On Sunday April 22nd my nephew Luke confirmed at the Freedom Lutheran church in rural Janesville MN. My sister (his mother) and I were confirmed there, as was our father and our grandfather and many other members of my dad’s family. While I’ve long since moved away, Freedom will always hold a special, if sometimes conflicted, place in my heart.
Freedom is a small congregation. I think I was related to 2/3 of the folks attending this morning. Granted, many of them were there because of Luke, but quite a few of them are regular members, and I would guess that on a typical Sunday I might be related to a solid 1/4 to 1/3 of the attendees. There are a lot of family memories inside this church, including baptisms and confirmations and weddings and funerals. The adjacent cemetery is the final resting place of a long list of family who were a big part of those memories.
For a time as an adult I lived very close to Freedom yet much to the chagrin of my dad (among others) I chose to attend services elsewhere. I had a lot of reasons for that decision, too complicated to get into here. I don’t regret choosing the church I did as it was a wonderful place for me during some of the darkest times in my life in a way that frankly, a church all my relatives attended simply could not have been. But every Christmas Eve I was at Freedom watching my cousins in the children’s service.
When my husband Pat and I got married I moved to Iowa. There were a lot of reasons why I was the one to move, including uncertainly with my employer at the time and he owning this home while I was renting. I originally joined a local Lutheran church. A couple of years ago I made the decision to leave the Lutheran church and join the Methodist church. Again, I had a lot of complicated reasons for doing that, but again I am very happy with my choices and I know I’m doing what’s best for me and my faith journey. But still, every Christmas Eve I’m at Freedom. My niece is 6 and this Christmas Eve she will likely be the only family member in the children’s service. Will I still go after she’s confirmed and I no longer have close family participating? I can’t say for sure, but a big part of me says yes.
There is something about your “home” church that you will always appreciate as part of your faith journey and it’s always neat to go back to visit. I too have switched denominations from what I grew up in and while yes where I go now doesn’t fit my beliefs perfectly, neither does my home church. But those “roots” and my experiences along the way have helped me build my faith. And one thing I have witnessed by attending different churches during the years is that it really is the people that make the church.