RANDOM THOUGHT SUNDAY
Really, my randomness is ... well, it's broken. I've got a beef, and I'm planning on airing here ... at the risk of offending some, I'm sure.
I HATE living in the Bible Belt!
Don't get me wrong, I love my new home. I love living in Kentucky, but I absolutely despise this prevailing thought that being a Christ follower is all about legalistic mumbo-jumbo. I spent a good deal of adult life (some would argue, that I've not really been an adult all that long) looking for a church home where God and His tenants weren't "dumbed down." That the basics clearly stated in the Bible weren't twisted to fill man's comfortable intrepretation of the Bible. Six years ago, I found that place. It's called Westwinds, and it confirmed what I always knew ... God lives in the pages of the Bible and in the depths of my heart and not in some overly stuffy building with the reuquired 80 million religious artifacts plastered about the walls and hallways, with the legalistic tenants of man firmly squeezed in a holier than thou hand. You don't have to be there everytime the building is open in order to live a life richly embraced in His loving grip.
Westwinds embraced the things that I knew God had to love, but no one else seemed to recognize ... those of artistic thought and feeling ... of fringe society ... of music with a beat (heaven forbid, also commonly referred to as the devil's music) ... they welcomed the philosophical world and loved us all for our faults.
Westwinds didn't care if you came into the building with jeans and a t-shirt ... and they weren't all that concerned with the fact that your t-shirt might have had CORONA splashed across the front of it. The fact that you came, that was what was important.
Leadership and service were highly valued, and it didn't matter what gender you were. If your heart was right with the One that really counts, your boobs wouldn't get in the way of your service to Him.
How gratutiously did I take for granted those values! How I long to find a place like that here!
I visited yet another church today ... a HUGE church ... the biggest church that I've ever been to in my life! I was so excited about visiting this church. It sounded so much like what I was looking for. The band was ... well, all men ... in button-down shirts and slicked back hair. Instruments were not played with reckless abandon here ... no lost in the spirit and the music. It was all very tame and ... well, proper.
This church had ushers ... all men, dressed in suits and ties ... much like the baptist church of my youth. No women ... they were relagated to holding the doors at the entrance into the BIG, GIGANTIC room they called the Worship Center.
The sermon was fine, but it wasn't the meat I've been dying to sink my teeth into ....
They had communion, and I took part ... but I missed walking up to the communion station, tearing off a piece of bread, dunking it into the blood of Christ and then spending time in contemplative prayer. Instead, I did it all wrong by grabbing the cup and then keeping it with me ... or least that is what I got from the lady who rolled her eyes at me, all the while holding the gold communion tray in my face.
I miss the whole laid back feel of Westwinds ... I miss the complete lack of churchiness and the reckless abandon with which they allow the spirit to move through the worship experience. I miss the black toilets and the ode to mustard walls, for heavens sake! I miss feeling accepted as exactly who I am ...
Westwindies ... I miss you! I know that church people complain about all that isn't going well ... that could be better ... that isn't like you, personally, would want it, but I gotta tell you. Don't take it for granted. Man! Be thankful you are where you are for the time He has you there, because it's a load of crap to slog through when you have to find it all over again. The process is painful ... and it's long ... and it sucks.
I HATE living in the Bible Belt!
Don't get me wrong, I love my new home. I love living in Kentucky, but I absolutely despise this prevailing thought that being a Christ follower is all about legalistic mumbo-jumbo. I spent a good deal of adult life (some would argue, that I've not really been an adult all that long) looking for a church home where God and His tenants weren't "dumbed down." That the basics clearly stated in the Bible weren't twisted to fill man's comfortable intrepretation of the Bible. Six years ago, I found that place. It's called Westwinds, and it confirmed what I always knew ... God lives in the pages of the Bible and in the depths of my heart and not in some overly stuffy building with the reuquired 80 million religious artifacts plastered about the walls and hallways, with the legalistic tenants of man firmly squeezed in a holier than thou hand. You don't have to be there everytime the building is open in order to live a life richly embraced in His loving grip.
Westwinds embraced the things that I knew God had to love, but no one else seemed to recognize ... those of artistic thought and feeling ... of fringe society ... of music with a beat (heaven forbid, also commonly referred to as the devil's music) ... they welcomed the philosophical world and loved us all for our faults.
Westwinds didn't care if you came into the building with jeans and a t-shirt ... and they weren't all that concerned with the fact that your t-shirt might have had CORONA splashed across the front of it. The fact that you came, that was what was important.
Leadership and service were highly valued, and it didn't matter what gender you were. If your heart was right with the One that really counts, your boobs wouldn't get in the way of your service to Him.
How gratutiously did I take for granted those values! How I long to find a place like that here!
I visited yet another church today ... a HUGE church ... the biggest church that I've ever been to in my life! I was so excited about visiting this church. It sounded so much like what I was looking for. The band was ... well, all men ... in button-down shirts and slicked back hair. Instruments were not played with reckless abandon here ... no lost in the spirit and the music. It was all very tame and ... well, proper.
This church had ushers ... all men, dressed in suits and ties ... much like the baptist church of my youth. No women ... they were relagated to holding the doors at the entrance into the BIG, GIGANTIC room they called the Worship Center.
The sermon was fine, but it wasn't the meat I've been dying to sink my teeth into ....
They had communion, and I took part ... but I missed walking up to the communion station, tearing off a piece of bread, dunking it into the blood of Christ and then spending time in contemplative prayer. Instead, I did it all wrong by grabbing the cup and then keeping it with me ... or least that is what I got from the lady who rolled her eyes at me, all the while holding the gold communion tray in my face.
I miss the whole laid back feel of Westwinds ... I miss the complete lack of churchiness and the reckless abandon with which they allow the spirit to move through the worship experience. I miss the black toilets and the ode to mustard walls, for heavens sake! I miss feeling accepted as exactly who I am ...
Westwindies ... I miss you! I know that church people complain about all that isn't going well ... that could be better ... that isn't like you, personally, would want it, but I gotta tell you. Don't take it for granted. Man! Be thankful you are where you are for the time He has you there, because it's a load of crap to slog through when you have to find it all over again. The process is painful ... and it's long ... and it sucks.
Comments
I got an email from one of the leaders of the life group I've attended. She checked out Westwinds' website and had to agree with me ... nothing like that here ... yet. She said to give it 5 or 6 more years.
Ah! Progress is a pain, isn't it?