Baptist to the Bone

This morning I attended Ada First Baptist for the second straight Sunday. I loved it. I really did. Now, if you didn't know I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church. A really small Souther Baptist Church. Really Small... Ok, I think you understand that it's small.

Anyway, First Baptist of Ada isn't exactly small according to what I'm used to. I always thought that I would always continue to go to a small church, small school, small town. So, growing up in Vanoss and now spending most of my time in Ada, everything is bigger than what I'm used to. I graduated at Vanoss with a class size of around 30... if that many. My church usually had around 70 or so, depending on when the Dallas Cowboys played football. And well, Vanoss isn't exactly a metropolis. It has around 300 or so people in it. Even though I still live "in'' Vanoss, I spend the majority of my waking hours in Ada. Ada has roughly 18,000 (plus or minues the number of college students) and the college here has an enrollment around 5,000. Much more than my high school. A lot of my classes that I've had in college equalled or exceeded the number of my senior class in high school. So, it's quite a change of envionment for me. Man, I don't know how I got started on all of this. Back to the church thing...

The last couple of years I haven't had an official membership to a local church. I've been sort of a church hopper.... or an extended variety visitor. Most of my time was spent at First United Methodist Church. I used to be a youth intern there and since then I felt somewhat comfortable in that church so I decided to continue to go there. But sometimes I would venture somewhere else to go to church. I tried other methodist churches, a freewill baptist church, a couple of southern baptist churches, disciples of christ church, presbyterian, and a church of god church. I found temporary fixes but none seemed to fill the gap that I needed. During this time I've been in college I haven't had a typical church home (I say "typical" because I consider the UCM my church, though it isn't a "typical" church). So, I've missed out on building a community with fellow believers. I've longed for that for a long time but I was too lazy to get out of my comfort zone and seriously think of looking for a church that would help me learn more about God, experience christian fellowship, and freedom of worship expression.

Have I found such a place? I don't know. Maybe First Baptist is the place I'm looking for, maybe it isn't. I haven't felt God lead me to join this church yet. It's still too early for me to tell yet whether this is the right church. I can't treat this decision like I would with which value meal I want at Burger King. No. I mean this is important. Well, not to say that my value meal options aren't important or anything, but this is just a bit more important. But I'm enjoying the church so far. Even some of the "older" people in the church actually seem like they enjoy my presence among them. The pastor seems genuine and real. That doesn't happen too often. I am actually looking forward to Sunday mornings again. I forget what that's like. Can't wait.

Until next time, vaya con Dios.