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     I started writing a Facebook post to a few friends this morning, and it ended up saying things I am feeling strongly right now.  I hope all of you know how important my faith is to me and how much I rely on being part of a church body where I can worship, learn, and serve.  Several of you have prayed for me to find that church.  Thank you so much for your prayers.  After attending Gwinnett Community Church for several weeks, I wanted to either commit or move on. 

     Since there are no perfect churches, I approached this decision not seeking perfection or even total  comfort, but the place where God could work with, me and I could feel right about being there.  This is definitely the south and a good evangelical church stands on every corner.  I exaggerate, but not a lot.  Being a product of my own specific faith journey means there are certain things I hope for in a church and from the people who are there.  Much of it is common sense – friendly, Biblical, loving, good teaching - but some are rather intangible and more about feeling connected. 

     Website searches found a few churches for the final check-it -out list even before I arrived.  Because we had family plans on my first Sunday here, I chose the church that had an early service, so we could do our brunch.  (That’s the same way I got to Shalom the first Sunday and never left.) That church was Gwinnett Community Church (GCC).  Friendly greetings awaited me at the door, the worship was God centered using music that blesses me and leads me to worship.  The pastor used a Bible version that just happened to match the new Bible I had purchased specifically for carrying purposes.  Before he began his message on a challenging scripture passage, the pastor quoted a saying from long ago in the church that has been part of our Women’s Bible Study covenant at Shalom: In the essentials – unity; in the non-essentials – liberty; in all things – charity.  He shared his insights into the passage at hand, and did so with grace for those who might have a different view, and yet with clarity and the challenge to consider the passage carefully.  His words provided clarity for me.

     I decided to return and to jump into a women’s event later in the week.  After two more women’s events and full participation in a summer Bible study, it seemed right  to consider whether this was the place to start establish roots or to move on.  The time to evaluate arrived, and that would involve a visit with the pastor, who had actually been gone quite a few weeks on a missions trip and a short vacation.

    GCC seemed to be the right church, at least for now, but I had a couple of little things niggling me.  Praying about those and asking the Lord to erase those concerns or make it very clear if they were significant certainly led to anticipation for what the day would hold.  In the course of the Bible study and separate from any question or prompting , the leader directly spoke to my concern about rigidity or too great a list of essentials.  More and more it feels like neither I nor even Biblical scholars have all the answers.  God is simply bigger, greater, more powerful, more knowing, than that.  He has revealed much in His Word and we can know God by knowing Jesus, but I really think that we will just never know it all, not even in heaven because He will still be that same God and we will be worshiping Him because He is GREAT! 

     I love all the traditional favorite verses in the Bible, but where I am right now puts Isaiah 55:8-9 firmly in my list and in the current top spot for favorites. It's the verse that says "For my ways and not your ways,” says the Lord, “neither are my thoughts your thoughts.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my thoughts higher than your thoughts and my ways higher than your ways.”  I also love the quickness (aliveness) of the scriptures.  They really are new every morning, because we come to them as a different person, and thus they speak to us differently.  Don’t get me wrong, there are bottom line truths where I stand,  but my essentials list is pretty small compared to how I was raised.

In any case, I scheduled an appointment with the pastor for right after Tuesday Bible Study.  In addition to flexibility in the study, that morning the interaction and heartfelt  sharing  addressed another niggle that perhaps  studies were taught more than shared.  Learning that there was plenty of room for sharing here, and for differences of opinion, was a direct and hopeful sign.

     The meeting with the pastor went well.  He is a genuine person with a love for the Lord and for his congregation.  He holds them in esteem and wants to see people of all ages grow in their faith walk.  Three years ago the church was dying.  Today, with this pastor and strong leadership,  it is vibrant and growing.  I may be among the newest, but most of the people have been there less than three years.  It is a church that is finding its way and place in the community.  So, I have decided to join GCC and see what God has for me there.  I will wait for His call to serve.  I am excited for what might be in store.  In any case it will be good, because God is good, even if I don’t always “get it.”