So, on my birthday I’m suppose to write something about life and growing older, and I tried to come up with something but I’ve got nothing. So instead, here is a hymn that I can’t get out of my head (and why would I want to??). I love the whole song, but I am especially loving this line at the moment: “We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.” I grew up singing this song in church, but it was only recently that I began to really appreciate what I have been singing; There is a lot of truth packed into just 4 verses — read them slowly, sing them out loud; enjoy!

A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
Martin Luther.

1. A mighty fortress is our God,
A bulwark never failing;
Our helper He, amid the flood
Of mortal ills prevailing;
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

2. Did we in our own strength confide,
Our striving would be losing
Were not the right Man on our side,
The Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabbaoth, His name,
from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

3. And though this world, with devils filled,
Should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed
His truth to triumph through us:
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

4. That word above all earthly powers,
No thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours
Through Him Who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go,
this mortal life also;
The body they may kill:
God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

If I can be honest (and I believe I can be), my biggest struggle last year and currently is finding a church. I have moved past the point of frustration, through apathy and I’m now to the point of desperation. I’ve come to the conclusion that the problem has to be me. Maybe I’m being to picky. Maybe I’m making this all about me. Maybe I just need to stop being so selfish and just pick a church to serve in. If it were only that easy…

Here are a few things that people THINK that I want in a church:

1. An active singles ministry
2. Rockin’ worship music
3. An active singles ministry
4. Small/Home/Cell/Life/Community/Anything-But-Sunday-School Groups
5. An active singles ministry
6. New

1, 3, 5: Please, please, please don’t tell me about your singles ministry. I’m not sure where the idea came from that all single people want to do is eat dinner with other single people from the church. I know I’m socially awkward, but I don’t really need help making friends. Single people should BE IN ministry, we don’t need a “special” ministry for us.

2. Rockin’ Music: Growing up in the church, hymns are actually very familiar to me. If I’m humming a tune at work or around the house, there’s a pretty good chance that it’s a hymn. That said, I’m not really all that concerned with the style of music, rather the content. If worship is our response to who God is, it should be meaningful. I love the old hymns but I also love churches that write their own stuff.

4. Small Groups: This one actually has been a recent change for me. I’m not saying I don’t like small groups–I think they are essential. What I am saying is that small groups that meet throughout the week are not Sunday school. What I mean by Sunday school is teaching. Small groups are more about Christian community which includes teaching, but not to the extent that can be facilitated in a class-like setting.

6. New: New is scary, especially when it comes to the Church and scripture. Don’t try to invent something new, TEACH us tradition and history. I don’t need cool videos and candles or lights. Teach me and encourage me and EXPECT me to read the Bible.

Here are a few things that I would LOVE in a church:

1. Old people: Okay, so I don’t typically refer to them as “old people”, but in a lot of churches that have focused on attracting the younger crowd, they have neglected the older crowd. These churches have a lot of zeal and energy, but 30 year-olds haven’t been doing much of anything for 20 or 30 years. I think wisdom and experience are vital in a church.

2. Food: I love food. I love cooking food, I love eating food, I love watching TV shows about food. More importantly, I love cooking and eating food with other people. Sure, we can go out to eat at that Mexican restaurant (again), but there is something much more intimate about cooking and sharing a meal with someone. It’s kind of like family.

I’m certain I can find plenty of churches that are full of old people that have a pot-luck or covered dish meal at some point in the week, and if only it were that simple! I suppose my next post should be about the deeper things that have made finding a church so difficult. Things like beliefs. It’s complicated; more complicated than it should be.

Have I ever told you about the time I was engaged in a 14 hour conversation?  This conversation that started with three people, dwindled to two and eventually (with the aid of a stranger) finished with three?  Stop me if you’ve heard this one…

A few years ago, while I was living in North Texas, I was a member of the Village Church and a member of a home group (Coley’s home group, or the Lewisville  Single Guys 25ish-30+ Home Group to be terribly specific).   Our home (or small, cell, life, care, etc) group was on the brink of overflowing which led to the invention of small, small groups–rotating groups of 2-3 guys that would meet outside of regular home group time–which was a brilliant idea because a small group of 15-20 guys can’t even share a meal together let alone “do life” together.  That’s the background.

If you’ve never eaten at a Waffle House, you are missing out on an interesting cultural experience. It’s Saturday morning, 10AM, and I’m meeting with my small (small) group for breakfast and to just catch up.  Aaron and Tres and I share a meal and a few laughs.  About an  hour later, Tres has to leave leaving Aaron and I chatting in the parking lot.  I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but I’m absolutely positive it involved government and the Church and that it was a “lively” conversation.  Aaron was, at one time in life,  on the debate team, and I just like to argue.  After standing in the parking lot of Waffle House for a few hours, we thought it best to move our conversation to a local Starbucks.

If you’ve never spent 9 hours at your local Starbucks, then you’re totally not getting your money’s worth. I think I bought 1 drink the entire time we were there.  We sat inside, we moved outside, then back inside talking about politics and religion and music.  A lady even offered an answer to a random trivia question that had escaped both of us.  I would say she was listening in, but it was more like got tired of trying to tune us out.   And then we began talking about our church and the great things going on there and in China.  That is when a complete stranger put down her book and confessed that our conversation was more interesting than what she was reading and asked to join in.  After warning her that this was now hour 8 or 9 of our “discussion”, our group was back at three.  We’re talking about books and God and music and movies and overseas mission trips.  That’s when the polite (and rather tolerant) Starbucks staff kicked us out at 10pm.  Realizing that we hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and with so much left to be said, the three of us decided that IHOP was the only logical solution.

If you’ve never been to IHOP after 10pm…  wait, has anyone been to IHOP before 10PM?  Our conversation picks up where it left off only now we have food to sustain us.   As Sunday morning rolls around ,(1am-ish) Aaron, our new friend Anna, and I decide to call it a night and we head our separate ways.  Actually, Aaron had to drive me back to Waffle House to get my car–which thankfully was still there.  We fought the urge to head back into Waffle House for round two.

I learned three very important lessons from this marathon conversation:

1.   Always discuss politics and religion.  Yes, it is painful and yes people’s feelings will get hurt, but anything that is of any importance and worth discussing will eventually be painful and will eventually hurt people’s feelings.

2.   Always talk to strangers.  Even the strange guys discussing everything under the sun at Starbucks.

3.   Always eat lunch.  Seriously,  I mean, we didn’t do anything but talk ALL day and somehow we MISSED lunch!?  Honestly, I’m ashamed of myself…