Hello, friends!
Folk who know me know that loyalty is something that I take very seriously. Once you're on my team, or I'm on your team, we are locked in for life. That's one of the reasons why I have a tendency to hoard a bit (loyalty to inanimate objects is odd, I know...) and why as much as I try, I just can't quite quit my 1-7 Miami Dolphins.
An area of my life where it's been interesting to see my loyalty play out has been in looking for a church home. I'm not one to change churches very often and as I look back on my life, every church change I've ever done has been precipitated by a life change at some point. Case in point:
- In 1989 (or so), my family moved to CBCOC and has been there ever since
- I started going to St. Louis Vineyard in 2003 after moving to St. Louis for college and stayed there for my my 4 years at WashU (Go Bears!)
- In 2007, I moved to Columbia, MO and started attending a Vineyard church, going there until it shut down in 2009
- After the Vineyard shut down, I attended C2 in CoMO until I got married in 2012
- 2012 was at Jubilee in St. Louis, where Megan and I attended until we moved back to CoMO
- Once back in CoMO, we attended Christian Fellowship until we moved to Omaha in 2018
Now we're here in Omaha and we've been attending Bridge Church in North Omaha for the past year or so. We love the diversity, we love the leadership, and we love the mission of the church. These past few weeks was a whirlwind of action for me personally in terms of church stuff:
- Church Sunday
- Trunk or Treat Tuesday
- Meeting with one of the Pastors on Wednesday
- Small Group on Thursday
- Men's Breakfast on Friday
- Bringing the word for offering during service on Sunday
- Small Group on Tuesday
I was looking back on this past week and as I was reflecting on all the stuff I did with church this past week, I came to the realization that Bridge has reached the point in my life where I can call it "my church" as opposed to the "church I attend." The difference may be subtle but it is important. I don't take the idea of having a home church lightly. I know of too many people who have been burned by too many churches to just take for granted the idea that every Christian will find a church they feel comfortable calling "home." I know that some churches have felt more like home to me than others and that some never quite got to "home" status in my mind.
Who knows what the future holds for us and Bridge. No church is perfect, and Bridge is no exception. Knowing that no church is perfect has served me well in the past, and I have no reason to believe that it won't serve me well here. Still, we plan on being in Omaha for a long time, and things can change. I'm not planning on going anywhere anytime soon, but I also didn't plan on leaving Cali, St. Louis, or CoMO, so I'll hold only my plans loosely. What I do know is that at this point, I'm happy to have a church to call home.
Have an excellent day!
~Adam
