ALY ALLEN | THE BLOG

if you've been following along, you know about how i left my church , and the mini-panic attack  that i had over it all... the first church that we started attending, after making the decision that we'd start looking, was my best-friend-since-7th-grade's church about 30 minutes away, where her husband is a pastor. that's where they met and fell in love. it's a pretty cute little story :) so, we had been going to this new church for a few months, and september was slowly creeping up on us. if you remember, last november, i took a "maternity leave" of sorts, from serving in the choir and worship team at our "old" church. i was planning to come back in september 2012 [just this past week, actually] and pick up where i'd left off. as september started approaching faster and faster i knew i had to look it in the eyes and deal with the some things that were totally unavoidable. i had to officially leave our church. i had to have that convers...

i told you about how i recently left my church of 15 years... well it was quite the long process, both logistically and in my heart. there were so many things surrounding our decision, and so many pros and cons on either side. i thought and thought and prayed and prayed. it was a pretty weird time for me. i told you about how God was using this move to grow me and to reveal my pride  i didn't realize was there. but let me share a few universal lessons i learned along this little journey, that i think anyone can benefit from. around June, i started wondering how crazy i must be to think i should ever consider leaving Dr. David Jeremiah's church . like, seriously? people come from all over the country to hear him, they tune in on their TVs and their radios to listen because they don't have the privilege of attending his church, literally seven minutes from my house, where i've gone for 15 years. now, in my head, it doesn't take much for full-on crisis to ensue...

i told you  in my last post  how i really and truly  never thought i would leave  my church. i'm a loyal person, i like familiarity, and i do love routine.  God knows those things so intimately about me, and i believe it's part of the reason why He called me away from it . all of those traits can be good things, but they can also the very things keeping us from the best that God might have waiting for us. the other reason? my pride.  yes, my pride. but let me explain... at our old church, i sang in the choir and the praise team and was given regular opportunities to sing solos. in a church of that size, i guess you could say that people recognized me when i walked by, or in grocery stores, or stopped at a stoplight in my car [true story]. as i served for those seven years, though, i wasn't looking for fame or glory or recognition. and pride really wasn't something i struggled with very often [thank the Lord]. to be honest, i don't love atten...

i never planned to leave my church. i simply planned to take about 9 months off for a last-few-months-of-pregnancy/transition-to-two-children "maternity leave". november 2011, thanksgiving weekend, i sang my last solo with the choir, and headed home filled and content, to a cozy fire and lunch in the oven. i hadn't even kicked off my black peep-toe heels when my husband suggested that maybe we take this opportunity- my little hiatus- to visit a few different churches. you can imagine my silent tantrum. he could tell i was having an internal panic attack but i didn't want to let on. i hummed and hawed and said maybe that was a good idea. for my husband, it was simply a matter of: we've been at this church since we were 13 years old and have never even set foot elsewhere. shouldn't we explore that? shouldn't we know why we're actually going here? we love the church, we love the people, and we definitely love the preaching. there's nothing wrong...