church hunting

well, we didn't find our new church home this morning, yet again. let me begin at the beginning. all week we have been talking about visiting a baptist church that we found online, not too far from our house. this morning, before i even got out of the bed (but quite a while after ryan had gotten out of bed), ryan came and asked me about church this morning. i got snappy and said we better be going to the baptist church that we've been talking about all week...at least to give it a try. he says okay, but then tells me how he thinks it's a purpose-driven church (as in rick warren, not just generally speaking) and how he hasn't really had very good experiences at those kind of churches (as in, they are driven to be too much like any other company in the world...not the purpose of the church!). i tell him we are going to at least try it this morning... well, ironically, once we got there (and were not greeted by anyone even though we sat RIGHT in the middle of the church AND got bulletins as we wandered in from two chatty-cathy's at the door--who we had to ask where to go!), the pastor shared how he JUST got back from a Rick Warren conference and...the whole sermon was a Rick Warren sermon. he mostly just chatted about this and that...and threw in a verse here and there. a couple of great lessons we heard:
1-helping a little old lady get her cat down from a tree=NOT kingdom work, a waste of time!
2-if you are thinking about what the pastor has said when you leave church or talking with your family about it (and the lessons you learned--you need to confess because you are guilty of sin!
3-the sole purpose of the church is go out and tell people about Jesus.
i won't go on...the things we heard are just not things that ryan and i believe.. we have no idea what could be "kingdom work", think the church's purpose is to worship Christ, and think it's of utmost importance to use your brain at church (no need to check it at the door!!). needless to say, this church will probably not being seeing us again. honestly, our search has been a little disheartening. i miss our sweet church family so so much (i know if you read this often enough you are probably sick and tired of hearing about it-sorry)! every week i end up breaking down because i feel like we are NEVER going to find the right place. i know, i know-we will... but the search is so frustratingly slow at times. i'm ready to connect with other believers again, to have a new family in our new town!
well, until next time...