Today we again visited Grace Bible Church in Ann Arbor. This was the final church in Phase 2 of our church search, and it went very well. It sure seems like God is leading us to Grace. The service was worshipful and reverent, and the ABF (Sunday School) was theological deep and thoughtful. The class we went to is studying the Atonement, which fit in well with my reading of late, including In My Place Condemned He Stood and Death By Love. Julie enjoyed it too, which was important. She also met two other couples that went to Cedarville, including one girl that she recognized from school. Crazy.

In the shower this morning, I was again reminded of God’s providence and sovereignty. Were it not for a staff member at New Life (Graig Austin), we wouldn’t have re-visited Grace.  od works in His own ways and Graig, and the rest of Admin Core’s, encouragement in our church is great reminder that we are all working together for the kingdom. For me to worry or stress about other churches planting in Ann Arbor is sinful, arrogant, and prideful. There are over 100,000 people in Ann Arbor and even if other churches in town had attendence of 95,000 people, that would still leave 50,000 people who need to hear the gospel. That’s the important part, humbling myself before my Glorious God that He may God be glorified in all that I do, say, and think.

We’ve visited 13 churches, viewed dozens of church web sites, and spent lots of time in prayer. The church I visited last week isn’t an option for a number of reasons

• very small
• the service included talking about the Scripture instead of just reading it
• a sermon more full of illustrations than Scripture
• a sermon about faithfulness that doesn’t talk much at all about God’s faithfulness
• a 69 joke!

So, this week, it’s back to Grace Bible Church. I am looking forward to returning. I’ve been excited about Grace ever since I met with Derek Whalen for lunch. Julie and I are praying that God will make it clear to us that Grace should be our church home.

Rewind with me to September 2008. After attending the 9Marks Weekender and seeing incredible examples of congregational care and discipleship, and after 9 months of speaking to elders at New Life Church and determining that it was time for us to move on, Julie and I began looking for a new church home. The process has been long for a couple of reasons

1. I wanted the search to be very thorough. Any church that fit our broad criteria (orthodox theology) was on the list. 
2. We thought we had found a church, but after much praying, I couldn’t reconcile its practice of infant baptism with what I find in the bible.

The Beginning List

I started by searching through Google and the Yellow Pages all of the churches in Ann Arbor. I then removed from consideration churches based on a number of criteria:

• The church does not hold what are traditionally orthodox, evangelical beliefs and practices. For an example of orthodox doctrine see the The Gospel Coalition’s Confessional Statement. 
• The church practices full ordination of women to all church offices. I have studied and read about this issue, and see as little biblical foundation for such a policy (see the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood’s Danvers Statement for a thoroughly biblical presentation of complementarianism)
• The church’s theology would be considered Arminian, meaning man’s free will is responsible for the accepting, or refusal, of God’s free gift of salvation. I hold to Reformed theology, along with people like Mark Dever, John Piper, C. J. Mahaney, Mark Driscoll, and Thabiti Anyabwile. I was a little flexible with this criteria, as many churches aren’t explicitly, but are in practice functionally, reformed.
• The church holds to practices that are more conservative than I believe the Bible is (witholding voting in church matters of membership and appointment of elders from  women as it gives them spiritual  ”authority” over men)

We were left with 6 churches, in Ann Arbor and Saline. 

1. Knox Presbyterian Church
2. Briarwood Baptist Church
3. Grace Bible Church
4. Saline Community Church
5. Fellowship Baptist Church
6. St. Luke Lutheran

We visited all of those churches, and felt, at least initially, that God was calling us to Knox. We were encouraged by the preaching and the options available for small groups. I had some unease, though, and spent much of the Christmas break thinking and praying about our choice. I had a short, but helpful, talk with Matt Schmucker, the Executive Director of 9Marks, where he challenged me to look for a church where I could be fully comfortable with all its beliefs and practices and where I wouldn’t have any reservations raising Malachi in church. In the end, I wasn’t at all comfortable with, and don’t think there is biblical warrant for, the practice of infant baptism. So, in January of 2009, we began, again, the church search. I created a new list, expanding the geographic area to include Ypsilanti and Saline.

1. Ann Arbor Chinese Christian Church
2. Calvary Bible Church
3. North Prospect Baptist
4. Crossroads Community Baptist Church
5. The Bible Church (Ypsilanti)
6. Hope Community Church
7. Scio Community Church
8. Grace Bible Church

We have visited churches 1-6 on the new list, and it seems clear so far that God is not calling us to any of them. This Sunday we are visiting Scio Community, a church that we visited when we moved to Ann Arbor in June 2006. It didn’t seem like a good fit then because it was pretty small and was almost completely families, which we weren’t at the time. Now that we have a little one, it may be a better option.

You may notice on the second list that Grace Bible Church repeats. We had ruled it out during the fall for a number of reasons, but I had a great talk with the Youth Pastor at Grace, Derek Whalen, who is an old acquaintance of Graig Austin’s. Derek really shared his heart about Grace, where it has been, where it’s going, and it seems like a church where we could really dig in. It doesn’t have a lot of small groups, which is a cause for concern, but there are a few and hopefully they will continue to grow and multiply.

What have I learned during this process?

1. Patience
2. Patience
3. Patience
4. God is good

This has been a frustrating search, more because I miss the closeness and community that comes with a church body. I miss the fellowship, encouragement, and discipleship. I have had to trust God that He will call us to the church where He wants us. I have no clue how that will impact what I believe is His call on my life to pastor, but I must trust His first for a church, a body of believers where we can live sacrificially in worship to a Wonderful Savior.