Carin' for Erin and stuff
That's my friend Kelley Mathews and me. Yesterday at the Baylor Landry Center we walked/ran the "Carin' for Erin 5K" in honor of our friend Erin Teske, who just finished her fourth chemo treatment for breast cancer. Some 50+ friends of Erin across the globe joined in solidarity with her by burning some calories.
Turns out yesterday was also the day for the Susan G. Komen 5K, which is why the childcare workers at Landry got a little freaked when they thought Kelley was dropping off her son and going elsewhere to join the masses. Uh, no.
October is breast cancer awareness month. More on that coming Tuesday...
Today Gary is at a missions conference talking to folks about his work in East Africa. Meanwhile, my girl and I headed across town to witness the baptism of our friend Valerie Talley. Val is a twentysomething friend from our previous church. What a joy!
Oh, and for those following our church search (ours closed in May), we have finally found a home. Centerpoint is seven minutes from our house. Some things we love about it are that its people seem to love and take good care of each other. It's racially diverse. And instead of having a sole senior pastor, it has three rotating teachers. Also our Sunday morning class is not divided by age, so it consists of singles, young marrieds, folks like us trulyweds, retirees... And the church is committed to planting a new church when they reach 200, so they never become a "mega." There are lots of ways to structure church, but these are some things we consider important. We're so grateful to have found a place we love that's nearby. And I also have to say we're glad we can end the search!
Cuz frankly visiting lots of different churches can be kind of yucky. Turns out, in some places the greet-the-visitors time feels like it's not really about getting to know anybody. It's more like the regulars are trying to shake as many hands as possible. Hi-bye.
And some of the teaching we heard sounded more like psychobabble or political propaganda--or was just plain wrong. One Father's Day sermon included this: "Husbands, your job is to take whatever your wife dishes out." Uh-uh.
Sometimes when folks encouraged us to complete visitor cards, they assured us that "nobody will visit you." Funny. We might have appreciated a chance to talk face to face.
And some of the web sites we explored told us budget info and how many people attended and how the church's numbers had grown, but nothing about what they believe. So what's most important to them? One web site even talked about how much the congregation likes to drink beer, but nothing about their core values. Or maybe that was a core value?
Why gather as the church? Because Christ-followers need community. We can't share the cup and break bread in remembrance of Him on the Internet. We can't take a meal (or receive one) or hug someone hurting (or receive hugs) via the television. It's tough to get baptized by live feed. And we can't really grow in our faith unless we have a safe place where we can confess our sins to one another and admit we're broken and hold each other accountable. We need "Jesus with skin on." And we have this wonderful promise that "wherever two or more are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them." Two or more. I like that.