Getting Plugged In Again

One of the reasons I've been super reluctant to join a church again is the amount of work and activities I got involved in at RCC. At one point I was sitting on two standing committees, visiting a third, serving as the church webmaster, running the sound system at least once and sometimes twice a month, as well as doing photography for the church. At several points I was approached about doing a church pictorial directory in-house. Come to think of it, I also taught one of their Sunday school classes for a few months. I was one busy bee.

The problem was that nobody appreciated any of what I did. I was chased out of my teaching position because the kids didn't like me. None of my ideas flew in the committees. The website I was authoring was summarily scrapped by the senior minister. Why? I'm not sure. Photography was almost taken for granted when they figured out I showed up with a camera quite often. As for sound? Well, as soon as I ejected from the church, all my efforts in that area came to a screeching halt.

I was burned out. I was in a relationship where I was doing all the giving and getting nothing in return. To make matters worse, any little issue that came up that was truly little was generally blown way out of proportion by either the ruling cabal or the senior minister, and sometimes both. Knowing that joining a church opens me up to that kind of a commitment, I hesitated to join.

And I must say, that hesitancy is well founded. Today, after doing the standing-at-the-front and the meet-and-greet afterwards, the church organizer found me. We talked for a little while about what I'd done at my previous church as well as what I did for a living. We ended the conversation with her saying something to the effect of, "well, I think we can use you." I remember much the same thing being said to me at RCC.

Right now I plan to keep TCC at arm's length. I'll help Yizong do the photography class, but not much else right off. If TCC can minister to me, then great! I have doubts that it can, but we'll see.