Hello everyone! I guess you could say I am a newbie, again. It has been a long, long time since I was on this site. Got an email saying talkJesus missed me...so here I am!
We have two grown sons who no longer follow Jesus. I am sure we are not alone in that. My husband and I used to serve in the ministry. Now we no longer even go to church (gasp!) We still love the Lord and want to find a church home. We HAVE found a good church with good teaching but it is over 45 minutes away, longer in the winter. We so want to find a local church but after visiting the majority of churches in our area...no fit. Not sure what to do about that. Should we just pick one and hope it works out? I don't feel comfortable with that.
We left the church where we were serving for a number of reasons, the main one being conflict with the pastor as he drifted farther and farther from the Lord and the Truth. The second was burnout. When we left, the awful policy the pastor had put in place (have nothing to do with anyone who leaves our church, especially outside of the church) fell on us and we lost all of our close friends...yeah, I know, were they really our friends?? But it really hurt, a lot. It broke my heart when said pastor was asked to leave a few months later when caught embezzling the church monies for his own use. He no longer is in the ministry. We have been asked to come back to that church; I HAVE forgiven the pastor and those 'friends' who abandoned us; however, I now have a trust issue with them. There are still a few old friends in positions of leadership. The current pastor is wonderful; he has asked us to come back. We knew him when he was a teenager in that church and God has done wonderful things in his life. He serves the Lord faithfully; his life is an open book.
Sigh...I pray and pray but get no insight on what to do!! :baffle:
We have two grown sons who no longer follow Jesus. I am sure we are not alone in that. My husband and I used to serve in the ministry. Now we no longer even go to church (gasp!) We still love the Lord and want to find a church home. We HAVE found a good church with good teaching but it is over 45 minutes away, longer in the winter. We so want to find a local church but after visiting the majority of churches in our area...no fit. Not sure what to do about that. Should we just pick one and hope it works out? I don't feel comfortable with that.
We left the church where we were serving for a number of reasons, the main one being conflict with the pastor as he drifted farther and farther from the Lord and the Truth. The second was burnout. When we left, the awful policy the pastor had put in place (have nothing to do with anyone who leaves our church, especially outside of the church) fell on us and we lost all of our close friends...yeah, I know, were they really our friends?? But it really hurt, a lot. It broke my heart when said pastor was asked to leave a few months later when caught embezzling the church monies for his own use. He no longer is in the ministry. We have been asked to come back to that church; I HAVE forgiven the pastor and those 'friends' who abandoned us; however, I now have a trust issue with them. There are still a few old friends in positions of leadership. The current pastor is wonderful; he has asked us to come back. We knew him when he was a teenager in that church and God has done wonderful things in his life. He serves the Lord faithfully; his life is an open book.
Sigh...I pray and pray but get no insight on what to do!! :baffle:
