Finding a Church Home-Visit Four

At this point, I just moved to PA less than a week ago and was here near Pittsburgh for the next two years. Through the Emergent Pittsburgh site and Presbymergent site I had come across The Open Door, a missional church community. As I checked out the website, I knew I needed to join them for worship one day as it appeared to mirror and resonate with the church planting discussions I was part of in NC.

First impressions
At first, I just didn't know if I was in the right location. The Union Project isn't clearly labeled and I didn't see any signs for The Open Door. So, I asked people where to go, found my way into the building and then into the service. There I walked into a circle of people praying, I guess I was just too early. After I sat down, and the prayer circle dispersed, a couple of people came over to talk with me before the service, including one of the pastors.
The service
Powerful. The songs were a mix of contemporary that I knew and some knew to me. I don't know if it was because of the acoustics in the room or just because of everyone there but as we worshipped God through song, the music filled up every space in thr room. It's been a long time since I've heard that sound, since the last time I was at a Princeton Forum on Youth Ministry in their sanctuary. Some of the community is going to Mexico on a mission trip shortly and one of the worship leaders is a member who now serves God by teaching English in Guatemala. She began leading songs in both English and Spanish...and that's what got to me. Those gathered there were singing just as loud and powerfully in a language that isn't native here and may not be know by all as they were in English. I want to be apart of the church who doesn't care that they don't know they languauge and doesn't let it stop them from worship God.

The message
He spoke on Matthew 28 and spoke about the movements seen in scripture. (1. God speaks in some way, shape or form. 2. Fear strikes us 3. God reminds us that he will be with us. 4. God reminds us of the task)

The church
Overall people weren't extremely friendly, but they weren't not welcoming either. Mainly it's comprised of young adults and those who live in Pittsburgh. A church plan in it's third year it is undergoing conversations on how to be Christ in the community the church is in.

Overall.
It's a no brainer, I'll be there the following week.

Finding a Church Home-Visit Three

As I came up to PA for Orientation in early July, I was limited in the time frame I could go to worship as Orientation began at 2 p.m. During my June trip I had seen a sign for the local Presbyterian church while I was shopping and the website looked promising. So, after saying goodbye to my parents, who had helped me move, early Sunday morning I headed to Puckety Church for their Oasis service.
First impressions
The sanctuary was easy to find and full of traditional pews, very similar in size to the church I grew up in. One women immediately came up, after I sat down, and greeted me and a few others followed.
The service
It was contemporary with a band with members of various ages. Currently the church is going through a transition after their pastor retired and had a guest preacher in that Sunday. Communion was served by intinction and there was a small group gathered, not too unusual for 4th of July weekend though. Presbyterians are definitely called the "frozen chosen" for a reason and the congregation wasn't physically expressive in worship (ie: clapping).

The message. He was a good verse by verse preacher looking into the cultural history of the text of the woman anointing Jesus with oil and wiping his feet with her hair.

The church.
The church actually reminded me a lot of the church I grew up in, definitely a local church with a family feel. After the service I went over to their fellowship time which is held between their two services. It was definitely awkward walking into a room of about seven people which grew to fifteen by the time I left. People were friendly and I spoke with a couple young families and some older members of the church.


Overall. I'd visit again. Years ago I already walked through the whole interim, then searching, and having a new pastor process as a member of a Presbyterian church. At this point in my faith journey I'm not sure that going through it again is the right thing for now. That is a point of hesitancy for me.

Finding a Church Home- Visit Two

While I was here in June I also went to Discovery Christian Church
First impressions. It was a royal pain to find and even the women in the gas station at the corner of the road it is on couldn't help me find it. Thankfully a customer at the gas station could and I was on my way. Due to getting lost, I arrived just a few minutes before the working service. The services take place in the Regional Learning Alliance and alot of people were socializing in the hallway as I found the service. As I sat down I could see that the church is comprised of alot of young adults and the room filled up as the service got underway.

The service. They need to set up every week and do a nice job. Musically, they had a band who played standard praise and worship songs.

The message. The series was on bad girls in the Bible, with the focus being on the samaritan woman. Theologically insightful the pastor explored the scripture looking at the culture then and the origin of the words, while making it applicable today. Content wise it was a good reiteration on things I've learned about the samaritan woman but nothing new or earthshattering.

The church.
The church was a bit overwhelming and not too welcoming. Perhaps if I got there earlier it would have been different.


Overall. If it wasn't 45 minutes away I'd go back and explore it further

Finding a Church Home-Church One

In June while I was in town on vacation to do my assistantships I visited turningpoint.

First impressions.
Some people were friendly and greated me before the service. There was an area with snacks and drinks that a couple of people pointed out to me.


The service.
The service is described as "turningpoint is a worship service for: skeptics, believers,veterans, rookies, the passionate, and the burned-out,
who seek to know and follow Jesus Christ.the music is rock n roll the dress is causal"
It was a typical contemporary Presbyterian worship service. There were familiar songs, but when the powerpoint stopped working the congregation didn't know what to do. The youth pastor came up and honored the HS graduates.

The message. Over a month later I can only tell you it was a message that had something to do about clubs or sports.

The church.
It was hard to get a read on the overall church, or even find their bathroom. Partially because after the service I was not interested in staying too long I didn't check the rest of everything out. I did go up and speak to one of the pastors about the emergent network afterwards but got the impression that they needed to be doing something else or there was someone better to speak with.

