Sunday, September 18, 2011

Huh?

"Let the Holiday begin!" was the battle cry coming from Preacher man as his Holiday does begin. I have taken sometime off too, as plans often do, ours have changed but we will make the best of this short Holiday! 
FUMC Rogers AR
We started off by going to what I have come to think of as "The Mother Church." Now this is not the Mother of all churches, nor is it the Mother of churches in Arkansas. It is the church where our church came from. I won't bore you with the details except to say there was a split and then there were two. There is still what is considered bad blood between the two churches and 'we' really don't talk about it. Here however, is where my issue begins. Having the Spiritual gifts of prophecy, exhortation and shepherding not to mention my bending towards healing, this whole situation goes against everything I know, have read in the Bible and confess as a Christian. My main question is why are we not trying to heal the huge riff that has occurred here? I have been shut down more times than I can count so when Preacher man asked if I wanted to go to the mother church for Sunday service, I jumped on the chance!
There is always a check list approach that goes off in your head when you've been to as many churches as we have and for good reason. When Preacher man get's his own church, we want it to be welcoming and the people to be friendly and in short, all the good stuff going on. That's what was going on when we got out of the truck. There was a man at the door wearing a red vest and I believe his title was 'Greeter', he waved a welcome to us and said good morning. The next thing that happened was a well behaved and dressed youth met us at the door with a bulletin and again a greeting. I looked at Preacher man in disbelief, what was going on here? Then when we walked into what I consider a much older and smaller version of the child church, I almost feel down, people were standing around the pews talking, laughing and just being happy to be in each other's presence. This was not what I had expected. The honest hospitality of this church blew me away! The only instrument they had was a baby grand piano and it was perfect! All the people sang and were apart of the service, not waiting to be entertained. I knew all the songs, which is something that I have missed! The two things that I came away with was how friendly the people were and how much the child church was planned after the mother church.
I wish I could report that when they heard we were from Central, they said "Hey, we need to heal the riff that has happened between our churches!" alas, it didn't go like that. What did strike me was the fact that there is a lot of potential for the Kingdom of God that has been lost because these churches won't work it out! I bet God just shakes his head at this too. Once again, the church puts tradition and pride before the Gospel. It's just sad. 


I will bet you a dollar to a donut, that if we would seek God's face, His will and His forgiveness, these two churches could rock the Kingdom for God!! But isn't it just like us to say things like, "it's not my place, it's none of my business, that happened before I came around, or you just don't understand how hard it was on us." 
Things that make you go Huh?   
   

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It always amazes me how the essentials of the Gospel...love, grace, forgivness...are what change us, liberate us, and create real meaning in our lives...like the kindness you experienced when you entered the doors of the "mother" church. All the arguing, and bickering....just not part of the Gospel....not part of the message of JESUS!!

Kimer said...

That preaches girl! It's so sad and I have become angered by it and I don't like that in myself! It's funny how we want change, we just want others to have to do it! Thanks for your comments!