As a member of the millennial generation (those born between the mid 1980s and mid 1990s), I’ve noticed that we get caught up in understanding why. It’s sometimes viewed as a question of authority, but I believe it’s born out of curiosity. Kennedy and I recently made the decision to switch churches, and we’ve been getting asked why we’re making that transition. It’s a great question to ask and I’m glad it came up recently.
When my family moved to Nebraska in the spring of 2003, I remember how important it was to my parents that we find a church. We left behind a small community church nestled in the mountains of Livermore, Colorado. My family had deep roots there: my mom played the violin in the band, my dad served in various leadership roles, and all three of my siblings and I spent a significant amount of time in that building for various activities throughout the year. It was also probably the safest space I can recall from my childhood. And I use the word safe not because I ever felt unsafe anywhere else, but more so that I felt like nothing could ever hurt us when we were at that church. We knew everybody and it just felt like a place of freedom, so to speak.
Fast forward to combing through northeast Nebraska for a new church family to call our own. I have no idea how many different churches we attended, but it felt like it had to be at least 100 to my 9-year-old brain. We finally landed at Salem Covenant Church, a non-denominational Christian church in rural Oakland. It was a great place to grow up in. I’ve only recently understood why it was so important for my parents to find a church home that fit our family. It’s a tall order and it’s likely even harder with four kids in tow. Kudos to you mom and dad for finding our church home so long ago.
In my last few years at Oklahoma State, I started searching for a church family of my own. I vehemently rebelled against Life.Church because I disliked the idea of watching a pastor on a screen and the mega church image that I had in my head. I found a couple of churches that I liked before purposely putting distance between myself and God. If you want to know more about that, click here. When I circled back to Christ, I started attending Life.Church with Kennedy. Spoiler alert, I actually liked it despite my previous reservations. In the last two years Kennedy and I have attended Life.Church both in Kansas City and most recently in Midwest City.
We’ve grown tremendously thanks to the sermons from Pastor Craig. We’ve built a few pillars of faith because of the work at Life.Church. Kennedy and I still like Life.Church, there’s no big dramatic story about why we left. It’s actually quite simple: we felt God leading us somewhere else. In the weeks leading up to our decision to switch churches, Kennedy and I talked about how we didn’t feel plugged into Life.Church. We walked in, sat down, listened to the sermon and then left when it was over. We didn’t know anybody that sat around us except for our immediate family. Yes, there are ways to get involved at Life.Church and Kennedy and I tried our hand at that while we were in Kansas City. It just didn’t seem like quite the right fit for us.
I didn’t realize until recently that I was purposely searching for a feeling from my childhood: the safety and community I remembered from Livermore. We walked into Harrah Church for the very first time on August 30thfor Kennedy’s baptism. We were greeted at the door by anybody and everybody, including a few individuals we knew. To quote Dierks Bentley, we could feel that fire. It was so contagious. I can’t speak for Kennedy, but I could feel the presence of the Lord in that church. If that wasn’t enough to show me that God brought us here for a reason, then the 7 minutes of greeting time certainly did. I didn’t talk to very many people, but I did a lot of observing. It seemed like there wasn’t a stranger in the building. Kids ran from group to group with blissful joy all over their faces. Nobody was concerned about anything except for loving each other and spending their morning with the Lord. It was in that moment that I realized Harrah Church was replicating the safe space that I remembered from Livermore Community Church. Harrah Church felt like coming home to Livermore, except 763 miles to the southeast.
The week before attending Harrah Church, Pastor Craig talked about anxiety. As someone clinically diagnosed with cognitive anxiety disorder, I was pretty excited to hear what he had to say that morning. Pastor Craig made three distinct points: 1) talk to your friends; 2) talk to your Father; and 3) talk to your feelings. Point number one struck me the hardest.
“It’s easy to feel anxious when you’re lacking a spiritual, Godly community. There’s a difference between praying for and praying with someone; you experience the presence of God with his people.”
Pastor Craig gave me the key to battling everything that plagued my mind. Only now am I connecting the dots that led Kennedy and I to Harrah Church. Pastor Craig is one of those dots. I know that God directed our paths to Harrah. We’ve been spending time with the Lord and learning how to listen to his voice through His living word.
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.” – John 14:4
So, to finally answer the question of why we left Life.Church for Harrah, it’s actually quite simple. As we continued to abide in the Lord, we found God directing our path elsewhere. We’re jumping into a community focused on abiding in the word and making disciples as Christians are called to do. We’re excited to see how God continues to direct our path with our new church family. If you’ve read this far, thank you for sticking with me. And if you’re ever interested in experiencing God’s presence then join us on Sunday morning at 10.m. in Harrah. We’ll gladly pick you up!
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