How to Look for a New Church

So... apparently there's no manual on how to go about this process.

My thoughts (being the analytical person that I am) are that we should make a long list and visit each church and create from it a short list and visit each a few times before narrowing it down to a couple that we really like and THEN start taking the kids with us to those two or so to see where they fit, etc. (in the meanwhile, they are still attending out "old" church with my mom).

Jeff doesnt quite like my plan. Tonight, on the way home from dinner, I said "where do you want to visit tomorrow" and he said "Wanna go back to Bethlehem?" (the ONLY place we've visited so far). I said "shouldnt we try someplace new?" and he said... wait for it...

"How about if we just go where we want to go. I mean, if we like a place and we think we'd like to go back, why do we have to go somewhere else? Lets just go where we like it and do what makes us happy".

Hmmmm....

Conclusion: Women are from earth and men are terrestrial beings who dont quite get it ;-)

How have YOU gone about looking for a new church home? Any tips?

I still want to visit Hebron (which Jeff is all for) but only if we can go to a sunday school class, too, b/c the church is WAY too big to think we're going to be comfortable just going to the service. And there's a smaller church down the road that is very interesting to me but Jeff doesnt seem to have much of an interest (kids 4 and up go to the service WITH the parents.... the church feels its really important that families worship together and while thats not the "easiest" thing to do, I kind of think it might be great).

Praying for unity. And that the pastor of Bethlehem Baptist will stop having such great sermon series so we can visit somewhere else for once! ;-)

DONT FORGET TO SET YOUR CLOCKS FORWARD ONE HOUR TONIGHT! Yep, time to lose an hour of sleep (dont be late for church!!!) and start enjoying the daylight a little longer in the evening! 

Real Time: Where I Am

What I need to be doing tonight is charging my DSLR camera so that I can download the Thanksgiving and Christmas pictures and catch up on my blog. Yeah... its almost March and I still havent posted about Thanksgiving. I've quit setting goals. I'll get to it when I get to it, is my new attitude ;-)

But what I want to write about is all of my current issues. Because by the time I get around to posting about Feb... I will have forgotten that I ever felt the way I do right now!

Oak Hill has been our church home for almost 12 years now.

When Jeff and I were teenagers and dating, we attended Pleasant Grove Baptist. We both gave our lives to Christ at PGBC and began our walk with the Lord there. We got married there. And one year later, some terrible things happened that caused us to move on from PGBC.

Several friends of ours from PG had started going to Oak Hill so we decided to visit. And as it turns out, we never visited anywhere else. We felt so welcomed and were just loved on by so many people... we wanted to stay! So, stay we did.

We took a break from serving for the first year or so of attending OHBC as we "healed" from the hurts of our previous church (wahhhh... i know... everyone has a church sob story. Isnt it unfortunate that we have to go to church with SINNERS?! haha). But eventually, we got involved. And it was great! We served together in the youth ministry, just as we had at PGBC. I led worship. Jeff ran the skit ministry. We loved serving with some lifelong friends and loved the families we were serving.

But somehow, along the way, Oak Hill started to lose members. One by one, families who we love have moved on. Slowly we have watched friends move onto other church's. And while it was sad, we remained at Oak Hill because we believe that the community in which it is placed has a huge need to have the gospel shared!

Over the years, however, we have somehow become the only "young" family in our church. And we are not drawing other "young families" for whatever reason. And despite hoping and praying and serving... well, we have felt that, as a family, we are missing a big piece of life...

Mutual and age appropriate friendships.

Young families who are raising kids.

As much as we, as "mature" christians, don't like to admit that we have needs... we do.
And how does that happen, anyway? That we accept Christ as our savior, grow for a few years and somehow are expected to never "need" anything again but rather to give, give, give and self feed independently? Thats just not reality! Every leader, every pastor, every christian... NEEDS accountability. Mutuality. People to share life with who are in the same phase of life.

Now, dont get me wrong. We are all also called to be a mentor to others and to have mentors. We all also need those who have already walked in our footsteps who can pour out wisdom to us. And we all need to pour out the wisdom thats been imparted to us to others.

But we also need mutuality.

