I have been going to church most all my life. I grew up in Merrillville, Indiana across the street from the pastors house. He invited us to church. My brother went for a while, my sister was very active, and I went. I started out just going to Sunday School. After Sunday School I'd head home and watch The Lone Ranger and The Cisco Kid. That was pretty much the routine each week as I grew up. It's kinda funny, my parents never went but I can't remember not ever going. Maybe Sundays were a break from the kids for them. Once I hit my teenage years I started staying for the worship service. Now a million years later here I am a youth pastor. I still go to church every week. I can't imagine not going. I love church, I love the people, I love most everything about it. I have watched over the years people leave the church. They get angry, lose heart, whatever the reason. I don't understand sometimes why they do it when we go to the same church with the same people. Why don't they feel loved and accepted? How is it that they can't seem to find what they are looking for? I know in life as well as the church you get out of it what you put into it. ~Brian~
5 comments:
Good questions. It cann feel like it would be easier to escape and start fresh than deal with the issues at hand. But other times I think it's just Satan having fun. Driving people away, uprooting them so they're starting over and taking time to be effective again.
The fine line is figuring out when you're just making excuses and need to suck it up and keep trying....and when the restlesness is really a "divine discontent" intended to pull you into a newer place that you're actually supposed to be.
That's the part I can never figure out.
You know, I completely agree with what Bekah said. Starting over sucks and it's definately not something that i would want to have to do time and time again. It's hard finding where you fit in a church at the beginning but I think alot of people don't stick around long enough to put the effort into being effective. They want so much for the other people at the church to make them feel accepted, but they won't ever feel accepted anywhere if they don't accept themselves.
I don't know if that even makes sense.
God doesn't call us to be pew warmers. We are called to harvest a field. Have you ever grown a garden? It's tough work and you get dirty and experiences some aches. Sadly, our society has created a selfish and lazy people who want to get the most for the littlest effort. So people get upset easily and do not want to work through the issues and leave. I consider this pruning and getting cut hurts. I pray that people seek God's guidance, which I constantly pray for myself.
Your Bears won again.
My Lions won also! Lions, Colts and Bears oh my! I miss having football parties... Just a superbowl party is not enough. Can you believe a woman is saying this? :O)
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