We're not unsatisfied with our current church (Cathedral of Hope), but it's 45 minutes away from our house.  We want something closer.  God bless the logistics please.  :-) 

The new church was energetic, entertaining, and God-centered, but there was one phrase uttered after the service that didn't sit well with us.  I'm still not exactly sure what it meant.

The service literally rocked, with about 25 minutes of upbeat, passionate music played by a full house band and led by 5 singers and a choir behind.  We stood up that entire time, and for someone that is used to an up-and-down church the constant standing took some getting used to.  The sermon was empowering, although it seemed at times to be more of a motivational speech than a traditional sermon.  To be clear, I'm all about breaking tradition and blowing the doors off of archaic ways of doing things, but I also want to feel like I've been to church rather than a business seminar.  This seemed to be a bit of both. 

We felt very comfortable dropping the girls off in the childrens area.  Each of us had a baby on our hip when we walked up to the check-in spot and the friendly gal behind the counter asked if we needed two forms.  Angela is getting super-good at telling it like it is, and she said, "Nope.  We're partners.  Just one form for the family."  The thirtysomething blond in a pony tail nodded and said, "Gotcha."  As she fumbled around with the forms you could see her mind churning over how she should react and we feared the worst, but she eventually came to be very friendly and offered a lot of great info about the church service.  I just think we shocked her.

The big shocker for us came after the service.  There would be a meet and greet with the pastors in a "VIP room" they called it, immediately after the service.  I told Angela I wanted to go to ask one question.  Since the girls were taken care of in the childrens' area she decided to go along.  We met the pastor's wife first and after a bit of small talk I popped my question.  "We're a gay family with two daughters back in the nursery area.  We've lived in this area for about nine years and we're looking for a church that will welcome our family and support us, and at the same time not try to change us.  We're just not sure how you feel about gay families."

I noticed a deer in the headlights look.  Her mind seemed to be searching for the proper reaction, just like the woman in the childrens' area.  What did her heart say?  I'm not sure we got to her heart.  But we did hear the words that she seemed to find necessary.

"We don't condone it...gay marriage...but we would welcome and support your family.  There's another couple here that we welcome."  Then she went on to name a man who would be visiting the church this fall and she asked if we had heard of him.  The name didn't ring a bell, but we gathered that he must be gay and she offered his name to prove the church's tolerance and acceptance. 

Hmm.  Can a person fully support a family without "condoning" the root of it?  This is the shocker that always seems to perplex me. 

We're going to sit with this for awhile.  We had a long talk about our experience last night when we got home after putting the girls to bed, and neither Angela nor I is ready to give up on this church.  At the same time, we're not ready to get excited about it and launch ourselves fully into it.  We're not one of those hurt, wounded charity cases that this church must reach out to and rescue.  We're just gay.  And we just want a comfortable place where we can experience God. 

Why does this have to be so difficult?  Stay tuned...