And thats something we've been missing.

So, yesterday was our last day at Oak Hill. It was emotional for us both, although I doubt that anyone could tell on the outside.

Jeff went early that morning to clean the floors of the hallway and kids rooms. For the last time.

And I went early to practice on praise team. For the last time.

The hardest part for us is that we're NOT upset about anything at our church. Nothing is "wrong". No one has made us mad ;-)

We've done our best to serve the people and the community of Oak Hill to the best of our ability to the very end. And now, we are in a season that we look forward to being poured into. A time of refreshing of our souls. A time of rejuvenation.

But its also scary. Because we have no idea as to where we will go. Will people be kind to our children like the people of Oak Hill have? Will anyone speak to us? How alone will we feel as we've left our church home and the people we've left feel hurt by us and need space. So many questions...

And on the other hand, there is this excitement of what is to come. What will it be like to go to church where Jeff will have friends who are also dads who are working and trying to raise a family and be a good husband and stay strong spiritually? How great will it be to share frienships with other couples with young kids... maybe our kids will be friends!?

I dont know what God has for us. I'm scared. And sad. And a little excited. And hopeful for some spiritual growth to come into our family again. And that last thought makes it worth all of the fear and sadness...because my deepest hope is that we will grow in our relationship with Christ, therefore in our relationship with one another. And that as a result, our children will see parents who live out the gospel for them daily and that ultimately, they, too, would choose to follow Christ. After all, THEY are our greatest ministry!

Oak Hill Fall Festival

Halloween fell on a Wednesday this year. And our church had its fall festival the Sunday before. We had taken part in the Dacula Festival the day before (Saturday) which was kind of a bust so we left and went to Shlaine's church (our old church) and took part in their festival where the kids ate chili and played on their playground, etc... but somehow i didnt get any pics?! :-( So on we move to our church festival...

When you first arrive at our church festival, they always take pictures to give you when they come visit (if you're a visitor) and share more about the church. Well, we may not need a visit from the visitation team, but we DO appreciate the scenery and thought we'd catch our own pic! Yes, i should crop. But i didnt. Hello, people. I'm just trying to catch up at this point! HA!

Rhyan had actually woken up with a random fever but didnt seem to have any symptoms. So we had kept her home from church that morning so as not to "share". But the festival was all outside and she was feeling much better and fever free so we went. And then the wind started blowing and we were so COLD! :-( And i felt bad for taking her, but she had a blast! So we just stayed a little while and let her play some games while Mack played and it was all good...

Mack and our youth pastor, Kyle (who looks like a youth himself!!!)

Mack kept wanting us to help him up this ladder and signed "please" over and over :-) Cute!

Btw, we didnt let Rhyan wear her dress b/c it was too cold and we wanted her WARM.

Here's my baby playing putt-putt for the first time! She did AWESOME!

We told her to try to throw the hoop around the post, so she walked up to it and tossed it. 

SUCCESS! Ha! We'll take it how we can get it :-)

So proud of herself!

And in this game you're supposed to toss the ball into the can... so again, she walked up to it :-)

Toss the ball into the boot?

Too hard! Dropping it is easier :-) After all, you've got to ensure that you get CANDY!

We had a great time with our babies! We ALWAYS love outdoor fun, although we enjoy it more when its warm :-) Not to be picky or anything! haha...

Preschool Splash Day!

The day before we left for Amelia Island (posts coming!), our church hosted a Preschool Splash Day! I thought it was a GREAT, simple, cheap idea. And how great to have something JUST for the little ones?! Birth-kindergarten were invited so we took Rhyan and Mack!

Mack loved the water guns... for chewing on. I totally didnt realize until a few minutes later that he was actually biting BIG chunks out and swallowing it. Wow. Ok. Great parenting skills I have! ;-)

Rhyan was tossing the rings on the little posts and Mack successfully got the ball in the hoop with a slam dunk! HA!

Rhyan loved doing this little slide into the pool. It was a little tricky b/c its a blow up slide and wasnt the most stable. She handled it well... until...

And mack LOVED the automatic bubble machine!!

