While talking to Charlie the other evening, I shared a thought that God dropped on me while I was doing the dishes.  Charlie asked if I would write it out for his blog and that folks, is why you’re stuck with this glimpse into the wife’s mind.

It has now been about 10 months since Charlie left his position in church ministry and since that time we have been faced with the question of which church community we should call home.  Neither of us has ever really had a start-from-scratch church hunt before and it is a challenge.  It’s a question that lately has been on my mind the majority of the time.  I think it’s really important to be an involved and committed member of a church family and this search is leading me to ask a lot of questions about what a church should be, what it should look like and what things are most important to me in a church.

We’ve kind of nailed our decision down to two possible church families and are now really evaluating where would be the best fit.  We’re asking what I think are legitimate questions in this process and I’ve been getting frustrated at not sensing clear answers.  Until I was doing the dishes the other day…

It struck me that maybe we’re not asking a big enough question.  The questions flying through my mind have included things like:

“Where will we be most fed by the sermon content?”

“Where will our children be able to make strong connections with other children who love Jesus?”  “Where we will gain a strong social network?”

“What types of ministries are there to get involved in?”

“Where are these churches headed?  What are their core values”

and the list goes on.

Good questions, right?  Maybe not the one God wants to answer.  It flew into my mind that if life is about glorifying God then the question we should be asking is this:

“Which church community does God want us to be part of so that His kingdom will be furthered?”

I believe that if we start praying that, then God will clearly lead where he wants us to go.  I also believe that if we go where God wants us, then all of those other questions will be answered on the way.  He’ll meet our needs because that is what God does.  I just seem to forget it all too often.

So, that’s the thought from the Mrs.  Remember… it was Charlie’s idea.