Church Shopping

I am torn. For the past two Sundays I have attended a service at Coral Gables Congregation Church. It is a United Church of Christ church in a very affluent part of the city. We worshiped there last week as a community and then decided to go back this week for "green" Sunday because you could supposedly take your old light bulbs and exchange them for energy efficient ones. We were all encouraged to either car pool to the service or ride our bikes. Therefore, we all four (JJ has his own church and is not involved in our "shopping" trips) piled into Erin's tiny car, including all 6'8'' of Isaac, and went over to CGCC. We walked in the door and were handed a bulletin with a giant print out of the senior pastor. I took the bulletin and thought it was weird because it was supposed to be a paperless Sunday. When the senior pastor walked in, everyone got on their feet and gave a standing ovation for her. It soon became apparent that the light bulbs were not the focus of the ceremony. Apparently, we had just walked into a surprise ordination anniversary ceremony. Laurinda, the senior pastor, had been ordained thirty years ago today and her entire family and many friends from seminary showed up to give kind words. This was a really strange service to be a visitor at. It was an oddly intimate service to witness, especially from an outsiders point of view. Even the secretary of health showed up to wish Laurinda well. (Bill Clinton's secretary of health...) Regardless of it starting out as a really awkward situation, I couldn't help smiling when I heard all these kind words spoken about this person I didn't actually know or have any kind of relationships with. I love this congregation. I feel at home there. It feels safe and comfortable. I love the words Laurinda has to say and feel a very closeness to her already. It might be the fact that she has a love for Abba maybe even greater than mine. Or it might be that she is so warm and welcoming. Or it might be that she wishes for everyone in the community to challenge themselves to be accepting to anyone and everyone in the world. Whatever it is, I feel the desire to worship in this community. However, I feel as though I shouldn't want to worship there. It is the first church I have ever visited in Miami. Also, it is in a very affluent part of the city. After visiting for the first time, I turned to my roommates and said, "oh, this is where all the white people in Miami are." Laurinda tries to get her congregation to give as much as possible. In fact, for her ordination, the church set up a fund to give money to a charity in Haiti. However, it is only because they are truly able to give. I feel as though I should be worshiping in a community where I am not comfortable. Where I can truly challenge my faith and my comfort zone. I should want to worship with the people I am serving. I talked for a long time with my friend Alicia about it all. She is an administrator at the Yvonne Learning Center where Isaac works and she worships at CGCC. She struggles with this same issue week after week. The way she put it, she goes to church there in order to be filled. She spends the rest of the week: five, sometimes six days, living in a world where she challenges herself and leaves her comfort zone. Therefore, do I leave my comfort zone in order to stretch my faith, or do I take Sundays as the day to recharge my faith and fill myself spiritually?