BEFORE I START THIS ADVENTURE...

I'm just turned 65!  It's time to do the things I've been putting off!

Blowing out candles with my children and grandchildren!
The girls LOVED the re-lighting candles!

One of those things is to visit churches other than my own.  Every time I do this I learn something, not only about the visited church, but if I take time to reflect, I learn something about myself.  

So I am setting a goal in my 65th year to visit 50 churches. 

I visited my first church Sunday, July 31st while on vacation at Isle of Palms.  Check back here by Wednesday, August 3 to read about it!

In order to hold myself accountable and to encourage my own reflection, I plan to write about it here.

Here's where I'm coming from:

• I'm a lifelong Lutheran
  
• I believe there are multiple paths to God
• I'm going to try not to be judgmental but recognize my biases
• Corporate worship should link us to private worship and drive our actions during the week.
• I'm curious

Here's an anecdote from my childhood that might apply here:

On most Sundays I am able to take away a nugget from the worship experience that challenges me to reflect on my faith.  This is probably a reflection of one of my favorite family times as a child. After church, as we changed into our play clothes, we would always discuss the service.  Sometimes it would be a deep discussion, and other times it would be superficial. When my sister or I couldn't think of anything to contribute to the discussion, Momma would say, "Well, you can't have a feast every Sunday. Sometimes you get served tuna casserole.  But sometimes there's a feast in the casserole if you just think about it a while."  Now I know she meant that the preacher or the choir wasn't always going to "hit a homerun" or speak just to me.  But that I needed to listen anyway, for even in the tuna casserole, sustenance and joy can be found.   But as a 10 year old, I always feared it meant tuna for lunch instead of the pot roast I was smelling!

Obviously if I am going to worship with a different congregation each week, I am only going to get a surface experience of what regular worship with a congregation is like. Some may give me a feast, and in others I may only find tuna casserole.  Often the difference will be in my ability to listen.  

My sister, Sharon, me, and my Mom 

...and as a beautiful young woman

Here are some of the things about worship I find important:

• Mood or a welcoming atmosphere - not just being greeted, though that is important, but am I able to come in and have both a social and reflective experience?  Is the service easy to follow? How are people, old and young, invited to participate?
• Message in the readings, prayers or sermon that allows me to reflect on my own faith and challenges me to live out my faith in the world.
• Music - this often leads my reflection and allows me to express my faith. Contrary to popular belief, I like both contemporary and traditional church music.  I don't think it should be "either/or" but "both/and".  Too much of any one thing is often not good.     Whatever the music, it should be done as worship, not performance.   Music can set a completive tone, or lead us to joy and praise. 

Will my list grow or change?

What do I hope to get out of this exercise? 

 I'm not really sure.  I enjoy new experiences and as I think about my faith journey, I feel a need to broaden my horizons.  I'm not a "searcher".  I feel fairly solid in  the basic tenants of my faith.  But I hope to meet some interesting people and get some new perspectives that will help me live out my faith in my community and come to know and respect how others are doing the same.