Categories: uncategorized
Date: 23 August 2006 23:44:23
I sometimes wonder if 'people' wonder if I go to church, if I have an opinion on 'issues of faith', etc .....
So ... just in case you do .... yes, I do go to church ... it's a little random at present, I think my brain has already left and moved to Tasmania :) ... but I do go ... to a large Pentecostal type church in Sydney (and probably not the large one you think it is). In fact, for about 5 years I was a member of the worship team of said church. Not now, a decision taken on direction from God, and quite happy about it :)
I also go to the parents church when I'm home (not all the time) which is also the church we will be getting married in in December ... it's a very old sandstone church, designed by a very famous church architect ... gorgeous and lovely and small and fairly conservative but very much a faith filled church, not a church of 'habitual' churchgoers.
I have a few issues with teaching in churches and am known for leaving during sermons if it's boring or lazy or just plain wrong ... ie last week I went to the early service at my church (had an attack of the lazy's but Mr Tasmania talked me into going - what a good boy he is, I'm glad he did!). It was a good service, worship was great, offertory talk was great, lots of good stuff, sermon on generosity started off well but then ... 5 minutes in turned into a sermon on tithing ... so I left. No problem with tithing, it would have been a great sermon but seriously, I've been hearing those sermons for 35 years .. kinda got the point. So I went home and read the paper and did some more packing rather than sit in church listening to sermon I didn't want to hear and getting snarky with the preacher and having a bad attitude ... probably a far better option :)
I am also liable to go into a rant on exclusiveness within denominations at any point - so you've been warned - in fact you've probably heard it, I think I blogged about it once before! Anyway, for those who came in late ...
Your denomination is not the only denomination, your church does not have a monopoly on the 'right' way to worship, your liturgy or however your church runs is not the 'only' way, you are not really all that - deal with it!
You know, the church body is HUGE ... and there's along way from ultra-conservative to full bore Penty's and Charo's - and plenty of steps along the way (and that's not counting the sects, cults, and just plain WEIRD groups!) - I think there's something to be said for getting off YOUR step and jumping on to a couple of others every now and again just to check out what's going on, don't you? Seriously, Christians all worship the same God, just in different ways ... just like The Valkyrie loves a good real life forensic doco with enormous amounts of gore and scariness and I can't think of anything worse ... and she loved 'The White Masai' and I was bored just reading the reviews .... and I love being in the garden and she kills things on a regular basis ... but we like being in each others lives and learning/laughing/enjoying each others differences, so the church needs to do a bit more of the same ...
and really get over itself (as a body that is, I think God kinda knows exactly where He's at and I'm happy to leave that up to Him!)
Ok, well, just in case you wanted to know ....