Day 4 - I am thankful for our church

Today I am thankful for our church. I was so happy when we moved back down and we were able to attend our church on a regular basis. Ryan has never been a church goer, and I can't say that I was either. When I was younger and we lived in Utah, my older sister and I would walk to our church in our neighborhood and go. Every now and then we would go with our grandparents to their church, but we pretty much just went to ours by ourselves. Utah is a different world. It was safe, different times, we walked a couple of blocks and it was fine.

Then when I was 12 we moved to Texas. My sister stayed in Utah for numerous reasons and I didn't have anyone to go to church with nor did I even know a single person in Texas. I just never went. Occasionally I would go with some friends from school. They were catholic, I was raised Mormon. As I got older I just quit going.

Fast forward to the past year or 2, my mom started going with her boyfriend to a local church that is a non denominational church. She said it was awesome and talked Ryan and into going. Ryan and I are both shy in an aspect , as everyone at church knows each other and we never wanted to attend because we knew we would stand out like a sore thumb and then of course people would be welcoming us and we would feel like we were on the spot, and we both hate being the center of attention. We always opted to not go and not feel so out of place. Of course we know that eventually goes away, but its hard to push yourself to go and put yourself in that situation you know for fact that you won't be comfortable in. It takes alot and we were always too shy for it. So my mom invited us to this church, Bay Area Fellowship, said they have amazing music with a band and the pastor is great and explains things in such a way.

We went. We tried it. we loved it. We lived in Beaumont. We tried to go every time we came into town, but it wasn't often. We wish there were something like that in Beaumont, but never really "looked" I was hooked on Bay Area.

So, we move back last year. Started attending church. We of course go thru phases and make it for months, then stuff comes up and we fall off the wagon. We love it because it is so large and non denominational that we feel like we "are the crowd" we don't stand out. Pastor Bill has had a service on his church and how it became. In which he tells us - he built this church to purposely aim it to the people that want to go to church, but feel like the traditional churches aren't what they are really looking for. He wants to bring out the non believers, the in the middle thinkers, to bring these people to church, but make it as they aren't being pinpointed or standing out. He has done amazing and this church has grown enormously. i love it. The music makes you feel like you are at a rock concert, of course - the people that love their traditional churches would not like this, which is ok, this is why it is what it is. To open more people up to the love of god without making them feel like they need to know every song or every scripture. Makes sense, and I'm glad he is doing it. They have 3 services on Sunday and 1 Saturday night and they are always full. (well the Sunday's services). That is great!

I love going and love how Pastor Bill explains each topic to us all. He is funny and serious all in one. This week kicked off his next segment of relationships. He had some amazing points, and he doesn't care if he makes you feel awkward, because he knows his will to serve for god is to tell the truth and tell you what the bible says. He wants you to put god first. He is doing great. my husband loves going and Bridger is doing amazing in the nursery. Glad we found Bay Area. We don't have anything against the more traditional churches and we think all churches are amazing. Everyone needs to find what fits them best!