Sunday Mornin' : Unhindered Worship, Church of Coffee, and Supersized Church

This morning was amazing! I went to 2 different churches, and began to feel a sense of belonging. While I was at the churches, I was able to really worship. I was THAT person, that wasn't afraid to sing loudly, to throw my hands up, and move a lil as i worshiped the God I love. It was just such an awesome feeling, that I needed to share it :) To sing songs in the morning and mean every word I said. It was just awesome!! And the second church sang two of my favorite songs - Days of Elijah - and another one that I can't remember the name of but it rocks!


As I've been trying different churches, I've walked into many worship services and seen many a coffee cups/mugs/drinkers. Let me say that I LOVE coffee, at times - it's been an addiction. And I enjoy a casual - not uptight/formal church atmosphere. But something inside of me churns when I see people with their coffee cups inside a worship service. I wonder if it's something I got growing up in a Catholic Church - that I see the Church as the House of God. Now, as I've developed my relationship with God I realize that he dwells within each one of us and that "the church" is the people not the building. However, the intention of going to church is to worship God and have fellowship with believers and to learn more about God. I guess in my mind I think that a person can wait an hour to drink coffee (or even eat) til after a service. Maybe that's just a small pet peeve of mine. But if starbucks, or caribou, or any sort of coffee shop opened up next door to a church - I believe they would make a lot of money :)

In addition, most of the churches that I've been going to are HUGE mega churches. Maybe mega churches taking over is a way that the body of believers will unit because with less churches, the people will be closer. But it just amazes me that the church i went to today was the size of a middle school. I just hope that these churches are actually using the space they have created. Many of these large churches have small groups to get plugged into, I think. When I was thinking about these large churches I thought of some parables - the lost coin, sheep and something else. When Jesus says that a Shepard will leave the flock in one place to go off and search for the one that is wondering. I just wonder in big churches if they have a system in place (enough small groups, contacts, other people greeting and connecting people) where they know if a member or 20 members leave or are wandering. I'm not accusing them of not doing that - I'm just curious.

But all in all I had an amazing experience at church this morning - and am very thankful to have found the churches I found today :) Praise God for all the work he has done in my life!!