Diving In

Josh and I need to find a church family up here. Life has been fine but now that the settling part is settled, it's time to get involved. We haven't had the chance to visit churches because every weekend we've either had guests, were down south, or were with Josh's grandparents at their church. I was determined to go this morning. 

Here are our must-have's in a church:

1. Teaching that Josh can respect and learn from. For him, depth of knowledge is important. We need more that a reiteration of bible stories or flash. I get it. I'm on the hunt.

2. People we can make friends with. We are looking for a community that we can grow with, play on a baseball team together, and have bbq's with.

3. A place we can call home. I can't put that in tangibles but it's an understanding that I can't describle. I'll just know.

We decided to try Menlo Park Presbyterian. Since we didn't quite get where the streams of people walking to the church were coming from we decided to park in first time visitor parking. 

When we drove up a man was leaning up against a post by the parking spaces. My experience as a life long churcher figured that was the newcomer greeter. Sure enough, Ron pulled us in, welcomed us to MPPC, and then walked us to the sanctuary while pointing out where everything was. It was so welcoming. When walking into somewhat of a large church I always get a bit anxious about where to go and wondering what the heck is going on around me. Because Ron took the time to explain what this room was and where those donuts were, it really helped me to get my bearings. I felt comfortable which is huge.

This is the church. It looks old but it's not so it might be new trying to look old or it's old with an awesome facelift. Not sure, anywhichway it's gorgeous. Even though there are many people it feels intimate which I love. The music was subtle and well done, the transitions effortless, and the content moving. Menlo Park (MPPC) is exactly what their head pastor, John Ortberg, is - historical, intelligent, gentle, understated, and well put together with a balance between the feelings and the smarts. 

I think I was teary eyed the entire service. Later I decided the emotions were a combination of missing Sunday morning church, responding to the awesome message, and feeling like we might have found the place for us. 

I held my breath for Josh's review. If he liked it then maybe we could try it. He did like it but he's more practical, and rightly so. Before we make any decisions we need to see if we can fill category #2. Is this the place for us? I'm not sure. We probably need to hunt around and find out about their small groups and such. I'll be praying that God would make the decision clear. Would you pray for us too?