On Finding a New Church

Cathy and I went to Ladner Baptist Church last Sunday. We walked out of my little cul de sac, turned left and walked the equivalent of one short city block and cut through the church's parking lot to the front door. We were both very impressed with the style of service and we were warmly welcomed. We also discovered that we knew several people who attend.

Today the church was all decorated for the autumn harvest and Thanksgiving, which in Canada is next weekend. The service was again wonderful with stirring music - modern and not all old-fashioned hymns. There was a different group leading the singing, this time with piano, saxophone, guitar, and two different types of drums.

We took communion today, too. For those who aren't familiar with that, it is symbolic of the Last Supper when we come together as one body to remember and celebrate what Christ did for us - die on the cross to save us from our sins and to give us eternal life. As we stood to sing the awesome choruses, I felt myself overwhelmed with joy that finally I've found a new place to worship. God told me this is the one!

After the service, I took lots of photos of the harvest and Thanksgiving decorations and I'd like to share some of them with you now. (I think the Pastor was quite pleased that I enjoyed the service and that I took the time to photograph everything. After all, it must have taken "someone" a long time to set everything up and it's nice to be appreciated.)

Here is what you see when you enter the church at the front door - an old wagon decorated with sunflowers and all sorts of gourds. This shows the bottom part of the wagon and what spilled out of it.

The wagon held an antique milk jug that was all rusted, along with sunflowers, dried grasses, and a pumpkin.

At the front of the sanctuary and on the stairs to the left was a gorgeous display of pumpkins, fresh from the farmers' fields.

On the ledge to the right of the stairs was a lovely display of gourds.

A harvest basket sat in splendour just above the pumpkins that were beautifully displayed on the steps.

And on the other side, a giant arrangement of sunflowers sat in an old-fashioned bucket beside a single pumpkin that was adorned with an antique stirrup.

It takes a long times to find a new church. I have been a member of the United Church of Canada, another Baptist church in a neighbouring area, and my last one - Grace Baptist Church here in Ladner. When our former pastor was called to Richmond Baptist Church, Cathy and I went there a few times as we just love Pastor Jeff and his style of speaking. It was a wonderful church and we did know a few people who attend there. But something was not quite right.

So we tried the Baptist church that we'd both been members of years ago, but that really wasn't right for me, although Cathy thought it was fine.

We went online two weeks ago to check out the other churches in our area and decided we might as well give Ladner Baptist a try. And we are both happy that we did. We enjoyed the style of worship, the music, the sermons, and the general "feel" of the church. It has the same doctrines that we've adhered to all our lives and there are lots of ways where we can get involved. And most of all, the people are friendly and welcoming. After all, a church is not a building. It is the people who worship together.

I'll leave you today with a few closeup photos that I took today: