Church

Yes- such an original title. I went to church today- of course that's not exciting details coming from the pastor's wife who "goes" to church nearly every day. But I'm cheating on my church. I am attending other local churches during the 11 o clock hour to try and find a UCC (united church of christ, remember?) church that strikes my fancy. You know, so I can join and get ordained and be a chaplain- 12 years down the road.

I went to a church this morning that was a little bit of a drive, but a little more established than the one I went to last week. I was late getting off (more about that later) so I drove up to the church about 10-15 after 11. This wouldn't have been so bad if I knew where I was going. The church had no parking lot. I repeat- zero off street parking. Would have been nice to know. So I drove another 2 minutes looking for legal parking options. Mind you- I also am not entirely convinced of where the entrance is- so I take a guess, take a breath and hope I'm not running face first into the baptistry or something. Lucky me- I enter through the back of the church during the "passing of the peace" which is a friendly time for late-comers to find a seat- oh and for people to greet one another in peace. I find my friend who was meeting me there- all the way up in the 3rd row- which is totally where I would have sat if I wasn't 20 minutes late. We all sit, stand, sing, read, and have a nice time. The general atmosphere is nice- the congregation is not surprisingly very vanilla (maybe 4 people of ethnicity other than white in the group of 200). The reason why I say not surprisingly is because of the neighborhood that this little church is nestled in: niiice. I mean uppity nice. Nice uppity- no lion sculptures at the entrance to the mansion- but nice. So yea- when driving to the church, I'm passing the lexus' and the obama stickers and feeling pretty much like I've pegged the place- and I kinda did.

The sermon was... interesting. Let me back up. The entire service and the entire experience was interesting. It was one of those few times in my church experiences that I could say I agreed with nearly everything spoken and written. And I felt really weird. If you don't get it- neither did I. How could I be in a place with sound theology and well-crafted words and not feel like I was home? Well- I think I kinda missed the crazies. Wait- let me rephrase- I missed the poles. I missed the liberals sitting next to the conservatives. I missed the obamas sitting next to the palins, I missed the rich sitting next to the poor. This rarely happens in one church setting- but sometimes if that church is open and authentic enough- there is space for a far wider range than one might expect.

This is what was weird about this church- it was a bunch of white people with great ideals and theologies who believed in social justice. And it felt a little stale. Maybe I'm passing judgment too quickly- I probably am- but even the sermon felt this way. I'll explain. The title of the sermon was "Is Liberation Theology Christian?" Wow- let me tell you- it was stock full of historical and theological information- much of which I learned in my seminary classes- none of which I ever expected to hear, at least in this format, from the pulpit. I couldn't remember whether I was in church or class, at seminary chapel or a local congregation. It was weird. The content of the sermon itself was well articulated, good stuff, and way over the heads of a lot of people. The preacher made a lot of assumptions with her presentation: everyone here is highly intelligent, everyone here is interested in theological concepts, everyone here is liberal, everyone here is social justice oriented. It was weird- I felt like it was too much. She lost my friend- not because she isn't smart- but because she didn't connect with her.

I came home to talk with Jason about this weird experience- not knowing exactly why I didn't connect with this church that had everything "right." We both agreed that the pulpit provides many teaching moments- but the point of the sermon is to present scripture in a way that comes alive for the congregation- to include visitors!

So yea- next week I go back to the tiny, yet authentic church and weigh my options. The following week I will give rich church another chance- the Senior Pastor didn't preach this week- so I'd like to see how her flavor goes.

In my opinion (I won't fake it and call it humble) church is not about agreeing, unified theology, or even unified action. It's about a community of believers who are working together to be the church, in diverse, unified, and complicated ways.

Church is also the place where it is super fun to spread the news that we are pregnant! Jason announced today that we are expecting our 2nd baby child April 19th! :) (don't you love how I snuck that in). I am feeling pretty decent- the tiredness is definitely there and I feel fat already. Nothing like a church community where news travels fast and joy spreads! More on this tomorrow!

PS- getting love from church members is why I was late to the other church. :)