Church Hopping

Churches …

We have been visiting churches since mid-January. I enjoy seeing my friends in the various churches around our area. We have also been to our parent’s churches more than once (Drain Church of Christ & Stone Creek Christian in Oregon City).

Our “church hopping” has been limited to Christian Churches/Churches of Christ because we are committed to the ideals of the Restoration Movement. The churches of this movement are not a denomination as there is no leadership tying the churches together with rules of belief. Even though I believe in the ideals of the movement I must admit none of the churches are perfect, but the simple ideals of teaching, preaching, and building our structure around the model of the New Testament churches is one I believe to be true. It is called the Restoration Movement because from the beginning these churches have had as a goal to restore the NT church structure and the spirit of the New Testament Apostles and Prophets.

Garden Way – we joined them the Sunday Santa Clara Church announced our dismissal. We figured it would have been awkward to be there to answer questions that we did not have answers to. Garden Way is a nice enough church, I like the guys on staff and I have a few friends there, it is much like SC, and it has great potential for the future. However, we don’t feel like it is the church for us right now.

Lorane – We felt this small church in the beautiful Lorane Valley was one of the most-friendly churches we have ever visited. The preacher’s wife grew up with Lori in Drain. We like them and enjoyed the less formal atmosphere of a country church; however, it is about a 40 minute drive for us. At about 30 minutes into the drive Lori said, “I’m done. I can’t go any further than this every week to church.” When the weather is nice this is one of my favorite places to go for a drive (or a bike ride!) but it’s not just about me.

This also pertains to our “church hopping” experiences … I really enjoy seeing my friends in the various churches and seeing what each church meeting is like; however, it is hard for the boys. They miss their Sunday School classes at SC (they had great teachers) and sitting through church is hard for 1 ½, 3, and 5 year old boys. They are getting better at this, so it has been good even though it has been hard for them. We often get comments from people at churches or restaurants about our boys being the best-behaved trio of boys they have seen. That is always good to hear because both Lori and I are sensitive to what others think of us and our boys.

Marcola – A friend from Bible college is an Elder there and he is married to another girl that Lori grew up with in Drain (she is sister to the minister’s wife in Lorane). This is another nice country church that I could see us being a part of if we lived it that area.

Norkenzie – surprisingly, I had never visited this church before. We enjoyed this church and still might go back. I did not realize Joe Powell is a part of this church. It was nice to see him; he made us feel welcome.

Sonrise – formerly known as Irving Christian Church. Probably the most interesting church we visited … not necessarily in a bad way. Talk about an old church, the average age of this church is probably 65 and their music style is from the 1940-50s. But they were friendly! They would obviously love our boys. If we choose this church our boys would instantly have a ½ dozen new grandparents. This church sits on some prime real estate, which in my opinion means they have tons of potential if they would think outside the box. Here is what I think … they have a cool old traditional church building (c.1900) that sits unused most of the time and they meet in a plain box room with pews in a newer building. The style of church meeting they have would lend itself to the meeting in the old building and converting the newer building to a community center with round tables instead of pews. They have a few acres of grass and a few trees right on the corner of NW Expressway and Irvington Dr. that would be a great place for soccer fields and maybe softball fields. The church is a small group that desires to grow and have young families join them, so in my opinion they should open up their building and land for community use. Give to the community and build relationships through serving them. This area is growing-houses and families all around; there is tons of potential if the church leaders will think outside the box (and simply changing a name is not thinking outside the box!).

Dayspring – I had not been interested in visiting this church and I am not sure why. But this Sunday we visited this church and I was surprised to find many people I knew and who have known me since I was a toddler. The Shields’, Hubbards’, Sales’, and another older couple all are a part of this church and they were all part of the Westside church when I was growing up. My brother and I grew up with the Shields’ and Hubbards’ girls. The church meeting was acceptable and we found the church building to be kept-up very nice. The actual auditorium lends itself to overly formal atmosphere but the meeting did not feel too formal.

Stone Creek, Drain, and Crossroads in Portland have also been visited but we can’t logically join those churches so I will refrain from any observations or judgments.