My first church was in a bowling alley.  Actually, I know that my family attended churches before this one.  It’s just the first church I remember.

I was 7 years old when my family moved to West Texas.  We lived in an apartment while our house was being built.  The back door of each apartment opened to a large common courtyard area.  I loved the freedom I had there to play with all my friends and ride my bike.  I dreamed up some pretty adventurous things for all of us to do. There was a young man living there, a pastor who was starting a new church.  He heard that my Mom had a degree in music and asked if she would help start the church.  It all began in a bowling alley.

Now, I only have one memory of that church and it was just a moment.  My sister and I held hands and stood before that very small congregation in the bowling lanes on Thanksgiving Sunday.  I was 7 and she was 5.  We sang a duet, “We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing….”.  In that moment, I felt loved and accepted by that church.  Even though I was a little scared, I felt I was doing something for God.  It was good.

Last fall I went back to my home town for my high school reunion.  I went to the apartment I used to live in, and amazingly it looked exactly the same.  I looked for the bowling alley but it was gone.  That evening at the reunion dinner, pictures were shown of the “good ‘ole days”.  Suddenly there popped on the screen a photo of the bowling alley!  “That’s my church”, I shouted.  I was able to get a copy and I keep it in my Bible.  Here it is…

It is exactly the scene I have in my mind of where we stood to sing that day.  Now, the best part….It reads, “World’s Finest Bowling Alley”.  YES!  Indeed it is!  It holds my treasured moment. My first church!

What is your memory of a moment in your first church?  How was that moment important to your faith?

nk