Show Us Your Life: Tell us about your church

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner Blog had her baby (a sweet little girl named Hollis), which means that S.U.Y.L. is back in action!  I LOVE today's topic because I LOVE our church!!  Matt and I are members of Church of the Highlands here in Birmingham.  When we moved here a few years ago we visited so many churches.  I grew up Methodist and Matt grew up Southern Baptist so we pretty much just visited all the Methodist and Baptist churches in the area.  Several people kept recommending we try Highlands, but we were skeptical since it was "non-denominational."  When we finally visited a couple years ago it was like a light (more like fireworks) went off.  We knew without a doubt we had found our church home.  We have attended for a couple years now and as you may remember reading a couple weeks ago, we officially became members.

I could seriously talk for hours on end about how incredible our church is, but I will leave you with a few things that are most important to me...

1. Our pastor is seriously amazing and he preaches the Word, all of it and nothing less.  We believe that the Bible is the ONLY true way and it is what we should be using to learn about Jesus and our faith.  He doesn't side-step the issues or say what he thinks people want to hear.  He preaches it straight from the Word of God Himself.

2. The true connection with God I feel every single time I go in to worship.  I'm not kidding yall, it's amazing.  The music and band start playing and I just immediately feel God's presence.  This just gets stronger as Pastor Chris goes through the message and it usually stays with me all day.  I find myself singing praise and worship all day long and reflecting on whatever message and verses we learned.  I leave with such a desire and conviction to fulfill God's plan for my life and I just become so excited to see what He has in store for me (and Matt).  I literally feel this way every.single.Sunday.  It's amazing.

3. The constant inspiration and motivation I receive to make a difference.  I can't even tell you how many times I have walked out of a service and seriously wanted to change the world.  Like I feel like I can do anything.  It's not just that our pastor is so inspiring and encouraging (although he is)...it's because of our church's commitment to service and mission to reach as many lost souls as possible.  The church is not there to simply be a place for regular attenders and members.  Its primary goal is to reach the lost and meet the physical and spiritual needs of the people in our community, in our nation, and all over the world.  The outreach and dedication to mission trips blow me away.

If you are in the B'ham area looking for a church to call home, or maybe you have never even attended church before but feel a tug on your heart to try it out, I encourage you to visit Church of the Highlands or any of the other wonderful churches in the area.  The most important thing is that you find somewhere where you feel comfortable and where you will make a connection with Jesus on a regular basis.  Of course you don't even need a church to do that, but it's a really great way to feed your soul and be around others that are looking for the same thing.