Southside Fellowship

Yesterday we visited Southside Fellowship - the fourth Church we've been to... I am realizing this means we've been here for a month now... wow.
We had every intention of going to church first and then to their community groups afterwards and we lost track of time.. the service started at 9:00 and we were walking out the door at 9:04 not knowing exactly where we were going except google maps said it should be an 8 minute drive and we also had to fill out a million forms to leave audrey in childcare.. we got about 2 minutes down the road and pulled a U-turn. We decided to wait for the second service at 10:30- we were just too late.. and if you know charles and I this is very out of character... we are usually waiting ont the clock so we can leave...
As far as the church part goes we liked it the best so far. Great Message ,Great Music, Great Pastor, Great Childcare, Great Location.. Overall Great! We plan to go back again and see what these community groups are all about. :) This church is a non-denominational church... but like I said before that is not an issue with us - It is very similar to Second actually... we'll keep ya posted~

Church Hunt - Week 3

Today we visited Taylors First Baptist Church... The city of Taylors : Greenville :: Katy : Houston (just on a much smaller scale). The church was quite large and has lots to offer as well as plenty opportunites to serve. We happened to visit on a special Sunday that they were honoring the local law enforcement - so it wasn't a very good depiction of what a typical Sunday would be like. The tone of the service was very serious and more traditional (even though it was considered the "contemporary service." Another factor that may have thrown things a little off was that the pastor's daughter was married there the night before.. He had to be exhausted - I know my parents were the day after our wedding.. Anyways - you get the picture, the service was just "ok." One thing that did wow us, however, was the Sunday school class.. or as they call them: Life Groups. The teacher was hilarious and there were many friendly couples there.. we really enjoyed it. We'll see..

Familiar Ground

Today we visited Brookwood Church - a place that many random strangers we have met here(including the dogwood love story lady) suggested we try out. The church was oddly familiar, with a coffee shop, bookstore, children's pods - even the worship center looked very similar to Second's. Friendly people greeted us and directed us where we needed to be. The only difference and HUGE difference is that there are no Sunday School classes - they do small groups instead at some other time during the week. I'm not sure if I love that idea - but again, we are being open minded to differences in the details.. not differences in our beliefs. We also thought before hand that this church was possibly a non-denominational church (because of what someone told us), but that is not true (however, we were okay with it either way). It stated in the bulletin that it is a member of the Southern Baptist Convention. The pastor is very casual and relaxed. His messages are very scripture based with a sense of humor on the side - he doesn't have the same profound affect that Dr. Young has, but really, who does? Nevertheless, we liked it and more importantly, we left with a message and an assignment! He gives realistic ways to implement his teachings throughout the week.. pretty practical!

Again, Audrey had a blast in childcare - an interesting and high tech thing they do is assign you a bar code on a sticker - she gets one with her name on it and a code and we each get one with our names and the same code. When you are leaving the "pod" a scanner lady double checks that you did in fact take your child.. kinda neat. Oh and another thing is that they have coffee and donuts (no charge) before each service...YUM! They have three services and they are all very contemporary: 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30. We are going to contact someone about small groups and try one out just to make this large church feel a little cozier.. we know the drill :) Second has taught us well how to not get lost in a big church... We'll keep ya posted on how our "church hunt" goes! :)

Getting out there

Yesterday I did a couple hours of research on the internet to find a church to visit.. There were so many to choose from - I looked at websites and what their beliefs were .. where they were located and what they had to offer as far as ministries and programs go... I was also looking for a contemporary worship service, since Charles and I prefer that type of music over the traditional.. We felt that it was important to find a church with people in our same stage of life and where they had oppurtunities to get invovled and serve... Ladies bible study was on my list as well as the big one: childcare. I stumbled upon Brushy Creek Baptist.. a little bit of a quirky name, but beyond that, it looked like they met all the criteria. We visited this morning and were very pleased. It is a large church for the area(which was a plus for us), but no where near the size of Second Baptist.. More like the size of Trinity Baptist (in Lake Charles). The sunday school class had very nice people in it and they were all so outgoing... The only major difference was that there were only 4 other couples in the class besides us!! The teaching was great though and very interactive.. almost like a small group where you can answer questions and contribute to the discussion.. it didn't really bother us that it was so tiny. I was invited to go to the Wednesday story time at the Library (they do every week at 10:00 a.m. with the little ones.. which all are around Audrey's age). They also told me about a Thursday afternoon play group they have every week also - they rotate houses each week. Boy! was I excited to hear that!! Audrey and I are definitely going Wednesday morning so that she can interact with some other kids and make some friends in her new town - maybe Mama might even meet some people here too! :) The service was great and so was the music - the nursery was fantastic, Audrey even behaved herself and didn't even cry when we dropped her off... (that would have been hard for me if she did) They have a huge thing on Wednesday nights, like most Baptist churches and get this, the chef is Tyler Florence's dad (Tyler F. is from Food Network). Their Wednesday night meals were even featured on the Food Network.. everyone was raving about the food :). Instead of a service they do a rotating bible study where you get in a six week class and after that is up they have more choices for another six week class and so on... they are starting up a new session this wednesday - but the only thing that stinks is that they shut it down for the summer. Oh another thing i wanted to comment on is how they dress their kids.. EVERYONE in the nursery is in smocked dresses or jon jons.. and monogrammed stuff is everywhere - so preppy!!.. audrey will fit right in! :) ha.. ha!
Anyways - we enjoyed it and are a little confused on what to do now.. we were fully prepared to church shop but not sure if we really want to - this one seems great. Yet another thing the Lord has worked out for us so that we don't have to. Thank You! such a blessing..

James

At church we are doing a series on the book of James - If anyone is interested in hearing about this awesome series you can click the logo to listen to or watch any of the sermons.. pretty cool!