All Souls

For the first time in years and years, I am excited about my relationship with God and my church. Although I've been reconnecting with God, I have struggled to find a church for a while now. Something never quite clicked for me at the churches I visited. I wish I could explain why. The reasons were so varied. The church was too small, too big, not friendly enough, smothering, needy, not needy enough, the music was out of style, there were no traditional hymns, etc. You can see I found every excuse in the world. And I am pretty creative so I was able to find something about every church. Even though I knew deep down that I was making excuses so I could avoid going to church, I blamed everything else around me.

Last November, my older brother approached me and my housemate/best friend about an idea he had stumbled across in his search for a church home as well. He stumbled upon an idea called the Convergence movement. This idea put forth the concept that church should include all three main streams of worship: liturgical, evangelical, and charismatic. It seems like a lot of modern churches only focus on one of these three streams, but the convergence movement recognizes the importance of each one. I was intrigued. Of course, this does not mean that every church misses the boat, but it seems like church as usual is just not working. My older brother advised that there was not a convergence church in our area and posed the question. Would we want to start a church in Elgin, South Carolina?

My heart sank. I was ready to hop on board with a church like this, but start one? That would require so much time and effort. But the more he talked about it, the more I prayed, the more I felt led to give it a try. So in November of 2009, All Souls Mission was born. We are a tiny, tiny congregation at this time, but we are so blessed. Learning about this movement and being one of four has forced me to stay focused and committed to church. If I miss church, it's because I'm doing ministry work with another group, not because I was just too lazy to get out of bed. I can tell that God is working on my heart and speaking to me in a way I've never known before. The liturgical service and charismatic music is moving me more than I would have thought possible. Our group study focuses on our evangelical thrust and has really challenged my way of thinking. I can't even describe how excited all this has made me. Maybe all the searching I did was simply leading up to this challenge. I'll have to keep thinking about that. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy my renewed zeal for my relationship with Christ and focus on sharing His love.