On Not Blogging About Church Shopping

It is nearly three months since we moved from Delhi to Hong Kong and friends and family are start­ing to ask how the move has gone. Truth is, most things have been smoother than expec­ted. We’ve made some com­prom­ises on hous­ing and are moving on Friday into an apart­ment for one year. L‚‘s work is enjoy­ing both the team she has work­ing for her and the chal­lenge of her new role. C, is loving her school start­ing to make friends and although she misses India, she is adjust­ing well. I’m pleas­antly dis­trac­ted with my Berklee film scor­ing course, get­ting used to a less hands on par­ent­ing role now my daugh­ter is in school and enjoy­ing the chance to do some more read­ing, blog­ging and writing.

But we haven‚ yet found a church.

I’ve decided not to blog a blow by blow descrip­tion of the church shop­ping exper­i­ence. It’s not that there are no stor­ies to tell, because they are. Some of them are very funny, some tragic and all edu­ca­tional. How­ever, it just doesn’t seem right. We can learn without put­ting down indi­vidual congregations.

You pop into a church for a few weeks, make some judge­ment, then stay or or in our case so far, keep look­ing. That pro­cess doesn’t really let you know the struggles and chal­lenges the church has gone through. Two of the churches we have so far atten­ded have been a bad fit for us, but they are also trying real out­reach, trying to stretch beyond their com­fort zone. To blog about them in a dis­missive way would be harsh; it would lack grace.

How­ever, in both those churches it has been alarm­ingly easy to come and leave, week after week, without anyone really saying hello. As an expat in a new city, the last thing you need is another oppor­tun­ity to be anonymous.

So, what are we look­ing for? Well the simple answer (like so many other par­ents of young kids I have spoken to in the last 4–5 years) is a good pro­gramme for our daugh­ter. After that, a friendly wel­come would be nice — any­thing else (and I mean that lit­er­ally), is a bonus.

If you missed it, do check out the King of Hill seg­ment on church shop­ping (here).

Tech­nor­ati Tags: Church, Ecclesiology