I’m sorry I haven’t written so long, but I’ve been working, parenting, and even writing. I’m facing a conundrum, and I’m not sure what to do.
My beloved pastor is leaving my former beloved church – for one year – and we are going there a lot to say goodbye. He expects us to continue attending monthly – no more than that, and I wish I could go every Sunday but that’s impractical in so many ways (it’s an hour away).
So we tried the nearby Wesleyan, and we felt a lot of love there and a need for growth. The problem was the sermons didn’t reach me. At ALL. They felt childish – ok, you can call that hubris, but at a certian spiritual level you need a certain amount of nourishment. So Pastor L suggested we try this other church I’d mentioned before we left, and we went. It was great – a certain lack of community, maybe, smaller than the other church, and nearly impossible for me to reach at this point since I haven’t learned highway driving yet. (I’m from NYC, driving is an OPTION there, so I didn’t get my license until less than 2 years ago.)
Trouble is the new church called (AND sent a card). They are having evening growth groups for families with kids similar ages, and vacation bible school in July, and they want us back. New church hasn’t contacted us at all, while the other church keeps at it. New church is much more liberal – first time there, pastor did a George W. Bush joke. TOTALLY up my alley, and personally, I’m again starting to get repelled by Christians who believe that God started this awful Iraqi war and don’t question our ‘great’ leader just because he’s (allegedly) a conservative Christian.
What do I do?? Go for like-minded but mostly inaccessible (at this point) church, or go for nearby and welcoming (or is it stalking??)? I’m REALLY interested in finding people who can help me on my Christian path, but won’t stick their hand in my face because I believe that you are born gay, or that Clinton really WAS a good president, or that abortion is more of a grey issue than black and white.
I’m WAY out of my own territory here, but what if you tested the waters a bit with the church that seems to be offering more community? By revealing more of who you really are–make your more liberal politics and approach to Christianity clear? Put it right out there, up front–not in a confrontational way, but not apologetically or timidly either. There’s no way a church is going to work for you that can’t accept that in the long run anyway, and as you discovered in your old church, the love and the community count for a lot, probably more than liberal doctrines. If they do accept you as you are, your presence may act as a bit of leavening in the church, opening up minds a bit. If they don’t–well, head on down the road to the more liberal church–there might be some leavening to be done there, too. You can learn to drive on the highway–if, nurtured in the wilds of Idaho and Oregon, I learned to handle NYC subways and crowds (which in my youth I did), you can learn to drive on a highway
Just a thought.
Thanks, Addofio; actually your post is helpful. I hadn’t really thought along the lines of expressing my own politics – it’s something that ranges from “MUST share this” to “I’m uncomfortable”, depening on how informed I am about something. (Which amy sound silly, I’m always shocked and appalled by the amount of political decisions my fellow Americans make with little or no knowledge of a topic.) I am ME and that’s all I can be.
Leavening? Well, I must admit I like that term much better than “subverting”, lol…
I know I will learn to drive highway in the next year or so, but at 41 I am still a nervous driver so I need to do it in my pace at my time. I’m no longer the “jump right in” person I used to be .
[...] feel the need to tread lightly. Kids had a great time, and spent ALL of today in bed. In fact, our church dilemma is delayed another week as we didn’t make it to church [...]