I Know That My Redeemer Lives

It is easy to find a WELS congregation in Wisconsin. The choices are rather limited out east. As a matter of fact, there is only 1 WELS church, Grace of God, that services all of Long Island. Grace of God is located in Dix Hills at about the mid-point of the island. It is a small congregation with 60-70 members. People can come from as far away as Queens to the west (60 minutes) and Baiting Hollow to the east (45 minutes...guess who).

As a general rule, we attend church every Sunday; a day also held in priority as a family day. We have not always asked the Ts to attend Sunday school. The rationale was they get plenty of Christian education during the week compared to quality/quantity family time. Since they are no longer in private school, the balance was off. This is where the tension began. The Ts needed more "face time with their Maker".

We were spending 90 minutes round trip to Grace of God. Throw in the hour or so to get 5 people out the door on a Sunday morning plus Service time, the inevitable chat in the back of church and voilà the morning was gone. Now, don't get me wrong. I have no problem giving thanks to the Lord for his Grace and Forgiveness. But, the 90 minutes commute plus $20 in gas was not what He had in mind, I think.

On top of that, we were not satisfied. And again, I beg your indulgence for just a minute. We do understand that church is not like Starbucks. Our satisfaction is not guaranteed. We do not attend church to be told how wonderful we are. We do not attend church to be told what bounty will befall us because we showed up this week. On the other hand, there should be a sense of belonging that neither ma chère nor I felt.

It was with this on our hearts that we began looking for a new church. Our foreboding was the understanding that we would have to leave WELS to do it. Thankfully, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod (LCMS) has a relatively large foothold on Long Island.

I will spare you, at this point, the research into the differences between WELS and LCMS, the time spent in conversation with one another, both WELS and LCMS pastors, parents, relatives, etc. Ultimately, we made the decision to join Our Redeemer in Aquebogue, NY. I promise to post more on the transition later.

Title by: Samuel Medley