Abiding Love Lutheran Church, and how we ended up there

First of all, I have to tell you: I love my old church. I found it before we came to Austin, and I knew it was home just from the tone of the website. Especially this: "We are professionals, bohemians, college students, musicians, artists, moms and dads, and more.  We come from broken backgrounds and spotless records, from nuclear families and divorce, we have been through some life and each of us walks with a bit of a limp that life has given us..." That was very welcoming to me, and it was an immediate match. For me. Unfortunately, it ended up that there was no one Daphne's age (or with a couple-year-range either way) in the congregation. Programming for youth has never been important to me. Other young people, though? They are. So it was with a lot of prayer, and waiting, and eventually clarity that we realized we had to seek out something else.

I want to tell you how we ended up somewhere I'd never have picked on my own, most likely.

I have exactly two experiences with the Lutheran church: One was driving by one on our way to our church in Fort Smith, and my dad remarking that Martin Luther didn't want a church named after him, ironically. The other was when Daphne and I visited on a Sunday night with some neighbors when we'd first moved to Sherman. That was an almost instant "no." I'm sure they were awesome people, but it was just one of those "Yeah, we don't belong here" things.

When I was talking to a friend about having to choose a new church, I mentioned two within a mile of Vogelfutter. She said, "You should visit my church." She knew the youth, it's not a huge group, and she said the kids were great.

So, we visited.

Jumping forward, I want to tell you something that I was thinking about yesterday as I sat in the cry room with my son: Going places with him is hard. It's all hard. Taking him to my sister's? There's dog food and things plugged into outlets, and the toilets aren't locked closed, and the toilet brush is on the floor (instead of the cabinet), etc. He never stops! Taking him to a restaurant is difficult because he might sit in a high chair for twenty minutes and eat and amuse himself, or he might insist on being held, which really means climbing on the table, which he can't do, but if we put him in the floor, he'll walk all over the place, to other people's tables, under tables, behind the cashier's counter, etc. The grocery store isn't too bad because we're moving, but once we slow down to get in line to pay, he wants to get out, or to stand up. And never mind if he's strapped in to his high chair or his grocery cart or whatever, he can get up. He just can. I walk through lots of places with him standing in the grocery cart (like it says not to let kids do) with my holding him at the upper legs, just because it's easier than fighting with him and him throwing himself around and maybe hurting himself.

So, basically, going places with  Mal at all is difficult. But church is super so because he won't sit still really at all anymore. He'll usually make it through one or two songs, especially if we're standing, but then he wants to walk everywhere and go through old ladies' purses and slam down the door stop on the concrete floor, and roll the golf pencils underneath the pews, etc.

Yesterday, I was sitting in the cry room with Mal, playing around me, not being very aware (therefore "nice") to the three-year-old girl in there, also, looking through the windows at Daphne, who was drawing (as usual) and not really participating in church and maybe not even listening. I thought, "I have to *really* want to go to church. This is hard, and there's no obvious fruit, and this is truly an act of will on my part during this season of my life."

Youth classes start in two weeks, so I'm hoping that makes a difference for Daphne, anyway.

After church, when we toddled out of the cry room, a lady introduced herself to me, grinning at Mal, and said, "He was so much fun to watch during the children's sermon!" Really? Him, trying to crawl away while I held his shirt and he threatened to scream, so that I finally let him go, and he walked right up behind an early-elementary-aged kid and just grabbed on to him for balance, so that I had to pull him away, and sit with both arms around him for the rest of the maybe three-minute kids' sermon? Fun?

But it made me feel like the first thing I saw on the first day that we visited this church was genuine. Here it is: (I think you can click on the pictures to see them full-size.)

It literally brought tears to my eyes then, and it does now. To see it out in writing like that, and to let the other congregants know what is expected. It's really awesome. They do have a nursery, but I didn't get a "Yes! Let's!" vibe the first time I visited, so we might wait until we have a little MOPS under our belts.

A look at the church's website reveals a couple of things: 1) That it was probably designed around the turn of the century, and 2) that it's a very busy place, and that they serve a lot of community entities. I wanted a place where we would have ample opportunity to volunteer, and this looks like it will be the case.

As for the worship services: There is a lot more liturgy than I am accustomed to, in terms of congregational readings; scripture being "read' as song; and things that are repeated each week, like the Apostles Creed and a Confession and Forgiveness of Sins. There is church band is called "Mixed Blessings" that leads worship every 2nd and 4th Sunday. During the month of July, the church had a musical emphasis, doing "unplugged" the first week we visited. The set list included "Peace Train" and "Blowing in the Wind" (so it was apparently the 1960s unplugged!). The next week was polka music, and I'd have loved to be there, but we had one more church to visit. The following week was a classical emphasis, and then the final week was youth-led worship. Right now, we're in a sermon series on the Psalms, and they had a guest harp player, then last week, they had a sort of minstrel group walking through the sanctuary during one of the songs (which was a Psalm). So there's a good mix of new and different things (including varying communion; sometimes by intinction, and sometimes with separate elements), a lot of scripture reading, and a lot of standing, sitting, and moving around. When Mal's a little bit older, it will be perfect for him.

During the worship, the band and singers aren't on stage. They're to the side of the auditorium, and the focus is the altar, the elements, and the cross.

One thing I love is that there is a children's sermon every week. The little kids are invited down to sit in the front of the auditorium (while the congregation sings "This Little Light of Mine") and the pastor gives them a 2-5 minute message relative to the week's topic.

They also have canvas "worship totes," with a small clipboard, a box of colored pencils and crayons, and an age-appropriate (preschool or "reader") booklet for drawing, coloring, and doing puzzles.

Again, they're really trying to get the kids into the service and involved and occupied. I appreciate it.

We had the youth orientation a couple of weeks ago, and the youth classes start on September 13. Starting then, they have one activity a month, including tubing, retreats, and a steam train visit to "Bethlehem" in December. I'd love to do some of the stuff, but there aren't parent chaperones as the idea is to get other adults who are not the parents involved in the lives of the youth.

There is a women's group that meets once a month at Central Market, and I plan to get there soon. I've had to opt out twice because of family life, but I'm looking forward to meeting some more people. Everyone I've met and talked to so far, even just in passing, has been gracious and sincere, and even though I'd never have picked a Lutheran church out of the air for our family, I feel like it's going to be a great fit.