Re: a fly on my pastor's ass

Jillian, your email hits upon what I see as the central problem in many churches today--that people confuse the organization of religion with Christ Himself. To me the relationship with Him is the big issue--but that's confusing too, because how do we really know Him? I've been a Christian since age 11 (I'm almost 30 now), had my struggles along the way, changed churches several times, and finally just had to accept that there is soooooo much I don't know and can never know. But what I can do is seek Him, and explore what I can of "the body of Christ" within my current church, realizing that the church itself is only a shadow of the greater kingdom. That means there will be hypocrisy, negativity, judgement, and even cliques--all problems, by the way, that Paul discusses in several of his letters. These problems existed in the early church and they will continue to exist until He comes back, because of the nature of humanity. I have had to accept that, too, that much as I want to find the "perfect" church here on Earth, I won't be able to.

In the meantime, keep on asking your questions. Even though you may feel like the fly, your pastors and Bible study leaders may be as afraid of you as if you were a hive of bees--because you have made them think--and thinking can be a very scary thing. Even if they swat you away from their rearends, you might be stinging their faces.

Keep on searching--He'll come get you,

Kathryn

PS) Tori Amos occupies a permanent place right below my OTR CD's.

PS2) Have you ever listened to Nicole Nordeman? Her music addresses some of the issues you bring up.

> >if christianity began with christ, then why do people insist on

> >calling

> >these modern fire-and-brimstone authors the gospel, in their own

> >ranting,

> >raving "this-book-changed-my-life" kind of way? i've *read* some of

> >those

> >books, and while i enjoyed a couple, and c.s. lewis is still one of

> >my

> >favourite authors, none of them gave me the desire to "sell out for

> >jesus",

> >or any catchphrase you want to insert here. none of them made me

> >want to

> >throw out my tori amos cd's and tear down my rocky horror picture

> >show

> >poster. no music made me swap all my tight shirts for t-shirts that

> >say "got

> >jesus?".

> >

> >no cliquey youth group or college ministry has ever had the answers

> >to my

> >questions, and they consistently LOOK OVER THE THINGS YOU ALL ARE

> >TALKING

> >ABOUT! constantly batting away discrepancies in writings and truths

> >and

> >things people cannot bring themselves to believe like a cow swishing

> >flies

> >off its ass. is that how my pastors and bible study leaders see me?

> >as a fly

> >on their ass? what kind of christian love and understanding and

> >openmindedness is THAT?

> >Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com

> >

> >---------------

References

Re: a fly on my pastor's ass

From: "kevin c. taylor" <sevenkevinheaven at hotmail_com>