e-Soundings

Through the eyes of another...

Have you ever wondered what a Christian fellowship looks like through the eyes of a new person?

May of us have been around church long enough that we know how to act, what to say, what to wear and what to do / not do.

Here's a blog entry that sums up a lot of feelings and experiences of people who show up to church for the first time.

Have you felt any of them?

Should I go back?

Posted in thought by nakedpastor on the August 26th, 2009

On my vacation I met with many people who have left the church. They are people I know and love. So from the start I want to say that these are generalizations. I do realize others might have more positive things to say. But what I hear from the people I talk with is pretty consistent. This is not my opinion. I’m not making judgments. This is just what I hear:

1. When they’ve been gone from church for a while and return they are all shocked by the strange lingo that people talk. It is a coded and getto-ized language that no one else understands but insiders.
2. When they go back more than once, suddenly there is a huge feeling of expectation that weighs down on them. They know that if they commit at all, they are going to have to meet certain expectations.
3. Although few admit it, shame is an important and powerful tool used to keep sins, weaknesses, struggles and differences concealed.
4. One quickly learns that although indulgences ended officially many years ago, money is still an effective means to earn rank, privilege and allowances within a community.
5. One discovers almost immediately what the belief system to be embraced is. Critical and inquisitive thinking is generally not welcomed.
6. Although it is rarely ever explicit, competition and the disdain for other religions and even other churches percolates through the attitudes, language and actions of the community.
7. Orientation, condition and status (examples: divorced, single mom, living together, gay, addict, etc.) are the equivalent of brands that are accepted or not.
8. If you come and go, in the end no one really seems to notice or care.
9. You are expected to grow only if it enables conformity.
10. Even though, if you keep going, you feel you are being knitted into the community, there is a strange feeling that there is something conditional about your acceptance and membership.

http://www.nakedpastor.com/archives/3680

And now a word about our future….

    2008 will be our “hinge year”. 

     That simply means that all the foundational work of the this year, all the work to address our struggles & hopes, all the dreams we’ve had in the past, will “hinge” on this next year of 2008.

    Once a church consultant asked this question: “Are the best years of your church behind you?  …or in front of you?”  To ask that question and to discover the answer is what “hinge-year” means.

     Now be careful in answering that question.  It would be easy to say: “Of course, they’re in front of us!”  But be honest.  We have to ask ourselves:

Time to Walk the Walk...

     In the previous post I spoke of our “Core Values.”  Now we get to practice some of them.

      Over the next month we’ll have the opportunity to celebrate the birth of Christ into our lives.

     It’s also an opportunity to consider and deepen the core values of: “A joyful sharing of Jesus Christ,” providing “Engaging Worship” and “Radical Hospitality”

     Christmas is the time of year when we will have the opportunity to see many new worshippers and make some new friends.
     We want to take this opportunity to think about what it means to authentically but gracefully share what Jesus means to us.
     We also want to provide a worship experience that is