ChurchSearch: Round 1, Week 2

First United Methodist Church, Frisco, TX was my worship destination today.
Distance: 7 miles
Time: 15-20 minutes

Although farther in distance than FUMC McKinney, FUMC Frisco is a straight shot through undeveloped land and actually takes less time to navigate than the city streets and freeways of McKinney.

Frisco FUMC is building a new 600 seat sanctuary and is currently meeting in the Family Life Building. During the summer the service is casual -- at least I am assuming it is because it is summer. The choir was in civvies, the ministers in shirtsleeves. Hymnals were scarce and songs were projected onto a screen at the front. I gathered from announcements that were made that technology will be a big part of the service in the new sanctuary as well. At least the hymns chosen were from the hymnbook and were not repetitive praise songs. One can praise in song without being repetitive! The doxology, Lord's Prayer, and Apostles Creed, as well as the Gloria Patri were part of the service. The choir sang "On Holy Ground," an anthem I like and they did it justice. Applause followed, along with a number of enthusiastic "Amens."

The people were very welcoming and friendly. That could well offset any worship differences from my standard. I engaged in conversation with one of the greeters who then introduced me to her husband and invited me to their Sunday School class. The husband, P. provided me with visitor information packets. I sat alone, but met the ladies behind me during the greeting time, and the lady at the other end of my row made a point of welcoming me, finding out that I am a singer, and introducing me to the Minister of Music. She also invited me to come to the Frisco Senior center and participate in their musical activities. About that time P. came over with the pastor and introduced me. Pastor M. has a Jackson connection, a nephew that is youth minister at a Methodist church that reminds me very much of Frisco FUMC.

The sermon was about the Mission that we all have in the world, and about knowing what we need to do and trusting God for a way to do it. The delivery was informal, chatty, and at times interactive. FFUMC is definitely on my Round 2 list.

Warm Welcome to North Texas -- Not!

The previous owners moved out of my house in May. The day they had the utilities cut off, I called and established accounts to get the electricity and water on and in my name -- no problem. I tried to call the gas company and got a busy signal. After several unsuccessful tries, I went back to my packing and figured that the gas didn't really need to be on until I got there. Only the water heater, fireplace, and furnace are gas. Then a couple of days before I was due to leave TN, I suddenly realized that I had not ever gotten back to the gas company. This time I persevered and finally got to talk to a human, and set it up to have the gas turned on June 19, my driving down day.

I was looking forward to a hot shower after the drive, part of which was with car air conditioning on the blink. What a rude shock to find out that the gas company would not turn the gas on because of some problem with the pressure, that a plumber would have to come out and it wouldn't be until Monday, and then the city had to inspect, all before the gas company would turn my gas on. As if the aggravation were not enough, I would have to pay between $400 and $5oo for the comfort of a hot shower.

My first plumber, sent by the home warranty folks, came out yesterday, found no problem, but advised me that he was not licensed to do the pressure test and that I would have to get someone licensed by the city. Okey Dokey, so I call the city inspection department and get a somewhat snippy woman on the phone. She is long on attitude and short on information until I ask her, "Work with me, will you? I am brand new in town and know nothing about how the system works." The attitude calmed a bit, but I was still left to find my own plumber from the phone book.

After a couple of calls, I finally reach a plumber who is licensed to do the pressure test. That plumber is on the premises now, and I am nervously awaiting his verdict. If he finds that everything tests out fine, then I have to wait for the city to send out an inspector, then the city tells the gas company and the gas company comes out to turn on the gas. Would you like to take bets on how many more days I will be without hot water?

So much for having a "warm" welcome to McKinney -- the only warm thing so far is the weather.

ChurchSearch: Round 1, Week 1

Today I attended the closest church on my list, FUMC McKinney.
Distance: about 4.5 miles
Time to drive: 20 minutes
First impression: FUMC McKinney is like FUMC Jackson in that they made a decision to stay downtown when others were moving out, and to have a ministry in the area. The VBS children sang a couple of songs and I noticed several Hispanic and African-American children among the group, so that tells me the church is reaching out. The sanctuary has been enlarged, with the boundaries of the original sanctuary still evident.
I attended the 11:00 service, which is one of the traditional services. The choir was small, but that may be due to summer vacations, or it may be that the choir covers more than one worship service.
I felt pretty much ignored, but at the end of the service the couple sitting on the pew near me did introduce themselves and we chatted a bit. I learned that the church has added 150 new members in the last 5 months, when their new pastor began serving. With that many new people, it is hard to recognize someone who is there for the first time, so I am not offended. I will attend SS on Round 2, and then I expect to meet more people.
The pastor is enthusiastic, entertaining, and quite inspirational. His text was the Sermon on the Mount, which he used to challenge the people of the church to solve problems, rather than just asking God to take care of it. He was moving about through most of the sermon, addressing himself to the choir, and to all portions of the wide sanctuary.
Applause was appropriate, I thought, when the children sang, but there was none when the Sanctuary choir completed their anthem. The doxology followed immediately after the anthem, so it will be interesting to see what happens when/if the choir sings an anthem earlier in the service.
Next week: FUMC Frisco

The Church Search Gets Underway

I attended my last service as a choir member at FUMC Jackson yesterday. I was blown away by the farewell sevice the choir offered and the announcement from the pulpit by our Minister of Music. Charlie had whispered to me before the service that he would like to do that after the final hymn, as the congregation had grown used to seeing me and would wonder where I was. I guess I thought I would just quietly leave and at some point in the future, someone would ask my whereabouts. That was not to be, and I am gratified by the love and sorrow at my leaving, along with the good wishes and expressions of understanding that I will be near one of my grandchildren. My church is an important part of my life and it will be hard to replace First United Methodist in Jackson, TN, where I have had my membership for the last 10 years. I remember the first Sunday I attended and I felt as though I had truly “come home,” although I had never attended there before.

