Questioning my faith...

Ok. We have finally got back to church. Good grief. We took off about 6 months. We were either out of town or sick or lazy - "well, we haven't been there in this long", or "we'll go next week." At last we pulled ourselves back out of that slump and are back. What church, did I hear you ask? The Family Bible Church in Marshall, Michigan. I couldn't believe how much I had missed it after we went back a few Sundays ago. (And then, of course, I got sick, so I wound up missing even more...)

This church is awesome. The people in it are REAL. I went to Lutheran churches for years and never got the spiritual uplift from it that I do here. Not to knock Lutherans, but this church - my church - is so open. It's not ritualistic like other churches I've attended. (I'm not talking about sacrifices, mind you.) Everything is not rote. It is new and fresh every Sunday. And, as I mentioned, the people are great. No Sunday-Morning-Christians. Everybody accepted us immediately. No questions. No hesitation. No one looks like they think they are better than you because they have a fur coat that they show off every Sunday...have the front pew every week...etc., etc. My very first impression was that these people were all like me and my family - your every-day-hard-working-learning-about-the-Lord-and-leaning-on-faith kind of people. They all seem to know you - and, most importantly, accept you. It was amazing to find a whole church family that truly "walked the talk."

Anyway...I can go on and on about FBC. And I really do need to, as I never properly thanked Paster Gerten and all the countless others that prayed for me and made food for me and came to see me when I was going through my breast cancer. But that's another post - that whole topic deserves more than one paragraph!

On to the main point of this post: Does the title of this post make you wonder? I praise the church that I attend, but I question my faith??? It's not how it looks. Think positive. I have no questions in my belief that my Lord is my Saviour. But I do have questions about faith. I didn't grow up "in the church." I am still new to so very much in the Bible. I have not read it seven times, like my husband. I have not even completely read it once!

So I want to learn more about faith. FBC is quite a ways away from us, so it makes it harder to get together with others in the Small Group sessions. Getting three kids and a husband out the door in time for any kind of Bible Study just isn't feasible that early on Sunday morning. (Yes - excuses, all.) But I still wanted to learn more. Phil teaches me a ton, but I want to hear from others, too. So I came up with the idea of putting my questions on my blog. (Surely I'm not the only one in the world with these questions...maybe the information I post will help others?!?) I've talked with FBC's Associate Pastor, Kris Tarkiewicz, and he said he would look in on my befuddled writings now and again to help me make sense of things. Well, Kris, the adventure has begun!

The next time you see my posts, check for a "Questioning my faith..." label if you are interested in keeping track. It could be quite interesting. I come up with such varied questions and thoughts that I even surprise myself, sometimes...