Overall.It appeared to be a typical Presbyterian, "frozen choosen" church. There wasn't anything bad about it but since it's at least 30 minutes from here and there is probably something like it in my living community I will be looking closer to me.

Finding a Church Home

I am supposed to be the prize churches get...

So, if I join your church community you will get someone who is thrilled to be able to attend worship service every Sunday. I come with years of professional youth ministry experience and am passionate about leading worship. Jumping into teach a Sunday School class is no problem nor is directing VBS. However, I don't intend to be part of the 20% that do 80% of the work, I will be too busy living out my faith in grad school, assistantships and through being a Girl Scout leader.

Finding a New Church Home-Thoughts before the search commensed

Moving to a new location unfortunately means the search for a church community begins again. Last time the process took about seven months when I move to NC for various reasons, this time I'd love to be connected before school begins in August.
Adam McLane began blogging about his families search for a new church home as they more to CA and I'm getting in on it too!

The search actually began back in May as I was applying for assistantships and was looking to see what churches were in the area.
How will I chose the churches to visit?
Simply put, the internet. I want to see what your website says about you before I go there. My first stop was at the Emergent Pittsburgh site where I found a list of churches. My second spot was checking out the churches at Presbymergent and crossreferencing them.

What am I looking for?
-A church who's theology is solid-aka: my crap detector doesn't go off and it's Biblical truth
-A pastor who spiritual gift is teaching- aka: the sermons are decent
-A church who expresses themselves in worship through multiple ways
-A church who welcomes people unlike them
-A church who embraces contemporary music
-A church who spends more time serving Christ outside of the church walls than inside of them

It's all new and different

Within the past week I've learned alot about my new environment- mainly exhibited by my supervisors. There are four supervision styles that I've heard mentioned a number of times and every supervisor falls into one predominantly. Winston & Creamer came up with an assessment of these styles and I've found them described well by Virginia Tech as:

Authoritarian - based on the belief that staff members require constant attention
Laissez Faire - based on the desire to allow staff members freedom in accomplishing job responsibilities
Companionable - based on a friendship-like relationship
Synergistic - a cooperative effort between the supervisor and the staff member

In my new situation I have three supervisors, one authoritarain, one laissez faire and one companionable. What did I into? Coming from a place where my supervisors were synergestic, which is held as the ideal supervision style, this is a huge change.

I can easily deal with the laissez faire supervisor as that is the styles I experienced while working for pastors. However, the challenge is getting the information I need to do my job being that I'm new.

With the companionable supervisor I will need to step into the supervisor role instead of being the employee. Already I'm setting the professional boundary between us and not allowing this person to be my friend. The challenge will be not blowing up on them when they ask inappropriate questions like: are you homesick? Sorry, none of your business, you haven't earned that place in my life, especially since we don't interact in a work role more than a couple hours a week.

While interviewing I knew that having an authoritarian (or micromanaging) supervisor would be difficult for me. However I didn't know it would be this bad. It's very hard to never be doing anything right in your supervisors eyes and being treated like you have no professional or work experience.

The various supervision styles I'm learning to work with is just one of the new pain in the butt things about being here. The other is the lack of information I'm experiencing. My supervisors must think I have the superhero power of reading minds because when I do get an assignment, I don't get the information to do it. Partially this can be chalked up to the learning process of working together as a team, however you can't assume that I know how to get paid (I needed to ask after I didn't get compensation for my time here in June) or that a resident is moving in today instead of two weeks ago as they were supposed to and I learn that they are coming from another student.

No wonder why these positions were still open, there are more challenges than I expected with my work experience, I can't imagine what someone coming straight out of undergrad would be going through. Especially since I'm already counting down until I can move on!

Entering Into The Next Two Years

This past week has been a whirlind in many ways. After a powerful worship gathering and lunch out with a number of people from my church family, I hit the road back to PA for the final drive of this move. After some rain but alot of uneventful hours, I arrived at the new place at 10 p.m. just to unload my super packed car.
The next morning after a little sleep, I officially began my part 1 of my assistantship part one (hereby referred to as: P1A) and have worked there all this week. It's definitely challenging to learn how to work with a new team, deal with different supervision styles and just not have alot of information. Most of my tasks I've discovered how to accomplish them through asking questions or looking in old files for information.
After I come home at night, I either work for part two of my assistanship (hereby referred to as: P2A), try to unpack or run around to stores.
Emotionally I'm a mess for alot of reasons, mainly trying to work in a new location.

However, some close friends are coming in early tomorrow morning for the weekend and I'm super excited!!! Plus I got a laptop and can be connected more with others.

The New Journey Begins

Shortly my time in NC will end. My last moving day is Sunday and there is less than an hour of work time to go. The past couple days after return back from Orientation have been full of tying up loose ends and all the goodbyes. I'm really tired of the goodbyes and with some people we have continued pretending that I'll be here working on Monday morning. This place is definitely unique and I will miss being around so many talented artists. Still, there are some things that I'm thrilled to be leaving behind. God has been amazing in providing me opportunties to hang out with friends from the various circles I travel in during this six day last bit of time here. I've run into former students who haven't been around for summer session and see those who are "one last time". No matter what the challenges have been, it's still hard to leave those you have lived with for a year or a year & a half; it's a weird family when you see each other during fire alarms in your pajamas, go to performances they have worked hard on, watch them form relationships and be with them through the breakups, and just be with them through things their parents weren't physically present for.