... until the right side of the slide collapsed and she fell off. On her head. And her body did a back bend of sorts over the side of the pool. And her head was under water with eyes wide open as she tried to get herself turned over and get out. I was holding mack and taking this pic when it all happened. Before i could even get over there (which believe me, was FAST), she was out of the water. But i swear, that 5 seconds was like slow motion in a movie. Scared me to death!!! I literally envisioned in that 5 seconds me doing CPR on my baby girl. I know i sound dramatic, but seeing her eyes open under water and looking scared to death just about did it for me. Thank you, Jesus, she was fine. She coughed a few times, had a few red spots/scrapes on her face (from falling on concrete) but was FINE! Even wanted to keep playing! Wow.

Gotta love some WATER GUNS!!!! Girlfriend was soaking me... till I got her to start shooting pastor jeff! ;-)

The church provided pizzas, drinks, cookies and popscicles. And lord knows we needed to feed Rhyan... her bootie was so hungry it was eating her bathing suit ;-)!!!

And of course, Mikey... I mean, Mack! will eat ANYTHING!

After it was all over, we poured all the water out of the pools (yes, we would have loved to have poured it on the grass, but the pools were HEAVY!) and low and behold, our concrete is apparently not level! haha! So it made another pool of sorts! Jeff took care of it with this broom and the kids LOVED it!

We had a GREAT time and appreciate so much the effort that Karen Brunson (our childrens director) puts into making sure that kids of ALL ages feel special and have events tailored just for them!

Small Group

We started having small group's in our church (in homes) last fall. We loaded ours up with all the "cool" folks: our youth pastor and his fiance (kyle and haley), Rhyan's sunday school teacher's Josh and Ashlyn, our pastor and his wife (jeff and brenda) and ourselves. We meet at our house each Sunday. We are the "younger older" couple in our group :-) What a place to be....

Anyhoo, our group is a little crazy. First off, these soon to be mr and mrs seem to LOVE our kids. And our kids LOVE our small group (rhyan usually goes to my mom's or grandmothers house for our small group, but since mack goes to bed at 7pm he stays with us). He gets lots of attention and soaks it up. He's such a little flirt :-)

One recent evening we had taco night. I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to put taco shells in the toaster oven, but i thought it'd be okay if we kept a good eye on them. However, we totally forgot about them and by the time we remembered them they were charcoal.

We opened the door of the toaster oven and the oxygen lit the things on FIRE. The girls were all screaming and Jeff's wise words were quite simple: "be quiet! mack is sleeping!" HA!
I mean, who cares that this could catch the house on fire... dont wake mack! :-) Such a goob!

But luckily for us, Mack is a hard sleeper :-) So he was fine. And just to end on a high note, heres a cute pic of Kyle and our little Mack man. Mack is the first baby Kyle has held (i think?!) CUTE!

Wanna know what I did today?

Well, my fabulous hubby watched both kiddos (and did so with grace!) so that I could be a part of a block party that our church threw in some old apartment complex's in Lawrenceville (aka: the ghetto! haha!).

A great guy/fellow Jesus follower came to do some training with us and encourage us on how to connect with people who we may not normally have relationships with. He was great!

I was on the "food" team for our group who went to Old Salem Apartments off Stone Mtn road. The apartments are 1/2 empty b/c of the economy... lots of families have moved in with other family members and vacated. But we still had a great time with those who still live there.

It was an opportunity to meet some people who 1. May or may not know the Lord as their savior 2.Are likely of a different culture and 3. Dont have much family around to speak of, much less a church family to love on them.

But they are the same in this way: our Heavenly Father loves them and desires that they be reconciled to Him. Now THAT is something I (or you!) can help with! So thats what we did today. We loved on these people and told them about a God who loves them :-)

Oh, and gave them hotdogs. Cause what says "Jesus loves you" better than a dog on a bun on a hot summer day?!

The weather was PERFECT. The kids were incredible (especially this one, very agile, one legged boy who beat the pants off some of our kids in a game of soccer! AMAZING!). My heart was blessed to be a part of it and to get outside my comfort zone and realize that there is life outside of my family. I needed that wake up call.

