Twelve years and a sunday away

With the beginning of August I have now been pastor at my church for twelve years. Maybe thirteen will be my lucky year!

Since last week was the last week of my old contract I had to use up my vacation. I just stayed home and worked around the house, and it was actually kind of good. This past Sunday, then, we were around home and had to decide where to attend church (Jane was not on vacation). I usually like to use my Sunday's away to visit a friend's church, or to go somewhere that might give me some good ideas or at least a good worship experience. However, this time I just wasn't too excited about the prospect. We'd visited a church the previous week, and it kind of left a sour taste in my mouth. Not because they did anything 'bad' necessarily, but it was just... predictable. Plus, you know, it's really hard to know what to expect when you visit a church for the first time. From deciding what you should wear, to whether or not to bring a Bible, to trying to figure out if you need to get there early to find a seat or late to avoid being harassed... It just seemed a bit daunting, especially since we were both feeling a bit burnt out at the moment.

So we decided to go another route. We went to a restaurant Sunday morning. On the one hand, I just didn't feel like putting myself through the hassle of going to a new place. But at the same time I was curious about what the people were like on a Sunday morning who weren't in church. We went to a place that we often go to following our Sunday morning gathering, and I wondered what the people would be like who were eating instead of at a worship service. I was almost a little disappointed to find out that they weren't much different. In fact, you could tell that a lot of people had apparently just come there following the "early" service at whatever church they attended. It still seemed to be mostly church people in the restaurant.

Anyway, it felt weird to not be in a church building of some kind on a Sunday morning. I can remember only a few times since I've been a Christian that I wasn't. The last time was probably ten years ago or so, when we went on a family vacation to Florida and we went to the beach on Sunday morning.

At any rate, I am back to work now. The office wasn't near as bad as I feared it might be. Now to kick things into gear again. It's another year, and today is a new day. Unfortunately I have this nagging head cold that is sapping my strength. Such is life.

Peace out; and in.