HUGE

I wish I counted how many times Aubrey or I said something along the lines of "Oh my gosh, it's so big," "This is huge," "Where are we?" To say that Willowcreek is overwhelming is a bit of an understatment! (By the way that's a picture of the Chapel just so you can get an idea of how big it is if you've never been there!) Even turning into the parking lot I felt like I was going to Six Flags, curvy roads that lead to parking lots for thousands.

I really did not know what to expect, I had never been there before (Aubrey had.) The picture of it in my mind was that of the Allstate Arena or the Sears Center... and let me tell you it sure felt like it! There were times I felt like I was on a school field trip with the coffee shop, food, court, and the bookstore. We got there a little early to make sure we got parking and to explore a little bit (and of course we wanted some coffee!!) The church is really cool. The student areas are awesome and seem like a fun place to be. We found out there ther are around 5,000 students and it takes about 1,000 volunteers to run it all... and they are ONLY 90 short! Pretty incredible if you ask me.

As we were sipping on our Frappes in the main "food court" area there were huge screens that had a countdown till when the service started, at about 10 minutes to go we decided to make the trek into the chapel.

We found good seats close to the front. The worship was great! Both Aubrey and I really enjoyed it, probably because we haven't been to church in over a month so it was nice to worship with such a large congregation. Since yesterday was the 10th anniversary of 9/11 the service focused on that, which I though was a good reminder and a way of remebering what happened. I think we both really liked Bill Hybles as well, he was funny and clear and he kept our attention (which sometimes at church is difficult.)

Aubrey and I both have notebooks that we are going to bring with us to the different churches so we can take notes on the church and the sermon. We have some main categories for "scoring." But to be honest I don't remember all of them even though I came up with them so we'll have to talk about those in a different post. But the last one was "Overall Experience" and this is where we both are going to rate the church 1-10.

I'm not too surprised but Aubrey and I both gave Willowcreek a 7 out of 10. We both pretty much had the same concerns: the distance, our other church was about a 1/2 hour away and sometimes we would skip church because we didn't feel like driving. Also, if we ever really wanted to get invovled with anything with the church it would be an extra trip out there and I'm not sure how well that would work. Another concern of ours was definatley the size, its HUGE tons of people, it would be easy for us to blend in and we both felt it might be hard to get to know people when you see so many different faces every week. Something we agreed about was that Willowcreek would be a church that we could say "Let's go to Willow this Sunday." Just as something different, change it up a bit because we both did like the service and worship we just aren't sure if it'll be our new home church.

Thanks for reading our blog so far and being apart of our journey.Be sure to check back soon... Aubrey is gone these next two Sundays so I may do just one Sunday by myself, because I want her to be there so we can make the decision together.

Drum Roll...

Our first Church we are visiting on the hunt is Willow Creek in South Barrington. I'm excited but nervous at the same time to visit this church. It seems by looking at the website it has a lot to offer but I was there once before for a conference and felt like I was in an airport rather than a church. It seems like a great church it has a huge auditorium/chapel area, a bookstore, Dr B's Cafe (a place to hang out before or after the service) and a food court area called the Harvest. But one thing I am really looking for on our church hunt is a great Middle School Ministry to be apart of and a ministry where I can connect with people who are my age.

Now from what I've heard they have a great Middle School Ministry and its big. Which makes me a little nervous at our last church the Middle School Ministry was a pretty good size but it wasn't to overwhelming. From looking at the Willow Creek Website their Middle School Ministry looks pretty awesome!! They seem to do a lot of big events and concerts which is really cool and their curriculum seems interesting too. Their is a website just for Middle school and it is packed with a lot of stuff which is nice.

Now for things my age to get involved in they have a group called Axis it's for 18-29 year olds. It also has a big website which has a lot of information on it which is encouraging because it hopefully means the group is a pretty descent size which I like.

I'm excited for this weekend to start our hunt. I pray for Brooke and I that we find a Church we really like and feel connected to.

On the hunt...

When you want to apply to college, buy a house, buy a car, or even choose a resturaunt to go to, what do you do? For me, I type it into google and research my choices. What is the best choice for me? You can learn so much information just by googling it and although, you probably shouldn't base a huge decision like buying house based on what you read or saw on the internet. But what you see and read are reasons why you want to go visit that house. When trying to find a new church to go to it really is not that simple. I can't just type "Churches in Wheaton" into google, I'll get way too many choices. And I haven't seen a website that rates churches, because how can you? People who have a church they go to on a regular bases obviously like the church they go to, how can someone give a non-bias opioion of their church when they go there? I wish it was as easy as the show House Hunters on HGTV (one of my favorite shows, as you could probably tell, hense the title of the blog!) but it's not.

When I make other decisions in my life I look at the facts, like when looking for a college. What school has a good education program? How much does it cost? How far away is it from home? I could go on my laptop and find all that information out about all the colleges in the United States just while sitting in my own bed. Church hunting is not that easy. You have to physically go to different churches and see what is best for you, where do you feel most comfortable, and where do you think God is calling you to go. This is the dilema my sister, Aubrey, and I face.

We recently left a church we loved due to decisions made by the leadership of the church. We just didn't see how we could continue to go and serve with a church that we couldn't trust the people who were "in charge." It was one of the hardest decisions of my life so far. Aubrey and I both helped with the middle school ministry so we not only had to leave we had to say goodbye to so many kids we love and kids we have watched grow up.

So, this is where we are at right now. Church-less. We took a little time off from going to church to process and we now feel that we are ready to start our adventure as Church Hunters. Last night we wrote down 8 churches in the area that we had heard good things about and we put each piece into a flower pot. Each week we are going to pick a piece of paper at random and go to that church. Hopefully through this process we'll be able to figure out a new home church for us, somewhere where we feel we can grow, worship and serve God.

This is our journey. A place where we can write about what we thought, felt, etc. And maybe we'll be able to help other people who are on the same journey as us.