Reflections On Church – What I Didn’t “get” - 1

This is a reflection on my persistent non-awareness, not a reflection on anyone else.

What didn’t I “get”?  These days it seems obvious, to me, but for most of my adult life it was only something I saw out of the edge of my peripheral vision, if at all.  I didn’t get the difference between my understanding of faith-practice, and the understanding most people in churches had (and have).  For me, adequate Christian practice had nothing to do with dressing up on Sundays, gathering with people like me, or keeping the institution of church prospering.

Rather, for me, adequate faith-practice was about outsiders, making people feel welcome and valued, listening more than talking, thinking about the questions working people, people without privilege, people who weren’t raised in church were wondering about. 

In my first pastorate, with twenty-two a “good” attendance on Sunday, there was no question in anyone’s mind.  We were a community church.  We needed to be involved with the community.  I visited homes, I became a Scoutmaster, I learned to care for not only the unchurched (nearly everyone) but for the shy, the people who lived back in the hills by choice, the disenfranchised on every street and in every home. 

That, to me, was what faith practice was all about. 

Sure, it was nice to get the crowd attending church bigger.  It was nicer when Ron said that because of our conversation over coffee in his kitchen he could put his faith in Christ.  Faith that would change his behavior, but that didn’t, when I could ever see it, make him an active church-goer. 

Hang on to what I am beginning to “get” about me.  I'll write more in a few days.  

Leave a comment if you care to.

Reflections on Church

Strange.  I became a Christian when I was 19 years old, a Junior at the University, and a generally 'moral and ethical' pagan.  Not anti-Chrstian.  But not raised in the church and very ignorant of this whole "Christianity" thing.  A bit over a year later I believed God was calling me to attend seminary to learn about this faith, so after graduation I went to Berkeley, CA, and worked my way through to a Bachelor of Divnity degree.  A couple of months before graduation I felt God telling me to accept the call to a small church (22 people attending) in northeastern Washington.

Strange.  I worked, I pastored, I became part of the community, I taught, I drank coffee with people, and never got it.

Then I was called to a university town to take a church that wanted to reach out to students.  I felt God leading and spent eighteen and a half years there, pastoring, teaching, drinking coffee with students, walking the floor with people overdosing on drugs and booze, meeting town drunks at 2:00 a.m. when the bars were closing, caring.  I never got it.

Then I felt "right" about accepting the pastorate of a suburban church that wanted to grow without adding new members.  After two and a half years of "doing church" I moved into the IT field and tried to figure out how to be God's person in institutions and businesses.

Strange.  I still didn't get it.

Recently I received a warm letter from friends back in that University town.  They shared that they attend another church but how neat it is that people who were kids born while I was pastor there are active in that church.  That church has left our denomination, has become very right wing, with an emphasis on narrowness and hostility towards others, and. . . I get it.  I think.

This article begins a series of reflections on what I "get".  How this will affect me is hard to say.  We'll have to see.

Read on.

Done With Forgiveness?

We attend a mainline church.  Striving to be relevant (and it generally is) it also seems to want to disassociate from the right-wing "Bible" churches of our area.  I understand that.  We are inclusive, caring, giving, generous and thoughtful.  I like that.

However. . .

I don't hear much, if anything, about forgiveness.  I just noticed this when reflecting a couple of weeks ago.  I got to wondering:  have we as humans grown so much that forgiveness is fashioned, something we no longer need to get or give?  Is forgiveness thought to be a panacea for guilt-ridden folks who need counseling, not redemption?

I wonder what you think about this question?

Tying it in with a news story I saw this morning where a Muslim village was savagely attacked by Buddhist fundamentalists, I wonder if there is a place for both side to work towards authentic forgiveness, or. . .
. . . should the Muslims seek counseling?
. . . should  the Buddhists keep torching people's homes and killing their children?
. . . does God simply say, "Whatever. . . "

What do you think?  Leave a comment and let us know.