Our Church

A lot of you have been asking us whether we've found a church yet, and the answer is yes!  It wasn't hard to find, as there is only ONE Protestant Church in the city (on our side of the river anyways).  I had actually looked it up online before we even accepted our jobs here just to make sure we'd have a church to go to as it's important to both of us.  

The church we now go to is called Shanghai Community Fellowship (SCF for short).  It's all expats, so both of the services are in English.  There are a TON of people who attend, and it's so cool to be worshipping with people from around the world.  So far we have gone 4 times and really enjoyed it.  The feel of the whole thing is kind of American, including the worship team which has a resident sax player (we think we're in a Kenny G concert sometimes!)... but it's cool.  The preaching is solid, and the community feel of the whole thing is also really good.  One funny thing about it is that the services are on Sunday afternoons, not mornings (we can choose from the 2pm or 4pm service).  This gives Sundays a whole new feel as we can sleep in, relax, and then go to church feeling refreshed.  Then we usually go out for dinner with people we meet at church afterwards.  

Another great thing about this church is that it has a lot of cell groups.  For those of you reading this blog who are not familiar with this concept, a cell group (aka: home group, growth group, care group, etc) is a smaller gathering than a Sunday service... sort of like a small Bible study.  One of its purposes is to get to know other people in the church better.  Often with churches that are really big, it's easy to get "lost in the shuffle" and not really get to know anyone that well, which is discouraging.  With cell groups you meet once a week, study the Bible, talk about how it applies to our life, maybe have some worship (singing), some dessert, chat a bit, etc.  Andrew and I led one of these for the past 2 years at our house, through our church in Vancouver (PGCC) and were really encouraged by it.  It's nice to take a break from leading one this year, but still great to be involved in one.  Our group meets Friday nights and has about 10 people in it from all over the world.  

One little note to all of you reading this blog who go to church regularly: make an effort every Sunday to look around, figure out who's new, and go talk to that person... show a little interest!  I know this sounds obvious, but too often it's so easy just to talk to the people you're familiar and comfortable with.  I say all this b/c Andrew and I are both really comfortable with being in church and meeting new people, yet we found it really hard the first few Sundays at the SCF church not knowing ANYONE there... (not knowing anyone in the whole country for that matter!).  Not that the people at this church are mean or anything, but I felt they could have done a bit better of a job of saying hi and making conversation with us.  It seems that as soon as church is over here, there is a massive stampede for the exit, which makes it a wee bit awkward to strike up a conversation with people as they go sprinting by!  I'm happy to say that we've met a few cool people over the weeks and have gone out with them (more on that in another post), so we're content now... but just remember to make new people feel comfortable and welcomed, be that in church or any other place!