No one stays at a church because they were assimilated into a program, they stay because they’ve been velcroed into relationships.

I read this statement quoted on a blog and it made me think about my church situations. After leaving Illinois I never really got into a church even though I attended until I began at Grace in February of 2005. The first week there I met Nancy and Chris who invited me into their home for dessert one evening. They looked for me on Sundays and asked me to sit with their family at church. In May I met Shelly in Sunday School, and she almost immediately asked if I’d like to play handbells. Although handbells were over until the fall, I attended a handbell concert with several ladies in the group in June. In September I began ringing. The group of ringers was fun, and I looked forward to getting with them on Wednesdays to ring. The ringing was fun, but the camaraderie and laughter of the group was a bigger draw.

The statement above makes me wonder--had it just been handbells and not the group dynamics of handbells, would I have stayed at Grace?