The "perfect church"

In the month of December Facebook asked us to click and let them show us a recap of 2012. If you were curious enough to indulge in seeing the summary of the last year of your life, you saw pictures of you and your friends, major events and it even told you the number of friends you added in the last year. I know this because curiosity got the best of me and I clicked on. I saw lots of pictures that made me laugh and Facebook informed me I added 148 new friends in 2012. That number blew me away. A handful of those 148 people were new friends I met on a camping trip and friends I met at work but I'm pretty sure at least 100 of them were new friends I met through church. When you attend a mega church, you meat a lot of people. In fact, Fox and I have 113 mutual Watermark Facebook friends in common. I don't tell you that to brag, trust me, quality friendships are much more important to me than the number of Facebook friends I have. I tell you that to put in perspective the difference between the church I attended in Dallas, and the church I am attending here in Korea. 

I mentioned before that I attended a church the first week I got here. The church was great, the people were great, the worship was wonderful but something just didn't feel right. JP talked a couple weeks before I left about all the complaints people have shared about Watermark and he said something that stuck with me. He talked about people leaving to search for the "perfect church" and people who stayed and changed what was wrong. I was convicted by those words because I used to be one of those people who hopped around until I found a church that worked for me. With JP's words in the back of my mind I knew I didn't want to hop around looking for the perfect church, I just wanted to find a church who loved Jesus, taught from the bible and was plugged in with the community. The week after visiting that church a woman from another church who was in California at the time, reached out to people and asked them to welcome me. I got 2 e-mails from women here in Daejeon who were so sweet and really made me feel welcome, so I decided I should at least visit the church. When I arrived, there were 3 people in the room, the pastor and two others. The pastor introduced himself and the other 2 were so wonderfully nice and it was obvious how much they loved the Lord. Last weekend I had the privilege of meeting the woman who was in California who encouraged me to visit this church. She is a wonderful woman in her early 50's who is an absolute joy to be around. She treated me to dinner and then we went out for coffee and desert afterward and I was lost in conversation with her for hours. We exchanged stories about what God is doing in each of our lives and she gave me the most wonderful compliment I have ever heard that brought me to tears at the Korean BBQ restaurant. 

Lindsey, Gen and I

 The church has a total of 20 to 30 people that attend the morning service which is taught in English and translated to Korean and about 6 people who attend the English service in the afternoon. Far different than the thousands of people I am used to seeing every week at Watermark. In the morning service the pastor teaches on a short passage from one of the books of the bible and stops to ask the church body questions. It is very engaging and I am eager to go each week. The afternoon portion is a bible study set up, where he goes over 2 to 3 chapters of the bible each Sunday, breaking it down verse by verse. Don't get me wrong, I love Watermark and it was absolutely everything I needed at the stage of life I was in before I came to Korea but I am amazed at how much I have learned an grown in the 3 short weeks I have attended this church. 

Pastor Mike and the girls at his and
Lindsey's birthday dinner.

I am so far out of my comfort zone, but I am more engaged in digging into the word and learning than I have ever been in my life. I am so excited about the things I am learning and the knowledge of the word I am gaining and this tiny church with 6 to 30 people is definitely the "perfect church" for where God has me right now.