Check out the pics by clicking here and you can also read Tim's blogby clicking here.

Again, huge thanks to Jeff, the best Daddy ever :-)

Living Water

Ok, friends! I never solicit for anything, but I've GOT to support my husband in this and hope you will, as well!!!

Our church has decided to support a ministry called "Living Water". They dig wells in countries where fresh water is almost unheard of so that people who are living with very little can enjoy something as simple as a fresh glass of water without having to first boil it. Have you ever even thought about how blessed we are to be able to open the tap and get ourselves a glass of water?! Our church is sponsoring the digging of a well in Liberia.

The cost for digging a well is approx $12,000. That is a HUGE number, but then, God is pretty HUGE and I'm pretty sure he can make this happen. But as we all know, the Lord delights in using His children to further his Kingdom and to love on those in need! One way we are attempting to raise money for this cause is by running a half marathon this coming Sunday. We have several guys who have paid their own $85 registration fee and who have worked really hard to train for the 13.1 miles that will be run on Sunday, all in hopes that YOU will sponsor them! Jeff is one such person :-)

So, how can you help? This is kind of like what we grew up knowing as a "walk-a-thon" except this is a run-a-thon. We are asking that anyone who would like to sponsor him in one of two ways.
1. Make a commitment for each mile he completes (just fyi, he will complete 13 miles so if you choose to go this route, you might want to keep that in mind!). Example: If you sponsor Jeff $2 per mile, you would send a check for $26.
2. Make a flat donation in any amount you'd like.

This is a TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION!

All checks should be made out to "Oak Hill Baptist Church" and in the memo line you should note in the "for" line: "living water".

You will get a contribution receipt from our church.

SO! WHO's IN?!?!?!?!? Please contact me via email at forddygirl@yahoo.com if you would like to contribute to this great cause and I will get you our address so that we can collect all checks here and then give them to the church. I guarantee you that Jeff has trained hard and is looking to make a good time (hoping for under 2 hours, but Atlanta is hilly, so we'll see!).

Thanks in advance!!!!

Laser Show at Stone Mountain

In early October, our Sunday School class took a class fellowship to Stone Mountain to see the laser show. It was our first fun fall outing for the year and it turned out to be a bit chilly! But we had a blast, nonetheless! Rhyan loved all of the room she had to run around and be silly. There were a few times we turned around and she was gone! Thankfully, we had a lot of friends who were all helping keep up with her! (we're wonderful parents, i swear!).

We ate there on blankets and then just hang around and chatted and played and had fun until the laser show started. I'll admit, it felt like FOREVER that we waited, but then somehow I think it felt so long because we were chasing a toddler :-) Anyways, here are a few cute pics from the evening!

Sorry Guys!

Sorry I've not posted well, lately. Unfortunately, that trend will continue :-( Like most of you this time of year, I am absolutely overwhelmed with way too much to do and far too little time.

In case any of you care, one of the biggest things going on right now is the start of the discipleship ministry at our church. I am the chairperson of a previously non-existent team. Staff positions have done in the past what our team is currently attempting to accomplish after over a year and a half of the ministry being leaderless. Its a huge task, but one well worth the effort.

Our plan is to implement classes (6-7 classes for adults, 2-3 for youth, 2-3 for kids) for all ages on Sunday nights starting mid January. We are hand picking facilitators to lead these classes, attempting to choose material, have a training class for all "leaders", make a brochure for the winter semester, have a "kickoff" lunch after church one sunday to push the ministry, start registration that day, order materials for those who register and then give them classes to meet in and let it roll! Its VERY exciting b/c we have a fairly spiritually immature church who I think will be moved by learning to dig deep into Gods Word. In fact, our team is clinging to the promise that Gods Word "does not return void"!

Jeff and I, because our marriage is the example for all to follow (insert chuckle here), will be leading a married couples class. We are currently deciding on material but may lean towards a combo of the 5 love languages and For men/women only. These 2 resources would combine to make for a 12 week semester. The other possibility is some material called "Making love last forever". We're still praying about what to do and trying to read through the material. Jeff has promised that if I lead the class (b/c he already teaches a sunday school class) that he'll be the sex appeal that draws the masses to our class :-). I know, gag. Haha.

