I think I have said before that the whole church hunting process we are going through at the moment has left me completely underwhelmed. Sunday evening felt just like we were going through the motions of being at church, rather than being part of a church. Everything was fine and OK and right and good… but…

Is this a problem with me? I guess it could be. I’m not sure if I’m looking for a place to fit my expectations (singing songs like we believe them and preaching as though it actually mattered and the Bible has something to say, is what I’m hoping for) or whether I’m going with an attitude of wanting to be part of a community and serve others.

How do you do that? I’m not sure how you go into a new community and want to serve before you’ve been served yourself. There, I’ve written something that sounds like a Christian code, I’ll try to do better at saying what I mean.

How do you go into a new church and start contributing before people have given something to you? We’ve chatted to lots of lovely people. Had chats about doing something ‘social’, but apart from one phone-call nothing has materialised in practice. So, does this mean that I should commit to this church and try to show them how this is done?

Eric Bryant was interviewed on TBN about Peppermint-Filled Pinatas, but he also talked about the Mosaic attitude to church. He quotes Erwin McManus saying,

The church is not here to meet our needs, we are the church and we are here to meet the needs of the world

You can see the interview on his blog. I’m afraid that I disagree with Eric’s point-of-view, that the interviewers are really good, maybe they were just a little to Hollywood for me, but Eric’s answers to the questions are worth watching for.

I’m off home to chew things over.