Think This // After Hours

Looking for a church to call home is a daunting task here in Phoenix AZ. Six weeks ago we moved here and are starting our lives over, so it seems. I found a place to rent, we found a school for the girls, we found the shopping we need and other crucial services of life … except a local church.

There are so many great churches here in the Valley of the Sun, but which one to choose?

Here is what we are looking for in a church:

• The obvious: Solid doctrine, preaching and teaching
• Great music: A blend of contemporary songs and traditional hymns
• Youth Group: Solid youth group for our teenager daughters, where they can grow spiritually, serve unselfishly and make good, long lasting friends.
• Services: Attending Sunday morning service TOGETHER as a family. On this one more: later.
• Sunday School class: Sunday morning classes for us and the girls.
• Our part: A place where we can serve God and do our part for His Kingdom.

So far our quest includes:

The first 4 weeks we attended Desert View Bible Church in Phoenix, AZ. We enjoyed the music, LOVED the preaching, and met some nice people. Very nice church, we loved everything about it, but one thing … attending the Sunday Service as a family was a challenge. The youth group’s class was during the first hour of the two services. There was no class for adults during this hour, so we waited for them, and then went to the service together during the second hour. It was OK, but not ideal.

The last two weeks we attended Northwest Community Church in Phoenix, AZ. This is the church that founded the school our girls attend. Right from the start we fell in love with this church. Great people, is the first thing I can think of after my first impression. Very friendly, outgoing and welcoming! The first hour they have classes for the youth and adults. The doctrine, teaching and preaching is solid. The music has a nice mix of the contemporary sound and traditional hymns. This church is connected with Phoenix Seminary in more than one way.

The topic of study during the Sunday School class is The Truth Project – fascinating worldview tour.

Wednesday evenings offer great youth group meetings for our girls. They like going there. They already made many good friends. The leaders of the youth group reached out to them by phone calls and emails. This is was so welcoming and made our girls feel included.

We are going back tomorrow again!

I will try posing more about our quest to find a local church in the Phoenix metro area which we can call our home church. Hopefully if you are in the same situation you can share your quest experiences or find something helpful in ours.

Last week I found out that blogging and being on vacation does not mix well. The intentions were there I promise, the subject matter plenty, but no execution. It also did not help that there was no Internet connection on premises. Needless to say I was not posting much last week. Sorry.

Last week we were on vacation in Phoenix, AZ where the temperatures were in record 90’s for this time of year. It was wonderful. Chilling by the pool, sun bathing, driving to Sedona and the Grand Canyon were the required activities of the week. We took lots of pictures which we will share in the next few days. That is a beautiful part of the Union in many ways: the weather, the view, the landscape, and the people were very friendly.

From our non-rev travels to Arizona we learned this time to stay at the gate until the airplane leaves, no matter what, no matter that all seats were taken, no matter that there were 20+ stand-by, non-rev passengers above you. But because they were not at the gate just before the departure, we took advantage of the fact that 4 regular passengers missed their flight due to whatever unfortunate for them circumstances. It was pretty amazing. Some told us we were crazy to non-rev travel during the Spring Training and the Spring break. All went well. Some would call it “so lucky” others call it being in the right place at the right time, while we call it being very blessed.

On the way back from Phoenix there were no empty seats for couple of days in a row so we drove to San Diego, CA to catch a flight. It was a nice 5+ hour drive through Arizona and California’s dessert dunes and mountains.

We definitely would like to go back to Phoenix Arizona some day again.