God is so awesome. This weekend, we tried a new church and I will just tell you that I hate trying churches. Especially when you try churches that are good ones. Because bad churches are easy to spot for the most part, but good ones that are just not where God wants you to become a part are much harder to tell. So, I hate the process to trying churches and praying and trying to determine if this is the church for my family. If this is the church that God is calling us to make our new home. So, in a way I was dreading going to church this weekend and I hate that feeling as well.

In fact, the night before, I asked God that this be the church just because I hate having to look for a church. I know that is the not the right reason to ask that the church I was about to visit be the church that God wanted to be our home, but I just wanted the search to be over. I am sure that any of you Christians who have had to search for a new church know exactly what I am talking about. So, I asked God to make this church the church that was to be our home church and to confirm that for us. Of course, I did tell god that not my will but his will be done and if this was not the church to let that be known to me as well, but the majority of my hour of prayer time was making my request known to God.

Before I get into what the church service was all about, I had spent much of the week prior contacting my father in the faith, the man who lead me to Jesus who now pastor’s a church in Utah. He was at a conference, but was ever so gracious to find time to converse with me over email which is a real testament the love of God that is in his life because I sent him what amounted to about an eight page email just unloading about everything that had been going on and how I felt and what I was going through and how I need some advise and direction. He replied that night, in the middle of the night burning the midnight oil on my behalf (Lord continue to richly bless him) with some initial thoughts and a question that really got me thinking. The question was simple, “What is the main goal of a Christian?” I quickly fired off an email reply with some trite clich? response.

However, the question did not leave my mind. I spent the better part of the day thinking about the question over and over and about Jesus and God and the Scriptures. I knew that I knew an answer and to be honest I really didn’t want to get this wrong. That is not that I was too proud to admit that I could be or was wrong, just that I really didn’t want to get such a basic concept of Christianity incorrect. So, the question just kept going around and around in my head until I had come to what I believed was the answer and just had to fire off my response to my father in the faith. Here was my reply.

I believed that I was right, but I can not tell you how good it felt to have my father in the faith confirm it for me. With all that I had been through lately, there was a great sense of peace to know that at the core of everything I had not strayed from God or the truth. My father in the faith added that now I had to find a church that believed this and lived.

This brings me back to this past Sunday morning. We arrived at the church a little earlier then expected because I misjudged how close it was. That is not a bad thing, but there was a sense of perhaps we had arrived too early. So, we waited for about five minutes in the parking lot asking God to show us if this was to be our church home before going in. As we walked in, we were greeted by several people, which was nice. Then things began to change.

A man walked up to introduce himself; I wish I could remember his name, but there were just too many names to remember. As he did, another man said, watch out for him because he is from New York. Well, we quickly informed him that we were from New York and New Jersey and immediately struck up a conversation. There was something very home feeling almost brotherly that came from talking with this man.

Soon the service started and we stood up to sing. As we did, people were still coming up to introduce themselves to us. In addition to this, both my wife and I commented how even though there have been good churches that we have been in since we left New Jersey, we have not felt the power and flow of the Holy Spirit as strong as we did in this churches worship service. On this alone, we were strongly feeling that this might be our new church home.

Something that amazed me was that during that worship time, the pastor made a point of walking up to me and introducing himself and speaking with me and there was just something in his eyes that I knew was genuine. It was not out of obligation of being pastor, but just out of love that he walked over and spoke with me and I could feel it in his handshake and his speech and it make me feel good inside and in my spirit.

The service was great although the pastor mentioned several times that this was not a normal service. In fact, at one point he even turned to me and asked if there was anything else that I would need to know that God was calling me to know that this was a good church to be my new church home. I believe that God set this particular service up for our need so that we would know that this is our new church. And if all of this was not enough, God did one more thing.

At almost the end of the service, the pastor talked about a member of the church who was in need and how the family was in financial need because of medical issues the family was going through. He spoke about the fact that we as Christians should be focused on loving on another and that we should be known by our love. That Jesus told us to love and that was our “Goal” as a Christian to love. I was sold. Not that I needed more at this point, but that was the nail in the coffin for me and the final confirmation that I would need to tell me that this was the church that God is calling me to be at and I am very thankful to God for having this church there and calling us to it.

As a side note, as a parent, you want your kids to enjoy church. This is especially true when you have teenagers. The pastor mentioned that our oldest was a teenager and two amazing things happened. First, we discovered that God had us sitting in front of the youth group and second more then half of them came up and introduced themselves and invited my child out to youth. They made her feel so welcome that she not only wants to come back to the church but she is really looking forward to coming out to youth on Wednesday night.

God is so awesome and I am so thankful that he has led us to this church and I am looking forward to becoming part of this church as we move forward. I want to encourage you that if you are looking for a church or find yourself looking for a church in the future pray and keep searching because God will bring you to that perfect church where you will feel the love and presence of God flowing.