Sunday, July 25, 2010

Where two or three are gathered

“Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” (Matt. 18:20)
Our family has been at a crossroads with "religion" for quite some time now. We have been church shopping for way too long, and more Sunday's than not, end up staying home. The problem I have with this is that it becomes so easy to neglect the health of our souls and we begin to replace church with preferring to engage in the temptations of the world. Why has it been so difficult for us to find a place to strengthen and renew our faith? I don't really know, but I will venture to say that "religion" keeps getting in the way; dogma mostly, and beliefs that one faith is superior to another. 

While we have recently returned to our old church (a non-denominational bible-based community church), we do not show up every Sunday. Last Sunday, when we actually made it to church, the pastor said something that really hit home. He said that sometimes, we get caught up in the routine of church and simply go through the motions. As a result, we miss what worship is truly about. 
This morning, due to one reason or another, we did not make it to church. Instead, we did something that was kind of cool, and something we plan on doing on those Sundays when we just can't get it together. We held our own church, outside on our porch, the three of us and our Bibles. We discussed a few Bible verses, read a Psalm, and said a prayer. It was nice, it was contemplative, but mostly it was a time for our family to be still and know God.

6 comments:

Erin Wallace said...

I'm having problems with this same issue. I'm not happy with the church we have been attending for 2 years. My husband is very involved and loves it. So I haven't bben going to church as I don't feel right alone at another church. Bah. I'm sure it will worh out eventually, but right now, bah.

xo Erin

Honorary Indian said...

Simply lovely. :-)

Amy Barraza said...

I love reading your blog. As you well know Mike and I have struggled with this for many years. I find so much comfort in knowing that I'm not the only one whose heart aches over this same thing. Love you girl. I'm a better person for knowing you and reading how honest you are with life.

Anonymous said...

Nicole, i so relate to this. we spent several years 'church shopping'spending several months in each place. ultimately we ended up choosing to go back to our old church because it had a great youth group for our daughter. (the reason we left in the first place was we felt the church was too big and we just got lost) we went to regular church services for a while and even though i love the pastor just found myself nodding off instead of being fed. but it was still better than not going because we felt we were there for our dtr. obviously we needed fellowship too. we ended up going to a couple of different sunday school classes instead of church service and found one that we really really love. its such a good fit and the people are so loving and real, which can be difficult to find in church sometimes as you know i'm sure. i hope you keep looking and God points you to where he wants you to be, and if that is on your back porch together for now, how lovely. sounds wonderful.

Anonymous said...

p.s. i would love to make fig jam! i love it on crackers with brie. figs do not grow here, as far as i know. i guess i could buy some at the grocery. anyways, you have given me something to think about! yum

Lauren said...

What a great post! I feel like we are in the same boat! At times we have dropped our daughter off at Sunday school and not attended ourselves just because my husband and I haven't felt comfortable there. We call this "date morning" and we grab a cup of coffee and read devotions from "Our Daily Bread" and discuss. I struggle with this a lot in my head and heart that we haven't found a church to attend as a family on a regular basis...thanks for letting me know I'm not the only one. :>)