Moms Night Dilemma

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. To answer some questions from the thread:

We left the church because we don't like the pastor or the Sunday school director. Unfortunately, the Sunday school director is one of the people in the mom group who I don't really want to see - she's high drama aside from the professional disagreements we had with the way she ran the Sunday school. The pastor is wholly uninspiring and self-absorbed. He's not preaching anything hateful, but he's not really speaking to the moment either.

It was hard to leave because we really do like most of the people in the congregation. But we really wanted something more inspiring, especially for our kids, so they get the sense that our religion should be an active part of how they interact with the world, something that pushes them to help others and do good. Our new church has a more proactive pastor who preaches about the issues of the day without sound "preachy" and our kids' experience in Sunday school is lightyears better. We're happier religiously, but the social life of the new place is slower. I've tried inviting some moms at the new place over, but haven't been successful yet. People seem to have busier lives and established friend groups already (probably also a function of trying to make friends when our kids are all a little older). It does make me miss how social our old place was, even with all of its other faults.

I don't really want to share the reasons we left with the people who are still there, because I don't want to disparage it when they are all still happy there (or happy enough not to leave). I left the group chat about the get togethers and will continue to just be in touch with the people I want to see.

I posted that this was like putting your dog down and hanging with the group from the dog park. I thought you left your religion.
You are just going to service at a different place? This seems more like taking your dog on a different route for walks.
Is this even a big deal? Why would anyone else even care?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks everyone. To answer some questions from the thread:

We left the church because we don't like the pastor or the Sunday school director. Unfortunately, the Sunday school director is one of the people in the mom group who I don't really want to see - she's high drama aside from the professional disagreements we had with the way she ran the Sunday school. The pastor is wholly uninspiring and self-absorbed. He's not preaching anything hateful, but he's not really speaking to the moment either.

It was hard to leave because we really do like most of the people in the congregation. But we really wanted something more inspiring, especially for our kids, so they get the sense that our religion should be an active part of how they interact with the world, something that pushes them to help others and do good. Our new church has a more proactive pastor who preaches about the issues of the day without sound "preachy" and our kids' experience in Sunday school is lightyears better. We're happier religiously, but the social life of the new place is slower. I've tried inviting some moms at the new place over, but haven't been successful yet. People seem to have busier lives and established friend groups already (probably also a function of trying to make friends when our kids are all a little older). It does make me miss how social our old place was, even with all of its other faults.

I don't really want to share the reasons we left with the people who are still there, because I don't want to disparage it when they are all still happy there (or happy enough not to leave). I left the group chat about the get togethers and will continue to just be in touch with the people I want to see.

Op, I hear you. We switched churches about a year ago to another one about 2 miles from the first one. We left for similar reasons - Sunday school was mostly arts and crafts and I wanted something more focused on the religion and I was not feeling very inspired by the homily/pastor. We are very happy with our new church and I feel like my faith and my kids faith is being nurtured, so it was definitely the right decision.

I was decent friends with another mom, and our kids go to school together. I didn’t want to complain about the church to her, so don’t really discuss why we left/leaving, just started attending the other church. After she realized we really had switched, she basically stopped being friendly. She isn’t rude, but her tone definitely shifted. She definitely stopped inviting my child for play dates. I think that some people feel an implied criticism when you switch churches, even though practicing faith is such a personal choice.

I don’t have any answers for you, just wanted to say that I am sorry your new church is tough to connect with families. I