A new journey

I want to be completely honest about my personal fear of church and religion. From a young age I remember the whole thing making me extremely uncomfortable. I attended and was baptised in a Mormon church until our family left the church when I was about eight years old. Since then my only experience with church has been weddings, funerals, and a few rare midnight mass attendances in a beautiful large Lutheran church. The members of the Mormon church are all really nice people but it is just not my personal cup of tea.

Since then I have avoided religious discussions like the plague. I do, however, feel it is my duty as my boys's mother to expose them to religion so they can make their own choices in regards to faith and beliefs. If I don't expose them to it I in turn am exposing them to my fears. I am in no way saying I do not believe in God. Please don't misunderstand what I am saying. I spoke to Chris about this and he is completely like me in regards to his feelings about church/religion. He also agrees that we should expose our children so they can learn about the Bible. As you can probably guess he and I are in no position to teach them!

I received a flyer in the mail for a "church for people who don't 'do' church". As you can imagine I was interested immediately. They are established in two other locations and were opening a service in my city... of all places the local bar! They host service before the bar/restaurant opens for brunch. I believe it is non-denominational. The flyer says to put on your flip flops and jeans and head over... so we did!

We found our church. When we first arrived Chris and I were insanely uncomfortable. I actually said to Chris "what in the hell are we doing?" We relaxed when we saw everyone in Vikings jerseys and jeans!! Instead of the typical church music they have a band with a girl who has an amazing voice. It was awesome. The way they taught about the Bible was in a way that didn't make me feel guarded or insecure. We discussed proverbs and they compared religion to football. "In order for your life not to SUCK and for you to SUCceed... you need to 1) listen to the coach 2) read the playbook and 3) attend practice. We were challenged to read one chapter of proverbs a day for the next 30 days, say a prayer when we wake up (even if its just "God give me wisdom, Amen"), and attend. Chris and I talked about the experience and we are both certain this is the place for us. We also agreed to follow through with the challenge. I can't wait to bring the boys to Sunday school next week!!

Check out The Crossing Church here