2010: The Churchless Year

Y'all, seriously, something's got to give. We have missed so much church this year. Like, a lot. It's ridiculous. I am sure we've been home more Sundays than we've been at church.

Starting in about January, this was the cycle: we go to church. The following Tuesday, Noah comes down with a cold, which he caught in the church nursery. He is still sick and has a runny nose on the following Sunday, and not wanting to be the parents who get the next kid sick, we stay home. Oftentimes, he is still not completely well even a week after that, meaning that after one Sunday at church, we're home for two weeks.

Then, Jane arrived in early March. I am not in the take-your-baby-to-church-as-early-as-possible camp. Mostly because of the fear of germs attacking my precious, innocent, developing newborn. And also because I had major surgery and wasn't doing much of anything for at least a month or two.

We had a couple of months when everyone was generally well and we were going to church, but even then, we skipped some because of Nathan's dissertation busyness, sickness, feeling that it's a bit pointless when you're walking a fussy baby in the lobby for most of the service, etc.

In late May, we moved halfway across the country, which marked a whole new interruption in our church life. For the first couple of months, we were using our weekends to move, go out of town, be with family, etc. Then, we started visiting churches, and--you guessed it--we started the cold cycle again. Nursery, Tuesday cold, stay home the next week. Or Nathan is sick. Or Lauren is falling-on-the-floor exhausted from a night with a wakeful baby. Or something. There is always something!!!!

We talked about this issue this weekend, because we really do need to find a church and settle into a church family. For one thing, we miss the fellowship. We also miss the instruction and edification that comes from a church service. And I'll tell you what I thought of today to add to the list: friends for Noah. I mean, he does have little friends at Mother's Day Out and stuff, but I realized we really need to be building relationships with families who have kids his age so that we all have a reason to have play dates and whatnot. At this age, the key to finding friends for our kids is finding the parents first. Poor Noah misses his friends in Boston when we mention them.

Anyway, as Nathan and I were discussing this dadgum churchless year this weekend, we did bring up the point that one parent could take the well child and go to church, even if one kid is sick. But the reason we haven't done that is because neither of us relishes the idea of visiting a church (very possibly a new one) by ourselves with half of our family missing. And there's yet another reason we need to find a good church and settle in!

So that's our conundrum. Having a church family is so important. Fellowship is so important, as is accountability. Not to mention having some time to refocus on the Lord. So we are really hopeful that everyone stays well for a while, especially in this busy season. Hopefully 2011 will be the year of building relationships and much spiritual growth.