Finally, after a year of having lived in Minnesota, we have found a church to call home.
The church is in Minneapolis which is approximately 30 minutes from where I live. Not too bad on a clear day but it might not be manageable when there is snow on the ground. The Pastor told me that the roads are usually clear in the area though.
One nice thing about this church is that they have live streaming so if I couldn’t make it to church then I could watch it at home. More and more churches are doing this for their members — especially for elderly members who can’t make it to the services.
The experience we’re having is quite different from the church I attended in Seattle that had 20 members when I left it. The Southview church has about 400 members. They have greeters who welcome us (most times) by giving us a bulletin with the order of the church service. Since the church is so large, I don’t think the greeters can tell who is or isn’t a church member so we haven’t been asked to sign their guest book.
That is unfortunate as it leaves little, if no, opportunity for someone to follow-up with visitors. That has been the case with us. I have always thought that in order to be “visitor friendly” someone should follow-up with people who visit.
We do have to figure out how to make friends with there being so many people. One suggestion is for us to join a small group at the church. From there we can expand our “friend” base. I know that they have a person who coordinates visitation to the elderly and I’m hoping to be part of that group.
