Tuesday, April 7, 2015

Let it Be...

What the internet really needs right now is another blog post about where young adults are going to church. Seriously. Nothing leads young adults to church more than blog posts about how they are leaving this church for that one. What really makes a difference to young adults is an argument as to what type of worship service is really going to reach them. Also - when doing so, let's be sure to use anecdotal evidence to prove it is so. "Look! I spoke to a young adult, and they went to a contemporary worship service as a kid, and now they are (insert traditional church here). So, what that means is that churches like that are unwelcoming, inauthentic, cliquish, shallow, etc."

The real benefit is that people who then prefer that style can re-post, like, etc. and use as proof as to who really knows Jesus better, who has a better handle on this whole "faith thing" better, and more importantly we can use it as proof that we don't need to change anything.

Yesterday, I was flipping through radio stations and there were a couple of folk talking on the radio about whether or not Catholics really knew Jesus or if they were just going through the motions (and then of course on their way to hell. They were spending the entire time discussing why (some...not all) Catholics needed to be saved and how to discuss faith with Catholics to get them to better understand who Jesus is. 

It's always nice when we can compare ourselves to others and feel better about who we are. By disqualifying what or who other people are, we can feel better about ourselves. One could actually go so far as to say it is a form of bullying.

Now, let me be clear, if somebody wants to talk about what has been meaningfull to them, if somebody wants to discuss with others how they grow in faith in a way that invites people in, I think that's great. In fact, it's not only great, but I think that is what we are called to. Also - if a church feels strongly about "this is who we are", then own it! Don't own it by belittling our brothers and sisters down the street who have a different set of letters on the outside of their building, but rather live out who you are and who you feel you are being called to be. 

OK - so I should be careful as I'm a Lutheran...and let's be honest, Luther said some very not nice things about others, whether they be Jews, Catholics, women, etc. So I guess this is really nothing new. My churches own namesake was very blunt in how he sometimes spoke of other people in different faith traditions etc.

My point is, let's ease up on the tallying. Let's worry about the plank in our own (churches) eye before being to concerned about the specks in other churches'.

Can this blogpost be seen as ironic? Sure. Is it mine? Yes. So deal with it!

Random thoughts....
  • My dog looks like some type of rat right now. He had to get shaved down and before I knew it he was one of those tiny dogs wearing a sweater because he was too cold with no hair. Not cool.
  • Twins are not good. I'm trying to get myself excited about the season, but it is getting hard, especially with Santana testing positive for some kind of drug...sigh.
  • I'm actually getting excited about VBS. Honestly, it usually takes me a while to get myself excited about it, but with as well as it went last summer, I really am stoked about it this year!
And here is my music video of the day! Owl City (I believe) hales from Owatonna and has done music for a Disney movie or tow. I really am a fan of a lot of his music.