I’m taking a break from my blog between Christmas and New Year’s. I’m re-posting a couple of your favorites (based on clicks) and a couple of my own favorite posts from 2011. I hope you enjoy! I’ll be interacting in the comments section, so if you comment, I’ll respond. Merry Christmas and a happy New Year!
Dear local church,
You do weird things. And please don’t tell me you have no idea what I’m talking about.
- You eat tiny crackers and drink tiny glasses of grape juice.
- You sing. Loudly and passionately. And it’s 8:30 on a Sunday morning. Seriously, who sings, out loud, where others can hear them before 9:00?
- You ask people to come down front. Nobody at my son’s baseball game has ever asked me to make a big life decision right in front of the whole stadium.
- You tell me I need to go somewhere else, into someone else’s home, to really connect.
- You pass a bucket for me to put money in. Do I have to pay to worship here?
- You lay hands on people to pray for them. Never seen that one done in a helpful way in a PTA meeting. Never.
- You preach from the Bible, and keep referring to it as an authority in your life, but I don’t see it like that. It’s a bit strange that you would put such weight into such an old document.
I’m not saying that these things are wrong. They’re just weird to me. I need you to help me understand why I need to do them. Why they’re important. Why you do them every week. Why I need to join in. Why I feel like such an outsider when I’m there.
I don’t want to be an outsider. Nobody does. I’d like to feel like I’m a part of you guys…but I need you to be patient. Walk me through understanding and doing. It took you lots of years to get where you are…help me get there. But don’t assume that, after 2 weeks, I’m going to “get” it.
Because when you don’t help me understand, you push me away…and it seems you don’t care that I come back.
Signed,
