Journey Towards Becoming Missional: 8 months in waiting

It’s been 8 months since being in Texas yet it still seems like I arrived just yesterday, time definitely seems to go fast (I graduated college almost a year ago and this year is my high school 5 year reunion… where has the time gone?)

In the 8 months since I have been in Texas, things have been up and down yet there has always been 1 thing missing and that is connection with others, especially my age. I have been attending 2 churches yet both of them hasn’t quiet had what I was looking for but I still enjoyed attending the 2 different churches but had still been in search of a group to connect with.

Over the last 8 months I have visited and attempted to get connected with various young adult groups and ministries yet none of them ever seemed right or the days they were on just didn’t work out with my schedule. One of the groups I had attempted to attend was Highland Park UMC young adult group that meets on Thursday night and is located on the SMU college campus however, when I tried to go I got absolutely lost trying to figure out where to park that I got very much frustrated that I ended up leaving and not going back.

However, there was still one issue and that was that I still wasn’t connected with a group of young adults my age and honestly, I got to a point where I was somewhat content and okay with not being connected but after doing a work day with one of my 2 churches, I started to realize the importance and need for the connection to be made somewhere but where?

So, today the conversation somehow came up about getting connected with a group of young adult and Highland Park was meeting tonight so after virtually figuring out how to get to parking and much conversation and persuasion, I was talked into giving Highland Park UMC group another chance in hopes that I would find the way to parking and not get frustrated this time so I left the office at 5pm and the group started at 7pm so I had essentially 2 hours to figure out the way and parking to a place that only takes about 10-15minutes to get to. So, I ventured out and made my way to Highland Park UMC and arrived super early but that was the first step. Now I had to find the way to where the meeting was going to take place (before leaving the office, I had emailed the person in charge of the group but had not received a response before arriving) however, I ended up finding the way to the meeting spot with no problem.

After talking with the person that I had been emailing back and forth with and telling them about how the young adult program works since they had never heard of it, the meeting was about to start. I had thought that the group was going to be a lot of SMU students yet to my surprise, I quickly realized that most everyone were young adult professionals (the exact place that I am at and the exact type of group that I have been in need of). So, we had the Bible study (read my previous blog on Romans 12 since that’s what we went over, and then we went out to dinner where we continued to engage in conversation.

So, here’s what’s going on now and my thoughts now…

1. My supervisor was correct and glad I was “challenged” to give Highland Park UMC another chance and plenty of time to figure out parking since I seem to always get lost but not this time (YAY!)

2. I am horrible with names but had good conversation with at least half of the group that is a part of the Highland Park young adult group

3. I now have a huge but good dilemma in regards to, do I stop going to one of the churches I have been going to and get connected with Highland Park and the young adult group since I was told by 2-4 of them that I should check out the Sunday school group which majority consists of the same people I met tonight or do I stay with the churches I have been attending and only attend Highland Park on Thursday’s? (http://www.hpumc.org/about-us/stories/meet-fireside/)

4. 8 months of waiting yet finally I feel like this is the perfect group to get connected with and get to know!

5. I absolutely enjoyed tonight and being around others my age, attending the Bible study, and hanging out afterwards! And it’s not a huge group, which I’m glad about. It reminded me a lot of InterVarsity and my college experience with InterVarsity.