Show us Your Life- Tell us about your church

So today on Kelly's Korner we are talking about churches. I feel like I could definitely say a lot about our church, from a couple different perspectives. I may kind of focus on our church from a minister's wife/preacher's kid {since I am both}. So here goes.

First Christian Church

Our mission is simple: To obey Christ by helping others Know, Love, Serve and Share Him! 

So first a little background-
My home church {the one I mostly grew up in} is First Christian Church of Owasso, OK. We moved to Owasso when I was in 2nd grade {1994}- my dad was the Children's Minister. After a couple of years he became one of the "interim" preachers... sharing the pulpit with one of the other ministers. This lasted a couple of years. Then we moved to Burlington, KY for a year. In that time the church in Owasso went through some major changes and decided they wanted my dad to come back as the preaching minister. So we moved back in 2000. He is still the preaching minister in Owasso. The church has gone through more major changes and is growing. God is absolutely moving in the life of this church.

For a lot of people preacher's kids have a bad reputation. People always say how crazy they are and how they usually go off the deep end when they leave for college. But I am proud to say that out of the four kids in my family... all four of us are well-adjusted people that love God. Two of us have even married ministers. I think this says a lot about my parents first of all, and secondly our church. My parents always made it a priority to instill in us our own need for God. It was so important to them that we make our faith our own. My relationship with God is not automatically there just because my parents are in the ministry. They constantly worked to help us be authentic in our faith. They did not expect anything more from us because my dad was the preacher- they would have wanted/expected us to act and be a certain way because we love Jesus, no matter who our dad was.

For the most part, I would say the same about the church congregation. I would say there was a small group of people that did expect us to be "perfect" and more behaved, with all the right answers. But overall I think everyone realized we were just kids and would act accordingly!

This being said. I had zero desire to marry a minister. I did not want to go to a christian college. I wanted to go to the University of Arkansas, become a teacher and just do whatever came after that. And then I got to know James and things started to change. I think I realized a few things in my senior year of high school that changed everything. First I saw James passion for ministry and realized that if we were going to be together- I was going to have to get on board. Second, I really thought about and looked at the people who had the most impact on my life/faith up to that point. My parents, my grandparents, my youth minister and his wife {who was also my small group leader for five years}. With the exception of my grandparents, all of these people were in vocational ministry {although my grandparents may have well been because they love Jesus so much and want so badly to be in Heaven with Him ... like yesterday- they can't help but show Jesus to those around them}. Anyway, I had to decide why I didn't want to be in ministry. And my main reason I think was just because. I wanted my life after college to be different and just to go to church and not have major responsibilities and be able to sit and worship with my husband. But really? That was it. When it comes down to the salvation of other people and the ability to help others come to know Christ... how could I not want to do that? Yes, that is everyone's calling anyway- but I was going to NOT do this so that I could be comfortable basically. So I got over myself and all the petty reasons that I didn't want to officially be in ministry and here we are. My husband is now the Junior High Minister at our home church in Owasso.  

James' ordination

Don't get me wrong. I don't just love everything about it- and it is definitely not always nice and peachy. Ministry is messy but wonderful. I know we haven't done this very long {going on 4 years} but I think I have grown up a lot since we started. 

Now, something my mom and I recently talked about is how my older two siblings may not say the same thing. Which she thinks is mainly because they really "grew up" in a different church, where things were very different. They were expected to always have the answers, be involved in everything and basically be perfect kids. It just is interesting how the church can really impact your life, whether you are in the ministry or not!

One more thing on this subject. I really appreciate that even now, our church does not expect all the minister's wives to be a certain way. Of course, there is some expectation to be involved and a part of their husband's ministry but, they do not expect me to be some overachiever that serves in every ministry, every Sunday. Our church really understands that even when you are a minister, your family comes first {I think this comes from the leadership}.

Some of my favorite things about my church...
1. God is the head of the church. The staff and elders are led by God in every decision they make.
2. We believe the Bible is the inherent word of God. It is God breathed and relevant to our everyday lives.
3. We preach the Word of God, not what is popular but what is true!
4. The staff have been led by God to the position they are in and work each day to reach people for Christ.
5. Small groups. We love our small group! We have really become family. I love that our church understands that it is so important to make connections with other believers on a personal level!

Needless to say- I love our church!!