So... one Sunday my best friend and I planned a church hopping event- we scoped out some churches with cool websites and programs for people our age that looked like we could fit in, and we made a list with different service times and locations. In the back of my mind there was this church I had been to once before and wanted to check out again, but I didn't want to add it to the list because it was kind of weird, the preacher was on a screen (weird, right?) and it was a lot of college students and I was still in high school, and honestly I just didn't understand how it worked. Well, my friend and I were really nervous and drove past like three churches on our list, circled the parking lots, missed the service start times, and talked ourselves out of trying a new church. This weird church didn't start until 11:30 though, so the whole time in the back of my mind I thought, if none of these work out, we can just go to the weird church.
We went to the weird church... wasted probably an hour driving around Tuscaloosa circling parking lots and examining people walking in, got really nervous about walking into the weird church because it was not in a real church building and there were what felt like a million people there, and we did not really know what to expect when we walked in. It was incredible. After the service, I knew that this weird church would now be MY weird church. The music was loud, the people danced and waved their hands during the "songs," the pastor was on a screen and there was a pastor on the stage in Tuscaloosa (two pastors? weird), but the second I left I knew that even though I did not understand this place, it would be my home.
Fast forward to senior year of high school. I experienced love like never before from a God I thought I knew a long time ago, I publicly declared that love with water baptism at a night service that I did not plan to get baptized in, and I began to serve and fall in love with the local church like I had never experienced in my life. I got in my first small group spring of my senior year and the little small group of 4-6 people became my rock for one of the hardest seasons of my life. I joined another small group in fall of my freshman year of college, found leaders who continue to shape my life today and led me to join the church college internship, 2:52. Then- God began doing things bigger than I could imagine, honestly bigger than I wanted.
The third Sunday in January 2014 I got a word from the Lord and knew I was being sent. This weird church would become more than a hobby, it would become a way of living. This relationship I had formed with God would become more than occasional, it would become a dependence. I was being called to leave everything and person I knew and step into a season of life that is nothing I would have planned for myself. God called me to Highlands College, the weird school. No one knew what it was, I didn't really even know, and yet I knew so confidently that I had to go.
Today I attend the weirdest school I have ever heard of. It is a school that is connected to a church that is changing thousands of lives across the state of Alabama. It is a school connected to a church that changed my life personally and carried me through the toughest times. It is a school where everyone knows everyone, but everyone also cares about everyone. It is a school where we do physical challenges and where we endure things that we didn't think we could, build relationships with people we don't know, and get a grade on it (weird). It is a school where God is moving and growing and using each student to reach His Kingdom- it is a really weird school, but if Highlands College is weird, and Church of the Highlands is weird, then I never want to stop being weird.
Today marks 15 years of the weird church, Church of the Highlands, and I could not be more thankful that God pushed me into the doors of this weird church about 3 years ago. I am a part of something that is bigger than anything I could ever do on my own, and I see week after week, day after day, the effects of the Lord's favor on this house. This church has changed everything about me (maybe even the way I post Instagrams, I admit it, gotta be hip) and I would never go back to how I was or where I was. Sitting in a service this Wednesday tears came because I realized the impact this place has, and I realized how cool it is that I get to be a part of it. I was made for this weird church.This weird church is my home, and I am so glad I accidentally found it.
