Steeple Chase, Round 3?

Believe it or not, we might be facing yet another "chapter" in our seemingly-endless search for the "right" church for us. Yes, we both LOVE CBC and yes, we did just JOIN there this past August. But it's really beginning to look like CBC isn't going to be(come) the type of church that we - particularly Rebekah - need it to be(come).

For several weeks now, Rebekah's been the ONLY child in nursery. I found out tonight that the family who's son is the ONLY other nursery-aged kid who's even quasi-consistently there is looking for another church(that better meets THEIR family's needs), so that leaves Rebekah as the ONLY kid in nursery for the forseeable future.

To further complicate things, the wife/mom of this family has been the "coordinator" of the nursery till she just recently resigned, effective at the end of the year. Who knows who will take over that position, especially since I'm not at all interested in it, for several reasons. But, even if I took it over, all that would do would be stabilize/establish the fact that there _will_ continue to be a nursery during Sunday morning church. It wouldn't do anything to change the fact that Rebekah'll be the ONLY kid in said nursery most weeks.

If Rebekah were in daycare, this would still be important, tho far less so. But, since she's not, it's very important.

There are, of course, other issues here. And many of them would still be there even if we didn't have any kids yet. But this is the biggie, and it's very important. Not only cuz it is(important anyway, especially since Rebekah's not in daycare and isn't going to be either), but also cuz it's Rebekah; we feel a particular need to prioritize/emphasize what's best for her at or above the priority or importance of our own personal or corporate "needs". So, while we still need much more discussion and much prayer about this, it looks like we're "steeplechasing" yet again.

If that ends up to be the case, I don't expect this "chapter" of our steeplechase to be anywhere near as long as the others were. For several reasons, the main one being that there are only about 4, maybe 5, churches under consideration for our next church. There are other reasons, including the fact that we're both considerably more unwilling to let weeks/months go by without us visiting or checking out or attending ANY church(es), which happened more than once in between our other long-term stops, but the short length of the list of churches we might "move" to next is the chief reason I think we'll be somewhere else relatively shortly after we leave CBC, if we do, in fact, move on.

CCDC is the main "other" church under consideration. It really helps our chances of ending up there that they've recently relocated their Sunday morning services to a location that's IN Media and, thus, far more Septa-accessible. The fact that they're a large-enough church to meet all of our various ministry/outreach/socio-spiritual needs(and then some) as well as present us with numerous service and/or ministry opportunities - without being such a large "mega-church" that things become depersonal(ized) doesn't "hurt" either. Nor does the fact that they've got a homeschooer's ministry/outreach. Nor the fact that we're more doctrinally alligned with them than with CBC. Nor many other quite-positive factors. All of which add up to be the reason(s) they're #1 on our short list.

There are 3, maybe 4, other churches under consideration. One is Aldan Union, tho we face the same main doctrinal difference there as at CBC. One is a Baptist church in Collingdale that we became familiar with from some of the other folks at the Marriage Conference we recently attended. And the other is the church where that conference was held. I think the Baptist church would be #2, Aldan Union would be #3, and the host church of the conference would be #4. The closer location of the Baptist church than CCDC might make it "1-A", I don't know.

In other news, while I should have realized/correlated this before, I just "figured out" tonight that Kat's seizure last month means that she can't renew/reinstate her driver's license till at least a year from now. Which means that we've got to prioritize me getting mine asap. Yes, we can't do anything till the finances ease up some, but it still looks like I'll be getting my license a bit(if not a lot) sooner than earlier expected.