If I remember correctly, I left off basically right after Carrie and I got married, but I'll need to backtrack somewhat to continue the story.
In the spring semester of 2005, I was in Kansas City and Carrie was in St. Louis. While we were prepping for the St. Louis wedding, I was also looking around for a church home for the both of us. Yes, I was church shopping, which given my background shouldn't be too surprising I suppose. I was looking for a church with modern worship, engaging/challenging preaching, and a real sense of community. Coming out of college, where small groups were the norm, this last quality was really important for me.
As it turns out, I really found all those things at Lakeland Community Church in Lee's Summit, which was close to a half hour drive away. I actually came to Lakeland because we got married in an EPC church and thought maybe we should see if there was one we liked in the KC metro area. As it turns out, I also knew the worship leader from Truman State, and since it meet all my qualifications, I felt confident that this would be our church home, which it ended up being for the next 4 1/2 years.
A few different things happened while attending Lakeland. The first of which is that even though it in many ways mirrored some of the non-denominaitonal churches I had attended growing up, it did have that Presbyterian flavor as well. As Lakeland found a permanent home (the first several months we attended were its last in a movie theater, if you can believe it), these traditions were incorporated more and more for various different reasons.
I was for the first time becoming exposed to the liturgical calendar. This whole time I assumed that Lent was something that Catholics did for "legalistic" reasons. Now I was starting to get a better sense of the purpose of Lent, and I dove headlong into the practice by fasting. According to traditions I could find, fasting meant only one full meal a day, which could be supplemented by two small snacks during the day if necessary. I chose to eat a small breakfast and save my primary meal for dinner. That was really difficult, and no doubt made me a little grumpy, but that remains one of the most personally significant Easters I've ever experienced. So I was really starting to get into it, but it seemed that the more we as a church got into the liturgical calendar, the more I wanted. I didn't necessarily feel a pull to the Catholic Church yet, but that was certainly something that I found very attractive once I did feel drawn that way.
Another thing that started changing for me was my appreciation of contemporary church music. Now before I go any further, I will say that was the best contemporary music I had ever heard at a church, and I still think that's the case. The worship leader was even a conservatory grad in vocal performance, so rehearsals were a bit more on par with what I was used to as well. That being said, I was in graduate school, which meant I took a class on Medieval music, which meant that I got to learn a great deal about the music and history of the Mass.
I had a friend say once that Catholicism is the default faith for music graduates, and I could hardly agree more. After learning about early music (which is largely the music of the Church), and brushing up on it for doctoral comprehensive exams, I felt like I knew about as most Catholics about what was going on in Mass. This ties into my appreciation of contemporary Christian music because the more I was exposed to these traditions and the stunning music behind them, the less satisfying the music at our church became. Again, this was just laying the groundwork for my eventual move to Catholicism, because at the time it simply felt like something that wasn't clicking right.
In 2009, though, things really began to change...
In the spring semester of 2005, I was in Kansas City and Carrie was in St. Louis. While we were prepping for the St. Louis wedding, I was also looking around for a church home for the both of us. Yes, I was church shopping, which given my background shouldn't be too surprising I suppose. I was looking for a church with modern worship, engaging/challenging preaching, and a real sense of community. Coming out of college, where small groups were the norm, this last quality was really important for me.
As it turns out, I really found all those things at Lakeland Community Church in Lee's Summit, which was close to a half hour drive away. I actually came to Lakeland because we got married in an EPC church and thought maybe we should see if there was one we liked in the KC metro area. As it turns out, I also knew the worship leader from Truman State, and since it meet all my qualifications, I felt confident that this would be our church home, which it ended up being for the next 4 1/2 years.
A few different things happened while attending Lakeland. The first of which is that even though it in many ways mirrored some of the non-denominaitonal churches I had attended growing up, it did have that Presbyterian flavor as well. As Lakeland found a permanent home (the first several months we attended were its last in a movie theater, if you can believe it), these traditions were incorporated more and more for various different reasons.
I was for the first time becoming exposed to the liturgical calendar. This whole time I assumed that Lent was something that Catholics did for "legalistic" reasons. Now I was starting to get a better sense of the purpose of Lent, and I dove headlong into the practice by fasting. According to traditions I could find, fasting meant only one full meal a day, which could be supplemented by two small snacks during the day if necessary. I chose to eat a small breakfast and save my primary meal for dinner. That was really difficult, and no doubt made me a little grumpy, but that remains one of the most personally significant Easters I've ever experienced. So I was really starting to get into it, but it seemed that the more we as a church got into the liturgical calendar, the more I wanted. I didn't necessarily feel a pull to the Catholic Church yet, but that was certainly something that I found very attractive once I did feel drawn that way.
Another thing that started changing for me was my appreciation of contemporary church music. Now before I go any further, I will say that was the best contemporary music I had ever heard at a church, and I still think that's the case. The worship leader was even a conservatory grad in vocal performance, so rehearsals were a bit more on par with what I was used to as well. That being said, I was in graduate school, which meant I took a class on Medieval music, which meant that I got to learn a great deal about the music and history of the Mass.
I had a friend say once that Catholicism is the default faith for music graduates, and I could hardly agree more. After learning about early music (which is largely the music of the Church), and brushing up on it for doctoral comprehensive exams, I felt like I knew about as most Catholics about what was going on in Mass. This ties into my appreciation of contemporary Christian music because the more I was exposed to these traditions and the stunning music behind them, the less satisfying the music at our church became. Again, this was just laying the groundwork for my eventual move to Catholicism, because at the time it simply felt like something that wasn't clicking right.
In 2009, though, things really began to change...
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