This week in church

We spent the evening at the annual spaghetti dinner/silent auction/youth choir concert of our "old" church. It had been quite awhile since we'd been there, and for this particular event pretty much the whole church shows up. So we knew we'd get to see a lot of our old friends and catch up a little, plus we could support the kids, and the concert is always good.

Despite what I've said about the church, this church was family to us for many years. The hardest part about deciding to go elsewhere was leaving behind all our friends. We were involved up to our noses for years, which means we knew a lot of people and spent a lot of hours there. Our kids grew up together.

This event has happened for enough years to be clothed in tradition. They always close with "This Little Light of Mine", except for a few years back when another song became special, so now they close first with that song, and then with This Little Light. And all the alumni of the group come up for This Little Light, as well as all the little kids who are effectively groupies. And the entire place knows the words to the songs and we all sing together. (And do the actions, of course. This is a sort of jazzy version of This Little Light, a song that comes in several well-known flavors.)

Several kids formed a band for the group so the music was live, which I like much better than the syrupy taped stuff. (The band was quite good, too.) I sat and listened, looking from face to face and trying to figure out which kids were which, they change so much as they grow into their teens. Trying to remember whether I had had this one or that one in confirmation class. The director spoke a little at the end, and sure enough, God was still good all the time.

We saw lots of old friends and had numerous conversations at dinner and after the concert. One thing I wonder about going to a new church is how long it will take to feel connected. We know quite a number of people from choir, of course, but our director runs a pretty strict rehearsal and there is not a lot of socializing allowed. I'm finding that some of the people in my Bible study make a point to stop and say hello on Sunday mornings, although the new church is quite a bit larger and has different services and even different gathering areas between services, so you don't necessarily cross people's paths on Sunday like you would in a smaller church. I know I won't really feel connected until I get involved in something, and for me that will be something besides choir (I can just go to choir and sing and not do much else). I'm trying to be patient.