Monday, February 28, 2011

Church and how relevant is it to me right this moment?!?

I am writing this, knowing fully well that it is going to touch off firestorms in my church: www.houstonsfirst.org and in my sunday school: "Night Light" but at this point I really don't care! This is a dangerous place for myself and the church to be! I say this because it means church is not doing a very good job connecting with people, not just myself and for myself, I'm not allowing myself to connect back and be vulnerable or let people know what's going on.
I'm angry and disappointed and this spells trouble for church since I'm extremely well-connected within social media, unlike say other people who have voiced dissatisfaction and had nowhere to go with it, I do have a place to go with it and am never afraid to voice it!
This anger stems from a few incidents that have occurred witin last month or so. First off, happened in a church service, was singing and praising the Lord and evidently was too loud for people around me. A couple said, "let's move, this guy is a bit too loud for us" and said it in a stage whisper, meaning for me to hear it. Then a couple of people from my sunday school class said same thing and moved away. My first reaction was to think but luckily not say, "don't just move sections,move to another church,another state, heck just move away!!!"
Then a guy who has visited our class a few times, evidently went to one of our out of class events, was hurting and needed help, but only one who was available to chat with him was a girl from our class and there is a strict, no compromise rule that to "counsel" a person you absolutely and totally must be of the same sex as person you are counseling! I understand the "spirit" of the law, notice I said law, returning us to the "hollowed antiquity" of the law, but I don't see how it proclaims Christ and His love for people, if we won't allow the person available at the moment to help the person in need! Then to top of the whole situation, this gentleman goes to staff member as suggested and is rebuffed and told to go "serve" someone and not be so focussed on himself and his problems, despite the fact this guy has a chemical imbalance going on in his body, that he is not used to. The secretary for the staff member told this gentleman that people don't just get access to staff and that he needed to go, he then tries to send email and receives that rebuff and nothing else. Now I could completely and totally throw this staff member under the bus, but will show compassion and grace to him!
So when I say I will walk away from this church, I mean it. I could not have said that as recently as 6 months ago,but now God has worked on me and my dependence on church to meet my needs instead of God and am fully and totally cured of that after these recent bad church experiences, thank you very much God! That is where I am with the relevance of church in my life and the people around me, it's just not there!!!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

New yr,new challenges

I have been helping lead/facilitate a mid-week Bible Study on book of Romans, as part of my sunday school aka sunday night Bible study, but I like and always will like sunday school better, conjures up pleasant memories, whereas sunday night Bible study, conjures...nothing,but I digress, wow, big words are flowing,haha, sorry, as you can see I write EXACTLY as I speak, for better or as most people will say, for worse,lol.
I help lead a midweek study for: www.houstonsfirst.org and it has been challenging, exciting,frustrating and a whole slew of other thoughts and images all at the same time, frustrating because I sometimes have thoughts but only incomplete thoughts that sound good in my mind, but are confusing to say the least when I start sharing them out loud. But, exciting and other words when I think I get to share God and His Word with fellow fully devoted followers of Christ.
I continue to develop a friendship with my friend, Jessica, she continues to be the vessal that God uses to teach me thoughts he probably has wanted me to know for a long time, but it takes a special and excessively wonderful woman to help me understand what God has in mind for me to apply in my life and what she has learned about our Lord. If I haven't mentioned it, may I publically thank God for bringing her into my life.
Also I have become OBSESSED with the song: #Sing by My Chemical Romance, when I saw it done on #Glee by cast, sure I had heard the song before but really hadn't paid attention to words or music before and realized that it is just an incredibly powerful song full of well-thoughtout lyrics. Video makes you think to, so I recommend it to listen to and see the vid.