Church Adventures

This post took me multiple tries of me trying to figure exactly how I wanted to tell of my church visiting experience in West Virginia (WV) so far.  Let me start of by saying this.  My hope is to find a church that has solid, Bible-centered beliefs, where I can serve in some capacity.

I've been here in Beckley, WV for about three weeks, and have visited that many different churches.  I've visited a different church every Sunday.  I went about looking for churches as any foreigner would, I googled "churches in Beckley, WV," looking for churches that had solid doctrine and beliefs.   I came upon a website that looked very promising, Oak Grove Christian Church.  When I visited that church, everyone was very friendly to me.  Their service was very traditional, with a piano, organ and traditional hymns, along with something of a surprise for me.  For their contemporary music, they play recorded music and the congregation worshipped to that.  Don't misunderstand me.  I believe that all music with a worshipful heart is glorifying to God, but it's just something that I wasn't used to.  All of the people were friendly, I got to meet the senior pastor and the youth pastor, both which had been hired within the past year or so.  They invited me out to the sports function they put on hat evening, with a group of local churches.  There, I got a free dinner, SCORE!!

I also met some people, including a youth pastor from another church, Mount Hope Christian Church, who invited me to check them out.  So, week 2, I visited Mt. Hope.  Their church service was very similar to OGCC's service.  He and his wife, along with a deacon and his wife invited me to lunch at Chili's, (yay, something familiar), and we had engaging conversation.  Very friendly people.  They're used to the more contemporary services, not unlike church that I'm used to in California.

I've also met some great people at work.  One lady invited me to her church, Daniel's Bible Church.  Week 3.  This is the one I felt the most familiar with.  It feels a lot like home.  Even the youth pastor's name was familiar.  They played both hymns and contemporary music.  The pastor preached from the Bible.  They preach grace through faith.  That the gospel is found throughout the Bible.  I got to meet some students from Appalachian Bible College, the Christian college nearby.  They're also looking for people to help out in their worship team.   Their church fellowships meet Wednesday night, so I'm going to check it out.

I enjoyed experiencing all three churches, and everyone was friendly.  I think maybe I've found a church where I can both grow, and serve.