Family

We try very very hard to avoid talking about church with other people. Not necessarily about how Jesus is amazing and you should give your life to Him and all. More like WHERE we go to church. We are currently church-less. I hate saying that. I don't want to tell people that because just a while ago we were professing our undying love about the church we love in Orange County. We want so badly to call some Ann Arbor church home. But there's so much that goes into it. Of course there's gotta be a story to it.

Taylor grew up with amazing parents. They were "church goers," when necessary, but it was not until my FIL had a very near death experience they decided to make church a priority. God works in funny ways and this is what my in-laws call, "God hitting you in the face with a 2 by 4 when before he was tapping you on the shoulder." They found a local church, met some amazing people and pastors, and stayed in that particular denomination for eights years. They grew closer to Christ, to each other, they were involved deeply in church activities and boards, they were all around good people to have helping out.

As they say, all good things come to an end. The pastors decided to lead another church, and a new pastor came along. He is known among us as "The Dictator." The guy that fired the choir, played sexual movie clips during SERMONS to somehow display a point, preached about The Chronicles of Narnia for two months because the stupid movie came out, and told people my MIL lied to him. Obviously, the last one upset us the most. It was a pretty big blow for my in-laws because they loved the church and all the people involved with it. They couldn't believe that level of hostility could be involved with a God fearing man. It didn't make sense.

It was interesting to see the events unfolding in front of me because the situation was similar in some ways to events that happened to my church growing up. Although I can't say I had any crazy pastors. Preachers as they say. In fact, I loved all the preachers we ever had. That was the problem. The last preacher I admired so much was asked to leave. I believe it was a low blow. So did my parents, so we left. I have yet to hear of another time my mother cried than when that happened. It left such a bad taste in our mouths and there was no way we could stand behind the insult.

There's a lot more history to our story but I won't go into all the details. Basically there were a lot of times we both separately felt disconnected from our church families. It wasn't about the sermons or singing, we were missing a connection that everyone seemed to have. We had friends of course, but there was so much more to it. It was bad enough when we first met because my mother was having a cow over me going to church with Taylor. She doesn't see things the way I do about church. She's come a long way from then so I give her a lot of credit now. It took some years though.

Years and tears later, we found The River. Every single need we ever had before we came there, it was met once we walked through the doors. It was incredible. We met so many people that had their arms open for us at all times. Amazing worship, amazing fellowship, amazing gift we were given to have met everyone involved with that church. It was so hard to say goodbye to everyone when we left for Michigan. There is no way we will find something as special as what we had back home.

I was so hopeful coming out here because I knew of a similar style church in Ann Arbor. I thought for sure it would be everything we were looking for. We went and were tragically disappointed. I don't mean to be dramatic but I was in tears on the way home from visiting. It was like we had to say goodbye all over again. We talked about the church right after the service and realized they were missing too many things.

1. No one talked to us. Not a single person said one word to even make us feel welcome. Even the bloody greeters! I even tried to say hi to someone at the coffee station and he didn't acknowledge me. Nice.
2. For some reason they decided to cram SEVENTEEN people on a tiny stage for worship. It was not joyful worship. I felt like I was at a bad concert where every musician thought they were in the spotlight. It was off putting.
3. The only thing I remember about the sermon was it was a powerpoint presentation with cool graphics. I think we used the Bible, but that's questionable.

We don't want to give up. We won't because God is too good to us. But we miss everything! I'm hoping for some good to come out of this. He always has a plan, I never know what will happen. Currently I'm not crying because of the emending doom (flight) next week. That is a miracle in itself. Keep praying for me though. I still need all the help I can get. Even through all the crap Taylor's parents went through, they found a church they love. So did my parents. That gives me hope. I just know it won't be as good as the family we have back home.