When I was part of a Sunday-is-The-Big-Deal-church, I loved trying to get people to join with me.
Yet, I couldn't seem to come to a valid explanation of why Sunday services made any difference. After all, the Jesus I read about didn't spend all his time clumping folks up in the synagogue and giving them a nice TED Talk.
In a way, I lived vicariously through the people I would bring to church. I would see their smiles and their responses, and in some way it would comfort me knowing that someone found meaning in the service. Sometimes, they would talk about what they heard all week long. It made an impact in their lives, and even changed them a little.
I've had those experiences, too, but they haven't happened in a long time. A very long time.
Here's why:
I've read a ton of books, and I'm not gonna stop.
I've talked to a ton of people, and I'm not gonna stop.
I've heard the other sides of the stories. You know. The Jewish sides. The Muslim sides. The Buddhist sides and the Hindu sides, and, I'm not gonna stop hearing those sides.
It turns out that the Universal Claims that I held onto for so long weren't so universal after all. There was always the other side of story.
While I hold on very well to the teachings of Jesus, and the compassionate God he enables the reader to get a picture of, I don't hold on very well to Christianity. And, I'm starting to think that's okay.
But here's why not holding on to Christianity very well, but hanging onto God and Jesus as much as possible doesn't work inside a church service.
When you hang onto the teachings of Jesus and the awesomeness of God, and try to stay away from doctrine, you have to compromise something on a Sunday. And so, while the pastor is mouthing that perfectly Christian doctrine of the only way to salvation is through Christ Jesus, I'm thinking of my Jewish friend, my atheist, friend, and my agnostic friend - all excluded from something being taught as Universal Truth.
I feel like a traitor, like an anti-Jesus, or, antichrist.
In other words, the exclusivity of Christian religion sometimes gets in the way of the inclusiveness of the Christian God. Not sometimes. All the time.
But, lets backtrack. As long as this very non-Judeo-Christian setup continues (with one lecturer proclaiming the indisputable truth), I don't see how the Sunday service is ever gonna work with the people who the Christian Church is designed to coerce, I mean, love on.
Am I the only one who does the hard work of not only listening to a message and sorting out what I believe and don't believe? Am I the only one who will sit in a Sunday service and wonder where the hell the pastor got that idea? Am I the only one who sits in a service and wonders why the lecturer will talk as if they know things that are impossible to know, and since they say it in a convincing manner, it convinces the audience that it's true (even though it can't be proven)?
I may be asking the questions that many non-church-goers are asking:
Why continue to lay ourselves open to stuff we don't believe in, when there's no one asking if we see things differently?
I would LOVE it if once a month, we would spend a whole Sunday service going around the room and allowing everyone to tell why they believe or don't believe the "truths" that are talked about every Sunday.
Do a good enough advertisement for that one, and you'll have all the area atheists and agnostics ready to have a [very Biblical idea in the New Testament] discussion.
I keep trying to formulate these ideas of how I can jump back in so I can get the community I'm longing for. And, the only thing I can come up with is, agree to disagree in order to be part of the family. And the idea sounds horrible.
I don't want to tighten some mental bolts just to be able to sit in a Sunday service without having to remind myself that this is the pastor's belief system. That's what he's saying right now. It's his belief.
And, then I forget to do it sometimes. And then, there's other times that I spend so much time doing it that I completely miss the parts of the message that I like.
I'm gonna stop right now because my thoughts are shooting in a million different directions, and there is so much that can be covered in this topic. So, I'm gonna open it up for you, the reader, to please share your experience, strength, and hope.
Have you ever experienced what I'm experiencing right now?
What happened?
What did you do?
Have you given up, or did you find a way to persist?
That's all.
Yet, I couldn't seem to come to a valid explanation of why Sunday services made any difference. After all, the Jesus I read about didn't spend all his time clumping folks up in the synagogue and giving them a nice TED Talk.
In a way, I lived vicariously through the people I would bring to church. I would see their smiles and their responses, and in some way it would comfort me knowing that someone found meaning in the service. Sometimes, they would talk about what they heard all week long. It made an impact in their lives, and even changed them a little.
I've had those experiences, too, but they haven't happened in a long time. A very long time.
Here's why:
I've read a ton of books, and I'm not gonna stop.
I've talked to a ton of people, and I'm not gonna stop.
I've heard the other sides of the stories. You know. The Jewish sides. The Muslim sides. The Buddhist sides and the Hindu sides, and, I'm not gonna stop hearing those sides.
It turns out that the Universal Claims that I held onto for so long weren't so universal after all. There was always the other side of story.
While I hold on very well to the teachings of Jesus, and the compassionate God he enables the reader to get a picture of, I don't hold on very well to Christianity. And, I'm starting to think that's okay.
But here's why not holding on to Christianity very well, but hanging onto God and Jesus as much as possible doesn't work inside a church service.
When you hang onto the teachings of Jesus and the awesomeness of God, and try to stay away from doctrine, you have to compromise something on a Sunday. And so, while the pastor is mouthing that perfectly Christian doctrine of the only way to salvation is through Christ Jesus, I'm thinking of my Jewish friend, my atheist, friend, and my agnostic friend - all excluded from something being taught as Universal Truth.
I feel like a traitor, like an anti-Jesus, or, antichrist.
In other words, the exclusivity of Christian religion sometimes gets in the way of the inclusiveness of the Christian God. Not sometimes. All the time.
But, lets backtrack. As long as this very non-Judeo-Christian setup continues (with one lecturer proclaiming the indisputable truth), I don't see how the Sunday service is ever gonna work with the people who the Christian Church is designed to coerce, I mean, love on.
Am I the only one who does the hard work of not only listening to a message and sorting out what I believe and don't believe? Am I the only one who will sit in a Sunday service and wonder where the hell the pastor got that idea? Am I the only one who sits in a service and wonders why the lecturer will talk as if they know things that are impossible to know, and since they say it in a convincing manner, it convinces the audience that it's true (even though it can't be proven)?
I may be asking the questions that many non-church-goers are asking:
Why continue to lay ourselves open to stuff we don't believe in, when there's no one asking if we see things differently?
I would LOVE it if once a month, we would spend a whole Sunday service going around the room and allowing everyone to tell why they believe or don't believe the "truths" that are talked about every Sunday.
Do a good enough advertisement for that one, and you'll have all the area atheists and agnostics ready to have a [very Biblical idea in the New Testament] discussion.
I keep trying to formulate these ideas of how I can jump back in so I can get the community I'm longing for. And, the only thing I can come up with is, agree to disagree in order to be part of the family. And the idea sounds horrible.
I don't want to tighten some mental bolts just to be able to sit in a Sunday service without having to remind myself that this is the pastor's belief system. That's what he's saying right now. It's his belief.
And, then I forget to do it sometimes. And then, there's other times that I spend so much time doing it that I completely miss the parts of the message that I like.
I'm gonna stop right now because my thoughts are shooting in a million different directions, and there is so much that can be covered in this topic. So, I'm gonna open it up for you, the reader, to please share your experience, strength, and hope.
Have you ever experienced what I'm experiencing right now?
What happened?
What did you do?
Have you given up, or did you find a way to persist?
That's all.
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