Church: Why bother?

One of Zoe's favourite things to make with magnetic tiles is this church. She'll say,

"This is the church,

This is the steeple,

Open the door and meet all the people."

She'll then open the door and say hi to Pastor and Nivea aunty and Jonathan uncle and whoever else she feels like meeting that day.

I can't tell you how much it warms my heart that my kids love going to and being a part of any church activity. It truly is an answered prayer. Considering my feelings about church a few years ago, I can safely say this is all God's working.

I grew up in a Tamil church. We're sort of a mixed culture family so I've never been fluent at Tamil. So I always struggled and felt like a misfit there. I constantly felt judged. Maybe some of those feelings were just in my head but that's how it was. So much so that it put me off church almost entirely. Other factors contributed too over the years and I became very critical of church.

Even later when I moved to Chennai and then Bangalore, I carried this feeling and never really committed to a church. Though I was very actively involved in ministry otherwise - I was part of Bible studies, I even led them. I was part of a worship band. I had a fairly decent relationship with God most of the time. But I never went to church.

Then Covid hit and we moved back to our home town. What started out as 2 weeks became 2 years. And it was during that time that God started showing me why He instituted the church and His heart for it.

It started with a study of the book of Acts and some of the Epistles. But there were so many other ways in which the message was reinforced - songs like "Start right here", "If we are the body" and "City on a hill" by Casting Crowns and a story that my sister was writing come to mind. Doesn't it fascinate you how God will just use everything at His disposal when He's trying to teach you something?

But the question in my head was, "Why are you talking to me about this *now*, God? There is no church happening anywhere. Everything is online."

But that was the start of 2-year-long journey through which God, slowly but surely, created in my heart, a longing, passion and love for the Body of Christ. He chiseled away at my prejudices patiently. He helped me let go of all the hurt, which was more my ego than actual hurt. And it became very clear that God wanted us to commit to a church as soon as we returned to Bangalore.

God also impressed on my heart several other things - like not being picky and trying to find the "perfect" church. But to humbly and joyfully serve and invest ourselves into the place God had in store for us. To work at building authentic relationships. To actively pray for the pastors and members and the needs of the church.

When we moved back in 2022, I kept praying that God would show us the right place to go. I had a few options in my mind but we went to Electronic City Methodist Worship Centre a couple of times. And very soon, I knew that this was the place for us. The smaller congregation meant richer fellowship. The teaching, the warmth and welcome was wonderful.

Almost 3 years later now, I know we've found a home at this church. And my prayer is that we as a family, will work to serve God and everyone here in every way possible. That we'll grow in love for each other and that we can emulate the Biblical church model.

I'm so grateful to God for bringing me on that journey from a young girl who was so critical of church and thought it was outdated, to someone who wants to serve in the Body of Christ in every way. And I pray that God moulds us all to be His Bride in every way.