The gospel according to church 'hoppers'

I've been a lay person for almost 2 years now. It's a lot harder than some of you clergy might think. It's a lot harder than I thought. I'm not doing a very good job at it. Just ask my fantastic pastor who never sees me unless he's driving on my lawn. I am amazed that I have gone from having church being central to my life, to trying to fit church into my schedule. Remarkable. I do not like this. Years ago when I was still pastoring in OH, I heard about this trend of people being a part of more than one church -- as if they saw the churches in the community as a buffet. They take what they want from each. At the time I didn't think much of it despite the fact that the church I served didn't have a midweek program for kids so my kids went to Royal Rangers and Missionettes at the Assemblies of God Church. Little did I see it coming but here it is in my life. While I lived in the north country my family has been connected to various ministries at 3 or 4 different churches ... kids ministry one place, worship another, ladies Bible study another, VBS several places, etc. Now I'm moving down to Liverpool and I can already see the same thing is going to happen ... preschool one place, worship another, church planting elsewhere, etc. I guess this is normal for a lot of people, and even thought it is normal in my life I still feel weird about it. Coming from a pastoral perspective, in my mind I still think I'm only supposed to have one church. But I don't and probably won't.