Seasons of change: finding a new church

by Karyn Grenz

Just over a year ago, we found ourselves in a most unusual season of life. After 21 years in a relationship, we were dating again! Finding out more, inquiring about values and traditions, all in an effort to find… a new church. It was a daunting task and long process, but overall a beautiful faith growing experience. God met us along the path in many ways.

Change in our longtime church caused us to grapple with what faithfulness to God and His church demanded of us. I struggled in my faith walk while my husband sought to carefully lead our family in this season. Even though there was much turmoil and pain in my heart in those days, God met us in this time through His word, through conversations with other faithful christians, and later, through His peace as we moved forward.

Eventually, we made the challenging decision to leave our previous church family. We found ourselves having to reconnect with the meaning of “church” and strove to find God’s plan amongst our preferences. Our priorities were at minimum threefold:

First, to attend a church where the inerrancy of the word was acknowledged and the Bible was honored as “God breathed” as Paul proclaims in 2 Tim 3:16.

Second, we craved expository preaching, placing God’s word at the center of the “teaching … and training in righteousness” Paul mentions. Heb 4:12 says “For the word of God is living and active,” and we had a deep desire to gain the fullest meaning possible from the Bible, to hear analysis of scripture, and to gain a sound understanding of God’s plan for us.

Finally, we knew we needed community as a couple and for our childrens’ growing faith. As Hebrews 10:25 reminded us, we are to “not neglect meeting together, but to encourage one another.”

Even with these priorities clear, it wasn’t easy for us to take the leap into a new church. I wrestled with insecurities, introverted attitude, and complacency to just “check it out online.” We committed to attending each church at least twice before drawing any conclusions. God reminded us “Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness.” Isaiah 43:19  While not as dramatic as Israel’s journey, in our home the journey of leaving our church family and joining a new family was very real. The pain of leaving our longtime brothers and sisters and the weekly community we enjoyed tore at our hearts. But God was faithful.

Along the way, God provided us with courage, wisdom and humility. Courage allowed us to make the difficult decision and move forward, even though we knew there were going to be emotional hurts.  He provided wisdom from other mature believers who listened and gave wise counsel.  Books and articles by respected leaders reminded us that the peace of God was going to guard us through this experience (Phil 4:7). And finally, specifically for me, humility came in the form of allowing my husband to lead our family well. He was trying to lead and protect us all in our ongoing faith, and I needed to support that guidance.

God’s faithfulness prevailed. He showed us that by trusting in Him, and through his perfect timing and reassurances in his word, that he definitely wanted us in a Christian community. Our family here at Calvary has been an enormous blessing, welcoming us into fellowship, service, and filling our hearts and minds with assurances of God’s love for us.

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