The Fellowship of Women

About three years ago, we moved from one state to another because of a job offer my husband received. We left a community and a house where we had lived for 25 years. We also left a church community where we had been members for over 20 years.

I have yet to find a new church community.

It is interesting to be on the other side of an issue we discussed so frequently at my old church - church growth, or "How do we get more people inside the doors?" It is harder to walk over that threshold than I had imagined.

I have found that the need for a faith community, however, has not gone away, and this was brought home to me after a retreat I attended last week. This is a yearly event, and I've been going for eight years.

It is a fellowship of women with common ties through employment in the church. Some have retired but still attend the retreat because we have become like sisters. One of the attendees said this year, "I may not know all of you well, but I feel like you are all my sisters, and I feel such love and acceptance when I am here." Perhaps that is what I'm looking for in a faith community - love, acceptance.

But my logical self tells me that it is not so easy. We are all imperfect. We all have our own ideas, feelings, insecurities, etc. There's an old saying that God puts at least one member in each church who irritates almost everyone else just to make sure that we're listening to what God is telling us.

Easier said than done.

And yet, for three days, I was in a community of women who shared deep thoughts, hugs and quite conversation, laughter as well as tears.

Is it possible to find a church with that kind of atmosphere?

I hope so...I guess I'll have to keep looking.