Friday, September 02, 2022

Conversations on Church, Faith, Religion, etc.

I've pretty much hung up my ministerial collar, so to speak.
But in the past two weeks I have preached a couple of times, served as a volunteer chaplain at a rural hospital, and was honored to share a few words at the interment of a friend at The Missouri Veteran's Cemetery.

I've also had several conversations with different people on the subjects of religion in general, changes in church life, and living out our faith as Christians in 2022 in the USA.
One pastor/chaplain, one pastor, and one lay person in personal conversations, plus a few social media exchanges. All-in-all, I have talked more about faith in the past week than I have in the past year. 
I've also been doing some reading along those lines.

The weird thing is that other than preaching those two Sundays, I really haven't been to an in person church service/gathering much for quite some time. I really haven't felt distanced from God. If anything, I feel very good about my faith and connection to God. I know all the standard church arguments for going to church, assembling with other believers, blah, blah, blah. Today I'd probably say it's just bullshit they tell you so that you'll show up and give them some money.

I'm not sure what's brought on this current aversion to church or church organizations, but it is something that I should probably consider.
I have enjoyed talking about the Bible and Bible stories. I've enjoyed Facebook responses to favorite stories or hard questions. And I would like to engage in more of that, but most of that didn't happen at church.
I imagine I'll get it figured out.

In the mean time...
Who is your favorite obscure Bible character?
Someone that doesn't get much mention, but holds some attraction to you.
One of mine is an unnamed Hebrew slave girl that speaks up to tell her captor how he might be healed of his leprosy. I think that she was a brave and bold young girl to speak up about her God to her captors.
You can read the story here.

Now it's your turn.

John

2 comments:

Mike said...

Connection to God doesn't require a building.

John A Hill said...

Amen, Mike.
Amen.
(That's a good, churchy response, isn't it?)