In preparation for my move to McKinney, TX, I have been scoping out churches on the internet, something I could never do before. I have narrowed my Round 1 list to seven churches in McKinney and nearby towns. Each week I will visit a different church and blog about my experience and impressions of that church. I invite my readers to comment and make suggestions for other churches I might want to add to my list.

Here are my criteria:

· An age-diverse membership. A church with young families is a church with a future. But I also need a peer group of retirees and grandparents, and single women like myself. I want someone to go to lunch with after church on Sunday

· A Traditional worship service. I am all for having other services to suit the tastes of others, but my preference is for a robed choir, robed pastors, an organ, no PowerPoint sermons, the Doxology and the Creed, and, this may be asking too much, but judicious use of applause. I don’t mind a spontaneous exuberant applause when the anthem is, as one of my former choir friends used to say, a “barn-burner.” I am totally turned off by polite, obligatory applause when the anthem does not warrant it – a quiet, prayerful, meditative anthem just should not inspire hand-clapping. That happened at a church I visited, and I never went back.

· Availability of Disciple Bible study and other studies at a time that does not conflict with choir practice

· Senior Adult activities that include some local opportunities for cash-strapped retirees

· Use of the hymn book for songs; Have I mentioned that I do not care for what one retired pastor calls 7-11 songs – those that have 7 words sung 11 times, (or 11 words sung 7 times.) In brief, I am not a fan of “praise and worship” music, although I can tolerate it in small doses

Am I too picky? I guess I will find out as I start to visit the churches of North Texas. Next Sunday I will go to the first one on my list: First UMC, McKinney. After that I plan to attend the First UMCs in Frisco, Allen, and Plano, as well as Custer Road in Plano, and, at the urging of Charlie Overton, Suncrest in Allen. The ChurchSearch is on!

I did it!

My new avatar shows the new me: 50 pounds lighter and 18" thinner. I have done this over the last 8 months with the help of my friend Jenny Craig. I won't be showing off the new me in a bikini like Valerie Bertinelli, but I am feeling better, more energetic, and am enjoying being able to get on the floor with my grandchildren and then being able to get back up again. My aging, creaking knees still get the best of me at times, but they have 50 pounds less to support. If an article in AARP magazine several months ago was correct, each 10 pounds of weight loss means 40 less pounds on the knees. I'm not a mathematician so I don't know how that works, but if true, it means my knees are bearing 200 pounds less stress.
Now the hard part comes: keeping it off. I chose Jenny Craig because I have not enjoyed cooking in the years that I've been single again -- actually quit enjoying it for a few years before I became single again -- but had found myself eating more fast food and making meals of fritos and bean dip with a hot fudge sundae. All of those bad habits finally got the best of me and last September, I made the decision to get healthy again. Jenny's meals have been easy and tasty; not having to keep leftovers, having portions controlled, and being able to have a slice of cheesecake without having to purchase a whole one and then having it call my name has been a major part of my success.
Along the way, I have become more conscious of portion size, although what I ate at meals has never been the biggest part of my weight problem; it's all the "grazing" that I have done out of boredom, stress and, at times, depression. I'm still not exercising as faithfully as I should be. Getting ready for an out of state move has been my major source of activity the past few weeks, and will constitute a major portion of my activity after I get to my new home next week and start the unpacking process. I will also be living a few blocks from my 6 year old, very active, grandson, and I'm sure he will help to keep me active as well.
I will miss seeing my counselor, Eve, at Jenny Craig each week. She has been so positive, full of praise and encouragement, and has made my weekly visits something to look forward to, not to dread. Thanks, Eve, and thank you Jenny.

Making a new ending

I was recently given a blog challenge to write about the age or period of my life I would most like to relive. I’ve given it a lot of thought: would I go back to high school, when I was young and energetic and had my whole life ahead of me? Would I relive my college years, when the excitement of each new date raised the question, would this be the person I would spend the rest of my life with. Would I make a different career choice? Would I prefer to relive life as a mother of young children – oops, no, I enjoy sleeping at night. I definitely would not wish to relive my children’s teenage years – I enjoy sleeping at night.

It would be tempting to go back to some of the stages of life where, if I had made different decisions, my life might have been happier and freer of recrimination. With my adulthood marked by two failed marriages and perpetual financial difficulties, there are certainly forks in the road where I would have chosen the other path, if I could have known where the one I did choose would lead. As a single mother and a working mother, I could wish for a life that would have allowed me to do more with my children without the stress of trying to make a living and keep them housed, fed, and clothed. As a divorcee, (hate that word) I could wish for the love of a faithful man and companionship in my senior years. I could wish for financial independence that would allow me to travel and enjoy activities not available to one living on a single retirement pension

After mulling it over, I finally came to the conclusion that, while I would like to go back and make decisions with the wisdom that I’ve gained by living through my experiences, that is not possible; moreover, had I made a different decision at any point along the path, I would have encountered a new set of unknowns that I would be dealing with today. Would I really want to trade the problems I have for another set?

While I was musing about this challenge, I happened to read a saying, and I cannot now recall to whom it was attributed, but it went like this: It may not be possible to go back and make a new beginning, but I can start from today and make a new ending.

That’s what I will do with the days I am given. Recriminations are negative energy; my decisions, even the bad ones, were made with the information I had at the time. None of us can see into the future and know what is ahead. So I am using my todays to create a new ending.