today i got the chance to go worship at the church i went to in college. i loved that church and still do. it was an incredible church of people who loved each other and it still is. it is a fantastic church and i am incredibly thankful that i’m not there. about four years ago i seriously talked with the pastor about interviewing with the church to become their youth minister. i really liked the pastor. he was a great guy to talk with and i knew that i liked the church. yet, pam and i felt that it wasn’t what GOD wanted for us and therefore we ended the conversations with the pastor (the youth minister there now is a great guy who came over and did our disciplenow for us at parkview).
when i went to the church today all i could think of was how thankful i am to be at parkview instead of the church from my past. i have been in baton rouge for four and a year years and pam and i have grown in some new directions since being here. my ideas on social justice and worship have changed dramatically during my time in baton rouge. these were both concepts that i had been dealing with before coming to parkview and in fact i would not say that the staff or church have been major influences within the shifts in my thinking. yet it has been here in baton rouge that my view of what worship is and a growing emphasis on social justice as an important part of CHRISTian faith have developed.
while i was visiting the church from my past i just kept on thinking what i would be like if i had ended up there.