what to look for in a church...

"42They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43Everyone was filled with awe, and many wonders and miraculous signs were done by the apostles. 44All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need. 46Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved."
(Acts chapter 2 verses 42 to 47)

Went to All Soul's newcomers evening since I'm so new and my main aim was to get to know the staff at All Soul's.

Evening started with writing name tags, getting a drink (orange, apple or tea/coffee) poured by the rector/pastor, Hugh Palmer (wow! amazing humble service! *grin*) and finding a table of 8 chairs to sit at. Table had muffins, sponge cakes, cookies, brownies *drool*. Had to have the details because it's so simple to organise.

Hugh gave a small talk "What to look for in a church" with slide show & points of the talk on it. He didn't start with an introduction of All Soul's, but went to scripture, Acts 2:42, 47. He said we could be looking around for a church to attend and checking out which one is suitable, but he challenged us on what we should look out for in any church, even if All Soul's turn out to be not suitable. Wow! Got me excited. Hehe

Here's the outline which came from the text and base on my memory:
- apostles' teaching, ie, bible teaching
- fellowship, ie, a loving community
- breaking of bread and to prayer, ie, to proclaim Christ's death/resurrection and his return, to have dependence on God
- added to their number daily, ie, evangelism, outreach/sharing of the gospel

He did explain that no church is perfect but that it strives to have those as its aims and they are making an effort.

For those who only want to attend services, they can't expect more from church since it's difficult with being a huge congregation to keep track of who is around, who has been sick or away. But they are welcomed in church. And coming to services only, you're bound to sit with different people each week. No real deepening of relationship in my opinion. Thought it was good reminder of having a realistic expectation, but challenged to join a bible study group, since that's a smaller version of church.

For those who are "sleepers", ie, have been serving for a long time and need a break, they are welcomed too. But it's best not to "sleep" too long lest it becomes permanent and you're out of fellowship completely.

I'm just glad I could still remember passages from talks after walking away. Must pray for pastors to instill God's word in people's hearts and leave it to do its work in each and every person because we know God's living and active word won't return empty and will fulfill God's purposes.

Thereafter, we had a tour of the church and the names of the different places in it which helps alot when I read their bulletin about events happening and meeting places. But a Northern Ireland lady I met, Joanne and I both felt like it was a museum tour. Haha! Know that the pulpit was a gift to infamous John Stott for his 60th birthday, if I'm not wrong and it weighs 2 tons, having an inscription something along the lines of preaching Jesus, a reminder to all the speakers who go up on the pulpit.

Next, a slide show on the different groups and activities in All Soul's. Finally a decision on which group to join or areas to help around.

"A small church needs help, whereas a big church doesn't need help"
2 statements where the first part is true. For a big church, it takes more hands to prepare and bring out the coffee/tea for example. How could anyone forget to take that into consideration?

Night ended with me surprisingly finding a link with an American girl, whose Taiwanese housemate I met last Sunday at my landlord's church. My landlord is a pastor at St John's Wood Baptist. Took bus home with her and her Kazakhstan housemate.