A few weeks ago, Matt and I decided to leave the church where we had been attending since December. Between then and now, we joined a small group (the two other couples left the church and no one officially told us–though it was implied–that our group was disbanded), and also began serving in youth ministry. Let’s just say it was more difficult to say goodbye to the youth than our small group members.

I won’t go into detail about why we left the church (since that would make for a looong post), but one main reason why was that we didn’t feel that we had a sense of community there. There was one other couple our age at church who we had gotten to know–and really liked, too–but we wanted more of a community, especially since neither of us have family up here.

So what we are hoping to find in our new church are: solid, interesting teaching; community outreach ministries; strong fellowship with people our age. Is that asking for too much?

As we begin Church Hunt: Part Two, I will document our visits and my insights as to the churches. I debated disclosing the names of the churches, but thought against it. I am wary of exposing too much, settling into a church community, and then having people read my blog and responding, “You said THIS about our church?!”

So Church 1…

PROS: About 10 minutes from our house; somewhat diverse, but I got the feeling it was divided diversity (if that makes sense) rather than intermixed diversity that we had at our old church; active community outreach; I heard there are a lot of people our age; We ran into a friend of a friend that we had met a few months ago, so it was nice to see a familiar face and have a point of connection into the church, if needed.

CONS: Wasn’t too impressed with the sermon, although we want to give it a few more weeks; I was mostly distracted by the pastor taking on and off his glasses while speaking (at least 20 times within 20 minutes)

If we were to seriously consider this church, we’d need to check out a small group, too. I think one of my fears is attending a small group of 20- and 30-somethings who are all middle- to upper-class yuppies, but I don’t think that will really be an issue with this church and its demographics.