I remember The Farmer In the Dell, does that count?Oldgringo wrote:Anybody remember the hymn, "The Little Brown Church in the Dell"?
That's true of all of the churches I've attended as an adult, but probably only because I usually end up on the production team, with two notable exceptions...fickman wrote:My rule of thumb has been that:
- I want a church small enough for the pastor to know my name, my family, and what's going on in our lives
- I want a church small enough that I can call up that pastor and meet him for lunch some time in the next few weeks
First, Fellowship Bible Church North in Plano, TX (the second biggest church I've attended, now named Chase Oaks Church). At the time, the senior pastor was Gene Getz, and, for no special reason that I could figure out, he knew my family by name. When I came back to Dallas to attend UTD after we had moved away over a year earlier, he said it was good to see me again and wanted to know how my parents (by name, again) were doing and whether or not they liked living in San Francisco. And as far as I could tell, this experience was not unique to me, and I have no clue how he kept track of so many people. I did serve on the production team there, but this was well before that started.
Second, Ed Dobson, when he was the senior pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, MI (by far the biggest church at which my family have been members), was like that as well. I don't think he always remembered all our names right away, but we hadn't lived in Grand Rapids since I think 1989 or something and we'd just show up every few years around christmas because we were in town visiting family. There were some stretches in there, too, to the point that I almost didn't recognize him once, yet he still remembered us and I have no idea why. (I doubt I could've scheduled a lunch with him with just two week's notice, though.)
Maybe my mom or dad have been more involved in the churches we've attended than I've been led to believe...