i think i forgot how difficult it can be to find a church. well, i don't guess its hard to literally find one, but it seems hard to find one to call home. tara and i have visited a few and ive met a few other pastors since being on island, but we just haven't felt comfortable for whatever reason. none of the churches ive visited are "bad" churches and we haven't seen anyone try to eat snakes or train monkeys to worship with us, but still, ive had a hard time finding a "home" church.
at times i know its my fault. im hard on churches and their pastors. i am at times very cynical, judgmental, and basically want something like centralpub in ct. i want a place i can invite friends to. i would like them to enjoy and love college students. i want them to be a part of the community. but above all, i want them to be authentic people.
today i think i visited a great church. its not the biggest or the smallest. it doesn't have very many white off-islanders. it doesn't have the nicest building or the best music or the most dynamic speaker ive ever heard. but they were humble, kind, and authentic. tara and i were a little late, but there were still fresh local banans and bread fruit near the door. a nice man named glenn welcomed us and grinned as he shook our hands. the song choice was great and thoughtful, not just repetitive and spiritual sounding. the church is also trying to love and strengthen the chamoran culture. they are sponsoring a proa (a sweet canoe built in the old traditional ways) being built on the church grounds, which is a huge event and blessing to the island. people filter in to learn about their culture and why a church would want to support it every week. and, their pastor is a texan.
anyway, the sermon was relevant and insightful. we shook a lot of hands after the service and met a sweet girl who wanted to be a part of the new college ministry. but the thing me and tara both mentioned as we got in the car was how honest and authentic everyone seemed. no one tried to sell the church to us. no one praised their accomplishments or tried to recruit us for teaching or group leading or anything. they just welcomed us and said they were glad to meet us. i liked it.
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11 comments:
not to belittle your situation or how hard it is to find a church, but i definately feel you on this too! I am looking for a church right now too. I sure hope you find a community to be a part of and really have a time to rest from being a pastor...
Can you make a list of maybe 5 criteria that you know a church you are involved with can't budge on? For example, you mentioned "relevant" and "authentic" several times, but are there other things that are musts for you? Typically a church that is relevant is going to be appealing to the college crowd, so I was wondering if there are other things besides those which hold utmost importance for you~
bsimp, ill be praying for you too.
laura, here are 5 that are extremely important to me:
1. i want them to be involved in some ways with the community. maybe they build a boat as an outreach or they give away breakfast bars or they wrap presents during christmas or they sponsor single mothers... something.
2. i want them to talk about FOLLOWING Jesus.
3. i want to be able to invite an unbeliever to the service. this is where the relevant, authentic atributes can be very noticable. they may greet someone lovingly and not push them with hard questions or maybe they use words we all understand rather than the christian subculture terms.
4. i want them to have similar doctrinal ideas. for examle, it would be hard for me to go to a church who thinks salvation is for the sole reason of us not going to hell. i want them to talk and enjoy the "kingdom of heaven" being here now. also, they can't be charming snakes or telling us walking down an isle will save us or saying we should have sex before marriage or whatever.
5. i wait for Jesus to prompt me to be a part of their fellowship.
i know there are many more important criteria, but this is what i could think of at the moment. hope it helps.
and i know you aren't laura... sorry. i was trying to do two things at once.
i know i left off some things like "centered around God's glory" and "heavy overseas mission involvment"...
what are some things that are important to all of you??
lets see...there must be strobe lights, drums that are miked, and pews...not chairs (just joking).
1. mission oriented- i grew up baptist...but i don't necessarily have to go to a baptist church. however, that's where I will start looking because I like the way the church is supposed to be centered around evangelism. I would actually like to go to a non-denom.
2. maybe it's not the best thing, but when someone speaks, they have to have a voice for it and be passionate. I am quite the critic on speakers (every where, not just church). I guess that's my speech comm. major coming out. I know I am not the best at it either...that's why I am not a preacher. Also, i want the preacher to be a pastor, not just a teacher. It drives me crazy when all the pastor (as in shepherd of the sheep) only teaches on sunday morning and doesn't do anything else. Music doesn't really matter to me, I can usually enjoy it.
3. doctrinal speaking, like austin said, the kingdom being at hand, relationship not religion, and a place where i can bring someone who has not experienced Jesus where they would feel comfortable. And because I am a jackass, i usually always find something wrong with what was said but I just try to take the good and leave the bad. Unless it is cultish or life altering (for the worse).
4. I also like some form of small group. Community is not built in 300s. Community is built in 10-15s.
5.I just want a place where it is ok to not be ok. A place to sing and fellowship with broken people because we have hope!
I can see exactly where you're coming from as well. I've been looking into some new churches lately. In the midst of this I'm finding myself greatly biased, and standing firm to my bias... I'm not sure if this is helping or hurting me.
I think some key things that I'd like to see within a home church is something that is just that a 'home' church. A place that instills value, and has a great community atmosphere. However, I don't want to be somewhere that showcases just how clicky, or typical a church can be. I find myself looking for something that strays from the typical. A place that wholly embraces missions, and the community. A church that will also incorporate vibrant ways of worship via drama, music, and art.
I like the idea of small groups through out the week. That's what I know, and that's where I typically learn more.
The speaker should hold a certain level of passion for all the words he speaks. It's important for the pastor, as well as the church goer to be genuine, accept brokenness, and strive for change while strengthening a relationship with Jesus.
and on that note, a church community that is true to following Jesus, is of top priority.
Yes and Amen to finding a church and finding the intrinsic goodness in the messiness of authenticity.
i think all of yall made great points.
1) importance of teaching:
a pastor would not need to be dynamic or incredibly articulate, but sincere. depth and doctrine rich sermons but as mentioned before, expressed in ways that everyone in the room can understand. (the lifetime christian and the non-believer who came simply to test you.)
2) a place where "it's ok to not be ok":
bryan mentioned this. i think a place that constantly pushes that mentality finds it very hard to create facades.
3) community involvement:
austin mentioned this. the place can do anything, it just needs to push an outward focus rather than an inward focus.
4) heart in "worship":
as a music guy it's difficult sometimes to chase the intent and heart rather than the technical. it's also very easy to see when others are doing it. i'd love to be in a place where the music is good, but i'd forsake all of that and sing along with a horrible guitarist if it was clear they were chasing after Jesus.
5) Jesus:
everything has to come back to him. every sermon. every song. every announcement. every handshake. if it's not, then the focus is on something else. something less.
great list stephen, tara, bryan, and alicia...
stephen, i especially love your #5. i agree completely. thanks man.
I've decided not to leave a list since you called me Laura...
:)
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