church

ahhh so many thoughts running through my head. that's what my church at home does to you. sadly i always come out of a service at little Christ Lutheran more confused than when i went in. Our pastor was gone today [sidenote: he didn't tell anyone in our congregation he wouldn't be there] so we had a different pastor do the service and his wife [a pastor-in-training] do the sermon.

I'm not going to lie, it was a good sermon. But there's the whole woman-as-preachers debate that i don't wanna get in to. The idea of no women pastors wouldn't be so hard for me to swallow if i didn't like their sermons a LOT better than any man i've heard preach [in a lutheran church, that is]. I can't help thinking the elementary thought that if God didn't want women to be pastors, couldn't he just make them all do a really bad job so no one churches would want to hire them and no one would like them? wow, that looks even dumber in writing than it sounded in my head. Just another one of those things that God wants people to figure out for themselves. Good thing he gave us the Bible to help us figure it out!

Now on to the statement "The church is not a building." Yes. Obviously true. yet i see so many hearts in our congregation that are unwilling to serve, people acting like they love coming to church even tho I know they don't. people that don't even pretend they like coming to church but feel obligated to, and for some reason they show up anyway. No wonder our church is ripping apart at the seams. These people are not a church. These people do not need religion. They need a relationship w/God.

As long as I'm 'on my soap box' I will cover one small reason for our melancholy congregation: our liturgy. I understand that it makes people feel comfortable, it's tradition, probably like 95% is even biblical. But's a ROUTINE. It becomes such a routine that, if you're not careful, worship becomes mindless, heartless and pointless.

I can't wait until I get back to Hillside Community Church.