Why This Church? is a periodic guest column submitted by members of our congregation who are sharing why they chose Country Club Christian Church as their faith community. This edition was submitted by Matt Moeder, pictured below with his wife, Valerie.
Over the years, several people have told me that God directs you to the church where you belong. After attending Country Club Christian Church for nearly three years, I am positive those people were right. In the spring of 2011, my longtime girlfriend (and now my wife), Valerie, and I were searching for a church to reignite our faith as we started our life together. Country Club Christian Church was the first church on our list. As we approached on that first Sunday, I did not know exactly what to expect. I was a bit intimidated by the grandiose structure and thought the service would resemble the many Catholic masses that I experienced in my younger years when I belonged to that faith. But it was not. It was a service that was rich in tradition yet exuded warmth, inclusiveness, and provided a practical connection to God and his teachings. Our first Sunday service was indicative of everything that Country Club Christian Church has stood for since then.
We became members in November 2012 and got married at the church in September 2013. We have thoroughly enjoined the high level of activity and the many programs and services that Country Club Christian Church offers. Many of the programs – a Lenten book study, marriage enrichment, and couple communication classes – have strengthened our faith and our relationship with each other. However, the point when I realized more than ever that Country Club Christian Church was the church where I belonged was when my family and I dealt with heartbreak. In June 2013, my younger brother, Nicholas, tragically passed away. Although a new member at that time, church officials and members coalesced around us and offered genuine support, thoughts and prayers in the days and weeks that followed. I was so touched by the level of kindness. At the first service that I attended after his death, the church was engaged in the sermon series titled Overwhelmed: Finding God in the Midst of Life’s Storms. It seemed as if the sermon was divinely designed to assist me as I moved forward. The sermon that I heard on that day and all of the sermons in that series haveprovided me a guidebook as I assimilate to life without my brother and to rely on God and take solace in him.
Country Club Christian Church offers so much to its members, visitors, neighbors and community. It practices what it preaches and it perpetuates the highest ideals that are engrained in God’s words and his many lessons. God has pointed us to Country Club Christian Church for many reasons, some have already presented themselves and many are yet to be discovered.
