Church Search

By church search I mean searching for a church to attend on Sundays. We really don't feel comfortable attending churches in La Junta. The Mennonite church here in Cheraw was just too different and old-fashioned for us. And the First Baptist of Las Animas that we attended two weeks ago just didn't seem to be right for us, although we are friends with the pastor there.
So we ended up going to a church in Ordway (the town where Karen teaches) which is about 25 miles from here. A couple of the teachers from Karen's school attend there. We were told that it is a growing church so we wanted to check it out.
It was very contemporary with its praise music--a style that we enjoyed. The people seemed genuinely friendly--one lady sitting by us introduced herself, then went and got us a gift as visitors (a wrapped loaf of pumpkin bread). The pastor was a young 'cowboy' preacher with boots and all--in fact, in the church entry was a special rack for the men to put their cowboy hats on. I guess a lot of the ranchers attend this church. The pastor spoke on the resurrection of Lazarus. Overall, it was a very good experience. We would probably want to go back but it is so far away--50 mile round trip.
The only thing is--it made us wonder whether we would be able to find such a healthy church to serve at. Such a growing church usually doesn't need a new pastor, or may be too large for what my experience would offer. Still, we don't want to limit God and what He is able to do. So we keep praying that God would lead us to just the right place--a body that wants to grow--and is willing to change, if necessary, to accomplish that growth.
Rick Warren in his Purpose Driven Church book says that a healthy church is a growing church. The church in Ordway is probably one of the healthiest churches that we have visited and it is in a community that is not growing--yet it has grown. It was also great to see all generations in attendance, babies through 90 years.
Meanwhile, we are still waiting to see where God will lead us!