I don’t go to church anymore… there I said. I don’t care what you think of me or how you feel about it. I’m not mad or defensive one way or the other. You can be disappointed if you want. That’s fine. Again. I’m not worried about what you think of me in this regard. And I know… “don’t forsake the gathering or believers”… I’m not, you can still go. I’m just not going. And I will tell you why if you would like to listen to what I’m going to say about why myself and so many others have walked away from the church and not the faith. Please understand that last bit... The church... not the faith.
I have started referring to myself as a recovering Christian. What does that mean? Well. I say that in the since that I used to be a very “legalistic” individual at times and on certain issues. But here lately (last couple of yrs) I don’t see the world in black in white (whatever that means to you) or right and wrong or left and right. There is way more grey area out there in the world than anyone in a pew or behind a pulpit cares not only to admit but also to preach/talk about.
It’s been about a year since I went to my regular church here and one of the last times I was there the pastor asked me how the “sermon/talk” was that morning. Please know that I have a tremendous amount of respect for this person and his position (I've known him and his family for years). And he had asked me this question on several occasions. And for whatever reason I always answered as honestly as I knew how and this time was no different. In short I told him that, he shouldn’t be scared of a topic and shouldn’t dance around it. As we were not given a “Spirit of fear and timidity…” And to quit talking about how life should work and start talking about how it actually does work.
Far too many pastors and teachers are talking from the pulpit and in their “counseling” sessions about how it should work instead of how it actually does work. We don’t live in a utopia… we live in a fallen broken world. We shouldn’t be talking about how the utopia works. But about how life actually works and what do about it. Quit placing life into the teachings of the Bible and bring the teachings Bible into lessons of life. I know that sounds like I’m being a heretic but I’m not… I’m not saying change what the Bible says in order to make it work with life and make “you feel good”… (ie “Prosperity Gospel/Teaching”). I’m actually saying the exact opposite... there are times where the "encouragement" should kick your butt.
#2, There is this trend, if you will, by “Christians” of telling people why they left the church. I’m sorry but shut-up and listen to their stories. The church is horrible about dehumanizing people because of what was experienced and in some cases they disregard the experience all together. All the stories are different. Please do not lump them into one category about how some one was done wrong. You don’t need to read damn book written by anyone or a research group to figure this out. The reason I think this is done is the same reason it’s done on an individual level… Either the person doesn’t want to listen… or the person is scared of what is being said and that the truth of someone was hurt by “the church” is too much to handle. It shakes “Christians” to the core… or at least it should.
#3, Get out of pews and out from behind the pulpit. Quit praying for a change and begging God for a change in your community. Get off your asses and put boots on the ground. And be genuine! For crying out loud be GENUINE!
It aggravates me to hear someone in “The Church” say, “We’re just trying to love them with intention.” Really… isn’t love in and of itself intentional. You have to make a decision to do it… to show it… after all it is a verb in that case. Like any other verb it has to be done intentionally.
So if you are “loving people with intention” what is your intention? To get them in to your faith or you pews or some other reason… which would be intentional… and anything but genuine. Correct me if i’m wrong but we do and have preached that love should not have a motive other than love itself right? Then why love for any other reason… other than love?
Maybe the love should be genuine... not "intentional".
And there is your 3 point Methodist sermon…
And to anyone I offended with this entry… That wasn’t the intention. But you may need to sit back and ask why it “offended” you…
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