Answer:
It was cool. I snuggled close to Mommy, and I’m pretty sure several women probably said “awww”. I’m also pretty sure I interrupted everything so I could eat. I probably cried, too, but that’s what happens when you’re a newborn baby! I believe it was the Wesleyan church up the street, and I know they had good preaching, a great choir, and friendly people.
My first memory of a church service? Somewhere around age 4. It was in Maine, and some people rode snowmobiles. That scared me. I think it was a 7th Day Adventist-ish church.
My first memory inside of a church? Back in New York. Age 5. The worship leader - who was way too old for the cool dude he tried to be, and went by the handle of “Chazz”, playing the same chorus a million times on his guitar. That, and a scary VBS where I was away from my family and befriended by a super crazy girl. That was just called a “Community Church”.
I have good memories from the church we began attending shortly after that. The Pastor was a red-haired Santa Claus look-alike who had (and still has!) an incredible talent for making Bible stories come alive. I learned so much. That one was a “Community Bible” church, with a neat blend of Methodist and Baptist doctrines and habits.
I also had some anxious social moments, but I was a very shy child who totally hated being separated from my family; going away for the Sunday school hour or to do activities with the kids made me cry.
Then, when I was 10, we changed churches again; one we had been pondering for a while moved to a new location closer to us (they’d formerly been over an hour away). The name involves “Bible Baptist”, and we identify ourselves as an Independent Baptist church.
For the last 18 years I’ve been experiencing amazingness. My first memories are super cool; they’d just moved in to an unfinished building, so there was no sheetrock on the walls or ceiling (revealing neat trusses!), borrowed folding chairs sat on bare concrete floors, and oh - the people!
They sang! They dressed like we did - something almost no one at our previous church did. Come to find out, homeschoolers were the norm! There were children and teenagers playing instruments during the singing, and there were children everywhere! Nobody went away to classrooms… the kids learned right along with the adults in one big room, with the lesson tailored to have something for each age and a dynamic teacher. And the Pastor did so much more than simply tell Bible stories… he preached about salvation, a lot!
I didn’t know a lot of the hymns they sang, but I loved the singing! Friendly girls came up and said hello, and all kinds of people came up to talk to my parents too.
I missed the popcorn and snacks, and the shorter services at our old church for a while. But that wore off quickly!
Little did I know that one of the boys sitting in the front row on the other side of the building had spotted the new visitor girl with the braids and the fuzzy warm winter cape, and thought I was pretty.
Explanation:
Hope it helps, God bless you all and your family
