babble, chitchat, defamation, hearsay, idle talk, malicious talk, meddling, rumor, scandal, scuttlebutt, slander, small talk, busybody, gossipmonger, snoop, talebearer, tattler
(The last definition - 5 - makes sense as i've often read in older books like Dickens about the "old gossips" indicating women probably engaged in idle talk, but it makes sense that the word would take its current meaning if the women were given to idle talk when friends got together.)
I'm still really struggling to "let go." It probably will be a while for me as we are people who have been very involved in church, it has occupied much of our thought & lives, & letting go of that won't be an easy thing. But it has occurred to me that to say much more about it is gossip. I have lots of theories & things to say, but they are not profitable.
I ran into a dear friend yesterday when i was in town. Elke came here from Germany as a child, so she is very Lutheran. However, she said that she's stopped going to church. The pamphlet i copied in a previous post was passed out at church. It made her angry. She said "That's not what church is about!" And, "He (G) doesn't have the right to do that!" Except, of course, he does. He is implementing some old rules that most of the LCMS churches no longer follow (Elke says that when she went thru confirmation she was encouraged to visit other churches to learn about how other churches choose to do things). But those old rules are still on the books & G has chosen to enforce them (in our opinion, in order to strengthen his rule & set fear in parishioners, but that may be my lack of charity speaking).
I told Elke that Duane & i want to start a Bible Study & she's interested. So that's good. However, she is also a busy person, frequently on the go. So, while she'd love to come & participate, i don't think commitment would be a part of it for her. Still, it is a good place to begin. (Although i have to admit that i hate the idea of starting something & having it peter out.)
Shine Jesus Shine
Lord, the light of your love is shining
In the midst of the darkness, shining
Jesus, light of the world, shine upon us
Set us free by the truth you now bring us
Shine on me, shine on me
Shine Jesus shine
Fill this land with the Father's glory
Blaze Spirit blaze
Set our hearts on fire
Flow river flow
Flood the nations with grace & mercy
Send forth your word Lord
And let there be light
Lord i come to your awesome presence
From the shadows into your radiance
By the blood i may enter your brightness
Search me, try me, consume all my darkness
Shine on me, shine on me.
As we gaze on your kindly brightness
So our faces display your likeness
Ever changing from glory to glory
Mirrored here may our lives tell your story
Shine on me, shine on me
Cliff Richard (? not sure about the credit, he may just have been the artist who preformed this; i also saw Graham Kendrick credited)
We sang this on Sunday. I've always liked this song. It is repeating in my head, but i don't find it irritating as repeated music often tends to be. I really, really liked the music on Sunday. They sang some very easy to sing hymns & also a couple of praise songs. They had MUSIC in that church with a choir & all. I'm not running down "praise bands." I used to love staying for the music at St. James when the praise band led. (They called those of us who stayed from the more traditional service that had been held earlier, MOs - music only, 'cause we left when the music was done.)
But nothing that we've seen in church hopping has the heart in it like the St. James folks had. I'd forgotten how much i loved singing in a church that really knows music until we visited the Methodist church on Sunday. It also was incorporated into the service, not a "preliminary to the preaching" as is so often done in Protestant churches these days.
Somehow the way churches have developed/evolved where they have all the music at the beginning & then a long, long sermon seems to have lost heart, for me. Maybe it is just that i don't know most of the praise music they are singing now. But it also seems to have lost a lot of the "flow" that services used to have. The Baptist church Duane likes is really foreign to me. They don't even have a closing hymn. The pastor kind of says, "Bless you this week," after his prayer & we're done. Now, i'm not running down this form of service. It works for a lot of people (or they don't know what they're missing), but it doesn't work so well for me.
Anyway, just a few thoughts on things that have happened in the past couple of days.
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5 comments:
Kathryn, You have expressed in this post what many Christians are going through in our day and age. Most of us don't take change very easy. My wife and I left a church that we were deeply involved with back in 2003 over a pastoral change. We church hopped for a few years and finally settled down at a church were we believe God wants us.
I pray God will lead you and your husband to a church were He will use you to minister to others.
God Bless You, ~RON
BTW, My Aunt Mary had a cabin in Big Bear City until she became ill and sold it in the late 1980s. I spent a lot of time in Big Bear during the 60s, 70, and 80s. Is Chad's Restaurant sill there?
Hi Ron - thanks for stopping by. :)
I wonder if we don't need to re-visit the idea of "church." To me it is the followers of Christ, the body of believers. Catholic, universal. I may disagree with some on certain ideas, but that doesn't mean i'm right & they are in error - except on the really important issues.
Something i'll probably revisit in a future post.
I bet BB has changed a lot since you used to spend time here. Stores come & go all the time. The Calvary Chapel has the building that used to be a Safeway in the Village.
There is a Chad's here, but i think of it more as a bar (& rather a biker bar at that) than a restaurant. I've been by but we've never eaten there. My hubby is attached to the Sheriff's dept as a member of Search & Rescue, & they tend to hang out at Sandy's more. I've an idea that Sandy's hasn't been around 20+ years.
We live in Big Bear City on the East end. Our house was built in '77 & most of it is original (sometimes to my dismay). We have lived here 3-1/2 years, in the house for 2-1/2. Love it here! Love not having to try to fight the rat race in OC or to try & afford a home there.
Thanks for the Big Bear update.
Ron...from the rat race.
The small group Bible study is an excellent idea. In fact we all grew more in a samll intimate group like that rather than in church. In fact I I was more attatched to my small group ( 30 people) rather than church to in honest.
A now I miss it
Wow, Amrita, 30 people is about the size of our last church! Well, i think attendance ran more toward 50-60, but the voting meetings often only had about 30. How wonderful that so many people would make a commitment to meet.
Small groups here tend to be more like 6-10 people. Duane & i were in a small group when we got engaged & there were 6 of us. Duane likes debate & he often "played Devil's advocate" in order to encourage discussion. The gentleman running the group was older & from a more rigid church tradition, i believe. He didn't understand that Duane was taking a position he didn't support in order to encourage the folks to think. I'm pretty sure this poor, well-meaning gentleman thought i was marrying "a heathen."
I once was part of a women's Bible study that had about 12-14 in it. Largest small group i've ever been part of, i think.
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