| my home church |
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| Written by Betsy |
| Monday, 25 May 2009 15:05 |
 Yesterday, I went to the church I grew up in for the first time in months. While I went (just graduated a couple weeks) to my state's university, it's still a 4 1/2 hour drive to get home, so I don't get to go home very often. On top of that, not every time I'm home can I go to church. Worshipping in the community yesterday left me with a bunch of mixed feelings. On the one hand, it's still my church family, but on the other, they worship very differently from what I've become used to at my campus ministry.My church family: I have seriously participated in this church since I was 7 years old. First, I sang in the children's, junior, and youth choirs. Then I went to youth groups and on rafting and service trips. I went to the Montreat Music and Worship Conference with my home church for a few years too. Even after I started college, I spent the summer after my freshman year as the Summer Youth Intern leading the middle and high school youth activities. It feels like my family not just because we've done a bunch of stuff together. It feels like my family because the adults (ranging in age from my parents' age on up) always ask what I've been up to and care about me. How different I've become: The first thing that hit me yesterday was language. I prefer to use gender-neutral or both masculine and feminine pronouns when referencing God. Everyone at my home church uses (conventionally they say) masculine pronouns to speak of God. There are other aspects that showed me that the way I articulate my faith has radically changed. For example, the topic of my parents' Sunday School class was Contentment, and while it wasn't just me raising questions of social justice in regard to whether God truly gives everyone what s/he needs, it wasn't the first theme introduced. Still, I thank God for these mixed feelings. I thank God for having a church family that cares about me profusely, but I also thank God for giving me places to grow in my relationship with God. |
