ROAD TRIP!!

This past weekend, 14 people from my church headed down to Kentucky for the weekend. As in, we left Friday morning and got back Sunday night. It was kind of a whirlwind trip. Here are the highlights: 

ARK ENCOUNTER: 



Wow! The ark was huge and I was pretty impressed. Mostly with Noah and not as much with the crew of construction workers that put this one together. I mean, he built (by himself, by hand) what it took a modern construction crew a year to do! Plus it's not like Minnesota where there's snow half the year. It took them a year in Kentucky, with only a little tiny bit of snow here and there. I know this because I watched a time lapse ;)



Here's a perspective picture. The thing is HUGE! I definitely had a lot of fun going inside and touring the ark. I enjoyed seeing how they might have stored all of the animals, and also how their living quarters might have looked. 

CREATION MUSEUM: 

Raptors are my LIFE.

The Creation Musuem (45 minutes from the Ark) was more informative than impressive, and I thoroughly enjoyed going through it and reading up on fossil records, seeing the bug and dino rooms,  and walking through the 7 C's of History.

There was one part of the creation museum that oddly made me super emotional. You know the feeling where your heart feels heavy and your chest constricts? I got that as I walked through the "corruption" C of History. The Fall into Sin. It showed some sins of today and it made me internalize how sinful we all are and how we desperately needed a Savior. Our world is so corrupt. More than that, our hearts, MY heart is corrupt. The heart felt SO heavy as I walked through here, and as I exited this section into a gloriously lit chamber with pictures of God's creation and glorious pictures of the sky, my emotions changed into happiness and thankfulness for God!! He is good :)

CHURCH: 

In lieu of my church stacking operation which would have been a little hard to complete, being that I was in a different state, I enjoyed great fellowship with my road trip companions and attended a Baptist church in Illinois.

I liked it! And I've decided to rate this one as well for several reasons. First, I think it's important to line it up with other churches to get a picture of what I'm looking for and not looking for. Second, I did have a couple of requests and people wondering what I thought about the church.

The sermon at this church was really good. The pastor focused on the Bible the whole way through and it was about loving God. The music was more praise-and-worshippy, than I'm used to, but weirdly so. Usually praise songs are pretty easy to get the melody and even harmonize, but these had some weird melodies and I could just not get the hang of it, so I kept making errors. Mostly they had good words though, although a few were a little weak. I really liked one of them that I had never heard before. I wish I remembered what it was called so I could look it up and post a link to the lyrics here.

At any rate, here's what I'd give this church, using my 3 scores.
Doctrine: 10
Music: 6
At home-ness 7.5

THE FELLOWSHIP: 

So I wasn't 100% a fan of spending all that time in the van, but uncomfortable seats, late nights (ahem, rolling into the hotel at 3am) and boring roads aside, I had fun. We had fun. The girls and I in my van laughed and laughed and laughed. I am coming out of this experience knowing them so much more than I did when we started the trip. 20+ hours of sitting next to someone will do that to you.

Photo Credit: Analisa (The one with the longest arms) ;)

Would I do this trip again? Absolutely.
No questions asked. :)

Church Stacking: Background & Explanation

Church Stacking? What....is church stacking? 

I'm back in Mankato, and I'm searching for a home church. To find it, I have to "church shop". But that's a term most conservative Christians don't like for some reason.....so we'll go with church stacking instead. And by stacking, I mean fitting in as MANY churches as I can into one weekend. Like, 3 or 4.

Wait a second, Madelaine. You were in Mankato for four years, and you still don't have a "home church?? What've you been doing???

Well, uh. You're right. That is sad. Let me explain.

My first 2 years at Bethany, I was staunchly Baptist. I went to a spattering of Lutheran churches, because I could walk to them, but I was pretty opposed to becoming a member of, or regularly attending a Lutheran church at that time. Especially one that was *gasp* ELS. A synod that for some reason, I felt was just a little too Lutheran for me.

However, I was in luck because I had a good friend who was also Baptist/non-denominational AND she had a car! What luck! We tried out a couple different churches- a few Lutheran ones, a non-denominational one, and 2 Baptist ones. We settled for a church that was perhaps less than perfect in our minds, but hey! It was Baptist! So, we attended, and it became "our church".

Looking back, I'm pretty sad that we went to that church all of those Sundays. Doctrinally, it was alright, but there were a quite few errors that our Lutheran friends were quick to point out the Sunday that we brought them to church. They played a little game of "spot the heresy!" much to our chagrin. We had to concede, that yes, the pastor or the hymn really had said that, and yes, that wasn't really doctrinal.

Enter junior year at Bethany and my friend was hired to be the choir director at a Presbyterian church. Being that she was my ride to church, I went with her. It turned out to be a blessing in disguise because they actually gave me a scholarship for singing in the choir, and the next year, they even hired me as the children's choir director. We went to this church for the better part of 2 years, and this one was even less doctrinal than the Baptist one, but the people were nice and occasionally the sermon would be good. Then sometimes there would be this:

I don't even remember the analogy he was making...

Anyhow, now that I have graduated, some things are different: 

1. I have a car
2. I'm not tied down to any particular church! (except for 1 Sunday/month at my school's church)
3. The church I settle into by no means has to be Baptist, but it to be a place that preaches the Gospel and is true to the Word of God. Sound doctrine is #1 on my priority list. 

I created a list of churches and service times so that I can start my "Church Stacking" Endeavor. When I told my friends what I was doing, they earnestly asked me, "what do you hope to gain from this, and what are you looking for in a church?" 

This question made me seriously think. My first impulse was to say, "to find a church that feels like home!" But I quickly realized that what I really needed was correct doctrine. Of course, also the music is important (contemporary vs. traditional. I prefer traditional hymns) and I do need to feel at home, but I think to an extent, feeling at home will come when I attend a church that preaches and teaches the Word of God without distortion. And one that preaches the entire Word--not just law, and not just Gospel, but both, in a balance.

This weekend, I attended 3 different churches. I'm going to write about them in a different post, because this one's already pretty long. My feelings about these churches may surprise you! They certainly surprised me :)