I've also said "yes" to teaching some extra days. I'll be at Collins Hill tomorrow AND Monday meaning I'll only get a 2 day weekend like "regular" folks. I dont see how you "regular" folks do it :-). I'm exhausted.

And the Christmas musical is on the 13th... in which I have a solo that I have yet to learn (i'm such a good steward, huh?) and a trio I have yet to practice in.

These are all GREAT things! I'm grateful for them all... but they seem to be piling on all in such a short time. So as soon as i get time, i'll try to upload some pics and such, but for now, bear with my blog slothfulness :-)

Blast from the past

The following is a post from my old blog that i read tonight. I first posted it in August of last year. And i find it just as relevant today. My, how quickly we forget what God has been doing in our lives. Its good to remember. To get back on track.

August 2008:

My childhood was spent in a little baptist church. The same families had always gone there and there was a small childrens ministry but really no place to go after you got into high school. So in 9th and 10th grade i really didnt know what to do. Then one morning I decided to go to the morning prayer meeting at school (dacula high). I took plenty of school work since it was in the library just in case i didnt know anyone. But when I walked in, I was greeted by a lifelong pal, April Hall. She included me in the prayer group and asked me afterwords if i’d like to come to her church that friday for a lock-in. She continued asking throughout the week and her persistence paid off.

When I got to the church that friday evening, April introduced me to lots of people and hung around w/ me. She made me feel really comfortable. And so, i had found a new church. Now, i was only 14 and my family didnt go to church there, but the youth pastor lived right down the road from me and picked me up most sundays and wednesdays.

I became good friends with a group of girls (Angela, April, Ashley, Lindsay and Tanaya). They were an established group of friends, but they made room for me.

Then, on December 10th I accepted the Lord as my savior. Let me preface by saying that I had prayed a prayer as a child (6 years old) but didnt understand fully what it meant to give my life, i only wanted to accept Jesus. So I may very well have already have secured my eternity years back, but it was in December of that year that I felt confident that my heart belonged to Jesus.

And just as the isralites wandered in the desert for many years even after being rescued and released from slavery, I, too have done my wandering. And not to say that I have found my promise land and that my journey is over, but there is steady growth. Well, mostly steady…haha.

And its all because a 14 year old girl chose to be friendly. To show me Jesus through her attitude and caring spirit. To be persistent to love on me and make me feel welcome. She never laid out the gospel to me, but she brought me to the place where I could hear. Not only her, but that a group of girls loved on me, included me…and a youth pastor made time to pick me up. So many people have played a part in the story of my life!

"An expectant heart is truly a breeding ground for the miraculous" -Darlene from hillsong. Are you expecting great things from God in your life this week? Do we really believe that if we are obedient to just invite our co-workers and friends to church that God will move in their lives? Sometimes I don't. But i want my heart to be a breeding ground for the miraculous, so I’m going to try to choose to expect the unexpected. Pray for the miraculous. And watch and see what unfolds.

Stay tuned to see how God answers this! I’m excited…

Dedication Day!!!

Yesterday (Sunday, Sept 13th) was special for a few reasons. First off, it was Rhyan's dedication day! Secondly, it was grandparents day. And Jeff and I thought, what better day to dedicate our baby to the Lord than grandparents day! And lastly, because we had all of our family over to the house after church to spend time together. We always enjoy that. AND... there was no drama! Hallelujah, the Lord is still performing miracles after all!

The dedication was really so special. We have an interim pastor right now who we LOVE, Ken Sirmans. He did a fabulous job of reminding all of us that kids are a precious gift from the Lord and that it is our charge to raise them in a way that teaches them to love Him. Of course, we are thrilled with that opportunity!!!

Then, the sweetest thing... his wife (Julie) and 2 of his 3 girls (Callie and Caroline) sang a song called "I love you this much". It was really precious. And it made it all really special!

Rhyan did GREAT during dedication. She did some "talking" of her own but luckily, she wasnt as loud as she normally is :-)

Good times, peeps. Good times.

Rhyan checking out her new bible...