William Chong

A mostly pleasant weekend, in which:

• I watched a martial-arts movie with paperclip
• Got an unbelievable (read: much much cheaper) panelbeating quote for my pore old car
• I had the unfamiliar experience of meeting people that knew more about me than it’s socially acceptable to let on

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With regards to our epic Fellowship-of-the-Ring quest (Cheryl=Gimli) to find a right church, I think we’ve settled it at Howick Baptist. We could always have flitted between different churches to keep on discovering and finding out more, but it would consequently be more difficult to break those ties when you did leave. Towards the end Cheryl and I were debating trivial points of difference, such as racial demographics, the volume of the worship music, the emphasis on doctrine secondaries (young-earth emphasis, OSAS belligerence, do’s and don’ts for women etc), and even the minutae how we were treated the second time round. Of the final few churches that we’d fit into the most, we were already certain that they were Biblically sound, Christ-centred and a place where we could offer ourselves long-term as believers.

In saying that, I chose to sacrifice two things in making the decision:

• Anonymity. Thanks to combination of Google, word-of-mouth and a church newsletter insert, there’s no hope of “hiding in the back row” anymore. In fact on Sunday, every new conversation I started was essentially: “Oh you’re William Chong.” It remains to be seen how I’ll deal with it in a humble, but less guarded way. And I suppose in heaven, everyone will know your name (or new glorified-body nickname).
• Future church visits. One reason IBC appealed was the greater flexibility in evening and morning services. I actually preferred their evening set-up since it was more Bible-study orientated, and I could then continue to spend my mornings visiting churches, something that I’ve found has been a spiritually-rewarding and humbling exercise. However, I have to remind myself that church-hopping shouldn’t take precedence over church-going.

Things I won’t miss about church-hopping:

• “Virtuous marketing”. While I’m all for providing more information to new visitors and church seekers, I think sometimes we felt that fine line was crossed. Professional 4-colour printed stationery has no real bearing on my home church decision. I remember once, we were almost manhandled into the specially-designated “WELCOME ROOM”, where the “welcomers” seemed nearly as uncomfortable as we were in taking coffee orders. No, barista service isn’t on my church priorities either.
• Leaving it all behind. I have to say that those that vociferously lament the lack of a good church in East Auckland should vociferously shut up – or at least reassess their opinions of what a good church should be. Yes, every church has flaws, being a collective of human beans. And yes, no church has got it nailed perfect. But for the most part (any church with a rating), I really appreciated the strengths each church brought to the effort reaching the Auckland community. It’s hard to choose between apples and apples, and a part of me wanted to stay at each church I went to that I even moderately liked – I felt bad in having to move on each time.

I know I’m blessed to even have to choose a church – for many who live in remote places, the nearest church may be townships away, or even further. Or for many more, even being a Christian is not a viable or peaceful option. As an urbanised generation we take many things for granted, and church choice is one of them.

Anyways, no more church reviews. Maybe I’ll move to pastor interviews, or walking stick reviews, or fish and chip shop critiques. Or wake from songwriting hiatus. Or how about… I get back to work

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