Supernal Sunday – Jan 5, 2025 Edition

This will be a bit of a different one. But my recent – and current – experience with finding a church is something I want to share this week.

Pete and I haven’t had a regular church since we left Roscommon County in 2015. We’ve been back to “our” church several times but things change, and to be honest, that church – and that pastor and his wife – have been a hard (if not impossible) act to follow! We miss them so very very much, they are wonderful people, and any churches we have attended since we left that area have really not had much of a chance with us after we’d held them up to the yardstick of Roscommon Free Methodist, and David and Trish!

We have never stopped wanting to be part of a church family again, though. And during our years on the road that was impossible. Even when we settled in Clare (2019-2024) we simply didn’t want anything local. That was in large part to not wanting to be involved there when we really wanted to go as a family with the grands, as we had several years earlier. There was a church we attended for a while last year, driving back and forth from Clare, and we all enjoyed it there…then at about the same time Pete had his knee replacement, they moved even further away, and we never went back…

That’s the backstory, in a nutshell. Now here we are so much closer to the grands, and ourselves also wanting to find a church family and a church home where we can contribute and serve and fellowship. I’ve been researching churches ever since we knew we were going to be in the area, and had pretty much narrowed it down to 2.

One of the churches I really liked the sound of, and started watching their services every week. Pete and I both thought it might be a good fit, too. But you never know until you visit, right?

Meanwhile a friend of Pete’s from his metal detecting club downstate said that some friends of his had moved to our area and gotten involved in a church, so we might want to try that one. And we ended up going there first.

Church #1 was nice. There had been some freezing rain the night before, covered with snow, so when we left the house that morning we didn’t realize how treacherous the roads were at first. But once we were out there we chose to say and prayer and make the trip. There weren’t many people there; the pastor commented that many had stayed home due to the road. Those that were there were probably 80% gray-hairs like us. I could almost count on my fingers the number of kids that were there, which didn’t bode well for the grands (who weren’t with us). But the people were friendly enough, several greeted us, one explained things for us a little bit, and the sermon was ok. Pete really REALLY liked it. I couldn’t imagine being a part of this one, especially for the kids. The music was mostly hymns, with one more contemporary song, accompanied by a piano and an organ, and a guitar. Very well done, if vintage, music! And the Christmas decorations were lovely.

When we left Pete almost raved about Church #1 and said he wanted to go there. I couldn’t understand why, I didn’t see anything for the kids there at all, almost no younger families, the message was ok, and the music was also though I like a good mix of hymns, contemporary, and worship – I enjoy all of them (or my favorite, southern gospel), so that was a drawback to me…but we still had Church #2 – the one I already liked from their videos – to try.

Last week that’s where we went. Lyra had other plans but Leelan and Luna came with us. Again, very friendly people, welcoming, and one delightful woman showed us the ropes. I really enjoyed the music and the message. I was pretty much set on that one…then we learned that, though there are plenty of children there, and activities, there wasn’t a “children’s church” where the little ones worship and learn while the adults are in the actual service. Luna, at just 5 years old and largely unchurched, might especially find that difficult. So we tentatively mentioned going back sometime when 10YO Lyra could also come and give her input.

After the service, however, we learned that this older church building had accessability issues. While there is a little elevator to get from the entry to the main floor (a half of a level), there was only stairs to the basement, where the adult Sunday School (and possibly other things?) met. My heart sank. I don’t want to be limited in what I can participate in, I am limited enough just by my disabilities but definitely do everything I can in spite of them; being told I can’t, because of them, was distressing to me. (To be fair, I was told that they could move the adult meeting upstairs if we became regulars there…though very nice, that’s not the point.) So the more I thought about that, the less welcome I felt. And I already knew that the children’s church was very important to the girls.

So we decided to go back to Church #1 with the kids today, when more of the regulars and members would be there. Leelan was bowling with his school team but the girls came with us. The handicapped seating was in the back, and from my perch up on my scwalker there was a sea of gray heads all the way to the front. As we sat and waited for the service to start the girls were really subdued. They were just being good sports about it all, it wasn’t what they were expecting. Then – I am assuming – the Sunday School classes were let out because there were children coming in, and families! The girls perked up at that point. They didn’t know the hymns that were being sung but were politely listening. Then it was time for children’s church down the hall, and Lyra and Luna were happily out of there.

Today’s message was fabulous. FABULOUS! Very relevant. Delivery was excellent. I was riveted, my attention and even my brain focused on the pastor’s every word. (I haven’t experienced that since leaving our beloved Roscommon church, I had resigned myself to the fact that nobody could deliver a message like David!) I can’t wait to listen to it again online, and take notes. So many nuggets of wisdom, so much of it really lit up my soul! Then we had communion and the service ended. The girls came back, raving about how much they LOVED their church, and telling us everything they did and what they learned! After listening to them for a few minutes, we left. I stopped to glance at a bulletin board on my way out and someone put her hand on my arm. “Are you coming?” she asked…I hadn’t really read the notice/sign-up sheet yet but she told me it is a potluck for the seniors’ group there and her enthusiasm – plus the mention of food (I cannot tell a lie!) – had me signing us up. CRAZY!

And now, I can’t wait to go back there. Go figure!