The Way to Church

So I figured out my surroundings a little bit, and turns out my apartment is in the hip part of town.  I am in the middle of about 4 universities, 2 sweet beaches, and a mess of shopping malls.  Apparently people from all over the area come to my neighborhood to hang out, get food, and party.  It's pretty sweet...it makes everything that is important really easy to find.  Even the church that I researched before I came was within walking distance, and that is where my story begins.  

Now I realized going into it that I probably wasn't going to find a church that viewed everything the same way I do (like a place like that exists for anyone); therefore, I decided to enter the situation with an open heart.  So I walk in, and everything goes great.  People are introducing themselves, and I begin to try and remember names.  The place itself reminds me of when Reunion met at Sandberg High School...probably because both places are schools.  The worship begins, followed by a sermon and a final worship song - you know, the final high praise song that gets people pumped before they leave...yeah, that one.  At the end I am invited to join people for lunch...in my neighborhood of course, and the wonderful happenings of community begins to form.

The meal starts out great.  Good food, pleasant small talk, but then all of a sudden one of my new friends says a word that stops the food half way to my mouth...END TIMES, and before I knew it, everyone was nodding their heads in agreement and discussing the worlds social conditions.  Now of course at this point my heart is screaming at me to say something, but my brain is saying, "keep cool man...you just met these people.  No need to cause a wave just yet."  But as the conversation swung around the table there came a moment when it was either time for me to say something, or just go with an awkward silence until someone else at the table wanted to talk about something else.  So I spoke up...and the dam broke open.  There isn't really need to mention what the specifics were in my explanations, but needless to say, everyone's attention was on me for the rest of the time.  It reminded me when I tried to talk theology with some people down at Lee...wide eyed stares.  Fortunately, nothing bad happened where we couldn't even hang out with each other and enjoy a meal (they were quite open in the discussing things, and I look forward to hanging out with these people much more in the future), but there were some things I found humorous.  For example, every time I brought up a point they would says something like, "yes, but that is the LIBERAL perspective, CONSERVATIVES say...," or use the word "emergent" in a not so flattering way.  OH, the discussions we will have later...epic.  

So I guess everything turned out great.  Met some cool people who are sincere in their faith, would want to join me in watching a game of slinged football, and got to talk about one of my favorite subjects.  Let the community begin.

SOTP (A.K.A. - what is on my video section) - "Use Somebody" by Kings of Leon