A few years ago my wife and I moved to Atlanta, Ga. I had a few friends up here and they recommended numerous churches for us to go visit. In the course of the first 5-6 weeks we had visited some of he biggest and smallest churches in the area (not to mention, some of the strangest). We finally settled into one church and began to start the fitting in process. No matter which way we looked and who we asked we seemed to get the same answer “the church is doing great, we’ll call you when we need you”. As someone who had just got out of a really bad ministry situation, I thought I would enjoy the opportunity to be a participant (read, spectator) for once instead of being the leader/organizer. A month later we still were not involved and I was realizing (again) that I was not called to be a spectator. So, one Sunday morning my wife and I woke up, got ready for church, and left for Service. Only today was different, instead of turning right out of the neighborhood to get to church, we turned left. We decided to go exploring and stop at the first little red brick church we came across. 15 minutes later we walked into a little red brick baptist church and were not only welcomed with open arms, but I actually caught them arguing over who would get (not get stuck with) to take us to lunch. We were home. Not that everything was perfect, but we fit in. Not only were we needed, we were wanted. Over the course of the next few weeks I want to recap the 6 weeks I spent visiting churches, and why we didn’t stay at the “nice” church. We’ll be exploring the good, the bad, and the “you just scared that visitor away”. We’ll also be looking at ways to fix some of the wide open back/side doors at some of these churches that allow people to come visit and then disappear forever. I look forward to remniscing with you as we look at typical American churches through the eyes of an enthusiastic visitor.
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