Well, as planned, we attended the second church again today. On the way over there this morning, Punk asked, "Are we going to our new church today?" I told him we were and he was really excited. Like I said, the children's ministry there is pretty darn good.

The senior pastor was still out of town, so the message/sermon was given via video, which was kinda interesting. Personally, I would have preferred if someone else could have preached live. Certainly, in that size church, someone could have stepped in.

Today I felt like everything was more "churchy" and less genuine. Of course, tape-o-pastor probably was part of that. And, there was a long, drawn-out altar call (by the father/founding pastor who used to be the pastor until a week or two ago) which culminated in one of those repeat-after-me prayers. I find that considerably humiliating and condescending. Why can't grown adults be expected to speak to God for themselves, in their own words, even if it is the first time?

I'm really wrestling with the concept of how they (seem to) have organized the church's government. If I understood correctly (which I'm still leaving open to doubt because I'm having trouble believing it), there's a serious heart issue behind organizing a church this way and that has been bothering me all week. I feel that I owe them the opportunity to explain this more fully before "writing them off," but at this point, I'd really like to just go back to the first church and be done with it all.