches. But it seems that they may be more of a "hallelujah!!!" type church than I expected based on my few experiences with them. I really am not comfortable at all with the "wave your arms in the air if you feel JESUS", sing at the top of your lungs, shout AMEN to EVERYTHING that the pastor says, roll around on the floor, exuberant churches. I may have gotten myself into one of them. BUT that being said; I did not do any of the above. And I did not feel anyone staring at me like I had two heads either. And I would definitely take this church over some that I have been in that are way stuffy and OMG you are not wearing a dress/skirt/suit and tie. I was not the only one who was sitting thru most of the service and I was not the only one who was NOT dancing in the aisle and I was not the only one who just listened and took what I could from the service.

So on a whole, my experience today was pretty positive. The negatives; possibly a "holy roller" type church, and a LONG service. It was about an hour of music before the service actually started, then about an hour for the pastor to preach.