I'm in love...

[kellinator]

with a church.


I had asked one of my coworkers, who's a student in the Theology school, if he knew of any good churches which had what I was looking for (liberal, young-adult community, NOT Southern Baptist). He recommended the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (http://www.redeemer.org/).

I got there a few minutes late and the service had already started. Several helpful members showed me where to go and I crept into the last pew... and almost immediately started crying. I don't know why. I just felt really strongly that this was where I should be.

It's an absolutely beautiful church, and the sermon involved several things I've had issues with (the conflict between being Christian and American [which I will talk about sometime], realizing you're not alone, etc.). And the pastor who did the children's sermon did it with a crow puppet! How cool is that?

Afterwards the girl beside me, who was also a visitor, and I struck up a conversation. There was a lunch for new members, and since we were visitors they didn't charge us the nominal fee. We got to talk to the new members pastor and one of the leaders of the young-adult group. I found out that Lutherans don't really care about sexual orientation (a big issue for me, though I'm straight) and don't want to evangelize in a pushy manner like the Baptists do.

I'm really excited about this. I think this is where I'm supposed to be.

Comments

[buckthorn.livejournal.com]

um, not to be negative or anything, but doesn't the accuracy of a church's teachings take precidence over its "warm and fuzzy" factor? I guess it depends on whether or not you think that there is one interpretation of the Bible that is correct and the rest are incorrect. I guess I'm just saying look for Biblical accuracy, not pastoral opinion, when choosing a church. I could form a church right now that could be the most kawaii genki church in the land and wrap you up in kittens during the sermon, but if it's not following the Bible what good is it?

Sorry.. don't want to rain on anything, just asking you to choose carefully with more than the smiles of fellow parisioners in mind.

[kellinator.livejournal.com]

Appreciate your opinion, Brian, but I'm not exactly a babe in the woods here. I grew up Southern Baptist and can give you lists of the inaccuracies spouted at me during sermons. (Example: "America was founded on Christianity." I really wanted to interrupt that sermon and explain to the preacher that most of the Founding Fathers were deists. He probably didn't know what a deist was.)

I've read my Bible through -- in fact, I probably have a better working Biblical knowledge than 90% of the American population. I've thought long and hard before reaching my conclusions, which include 1). a religion based in fear instead of love isn't what Jesus was about, 2). the Bible was divinely inspired, but it was written by men, which means like anything manmade there could have been errors, 3). the Old Testament bars rare steak and fabric blends, and I don't see anyone up in arms over those, and 4). Paul was a lot more interested in telling people they were going to hell (and women to shut up) than Jesus was.

I don't pretend to know the mind of God. Based on what I've seen, Lutherans will come closer to admitting that than Southern Baptists, or pretty much any other group of fundies. Anyway, if I join a church I don't agree with that won't even recognize that rational people can have disagreements over issues of interpretation, I'm a liar and a hypocrite. And one thing Jesus really didn't like was hypocrisy.