The song "Life is Beautiful" by Sixx A.M. has a peculiar lyric that applies pretty well to my recent experience church hopping. The lyric is "it took a funeral to make me feel alive." At first glance this lyric doesn't really make sense. How can you feel alive when another has died? Kind of morbid and selfish almost. But this past Sunday I kind of felt this odd contrast. If I could rewrite that lyric to relate to my situation it would go a little like this. It took a traditional passionless church to make me feel the passion I lost.
I've described my Christian life as a roller coaster. But I've decided to stay on. The lowest moments are when I doubt or I am stagnant and passionless.
I've always seen church as the place where you walk in and it smells like a thrift store with pews and hymn books and trying to fall asleep while you listened to a monotone pastor say "preacher words". As I grew up I saw different views of church but when I went to The Well, my image of church was blown out of the water. This new viewpoint actually first started when I joined Cru. I saw that church can be a place where you can be happy, not told what a terrible person you are with no hope to better yourself. I saw that you can sing modern music that makes you happy, not repetitive hymnals. Then I went to The Well for the first time. I was sort of shocked because of how open the music was and how much of a lumberjack the pastor looked like. The Well opened me up and made me realize the enjoyment one can have while being a Christian. You can lose yourself in worship and be truly inspired to live boldly, not passively through life.
I've attended The Well for awhile now and I really fell in love with it. I have went every Sunday I could since that first visit. Until this past Sunday. The leaders of my community group are the reason I started going to The Well and recently their view of The Well has shifted. They see it as an immature church that isn't 100% accurate with its teachings. That may be true but my point of view if completely different. I simply just have faith. In God's plan for my life. If He didn't want me to go to The Well then He would arrange somewhere else for me to go. The Well if where I need to be.
I found this out after going to a new church with my Community Group leaders. I felt uncomfortable the moment I stepped out of the car in the parking lot. At The Well you can wear whatever you want because its not about that. Its not about show or self importance. We walked into the church and it was that horror church I described earlier. Everything was a light tannish brown, one stained glass window and pews and hymn books. I almost fell asleep and zoned out almost every other word. I couldn't focus on the words he was saying because I couldn't stop feeling uncomfortable.
I love The Well. I can completely loosen up and lose myself there. In the best way.
It took a passionless church to make me feel the passion I lost.
When I look around at several well known Christians, one thing sticks out. They all live boldly. Without being sorry for sharing their faith. Not hesitant and not doubtful. And if they are doubtful they sure don't show it.
Boldness is a very attractive quality. And I want to learn how to live it.
I don't want to live a boring passionless life. I want to live boldly and I want to be able to look Jesus in the face and know that he was proud of the life on earth I lived. None of our worldly worries are truly worries. They're meaningless. Once we get to heavens gates, our worries will look like a speck on an ant.
I know certain people like certain things but to me, if I leave church feeling uncomfortable and full of passion and self awareness, then the pastor did a good job.
I've described my Christian life as a roller coaster. But I've decided to stay on. The lowest moments are when I doubt or I am stagnant and passionless.
I've always seen church as the place where you walk in and it smells like a thrift store with pews and hymn books and trying to fall asleep while you listened to a monotone pastor say "preacher words". As I grew up I saw different views of church but when I went to The Well, my image of church was blown out of the water. This new viewpoint actually first started when I joined Cru. I saw that church can be a place where you can be happy, not told what a terrible person you are with no hope to better yourself. I saw that you can sing modern music that makes you happy, not repetitive hymnals. Then I went to The Well for the first time. I was sort of shocked because of how open the music was and how much of a lumberjack the pastor looked like. The Well opened me up and made me realize the enjoyment one can have while being a Christian. You can lose yourself in worship and be truly inspired to live boldly, not passively through life.
I've attended The Well for awhile now and I really fell in love with it. I have went every Sunday I could since that first visit. Until this past Sunday. The leaders of my community group are the reason I started going to The Well and recently their view of The Well has shifted. They see it as an immature church that isn't 100% accurate with its teachings. That may be true but my point of view if completely different. I simply just have faith. In God's plan for my life. If He didn't want me to go to The Well then He would arrange somewhere else for me to go. The Well if where I need to be.
I found this out after going to a new church with my Community Group leaders. I felt uncomfortable the moment I stepped out of the car in the parking lot. At The Well you can wear whatever you want because its not about that. Its not about show or self importance. We walked into the church and it was that horror church I described earlier. Everything was a light tannish brown, one stained glass window and pews and hymn books. I almost fell asleep and zoned out almost every other word. I couldn't focus on the words he was saying because I couldn't stop feeling uncomfortable.
I love The Well. I can completely loosen up and lose myself there. In the best way.
It took a passionless church to make me feel the passion I lost.
When I look around at several well known Christians, one thing sticks out. They all live boldly. Without being sorry for sharing their faith. Not hesitant and not doubtful. And if they are doubtful they sure don't show it.
Boldness is a very attractive quality. And I want to learn how to live it.
I don't want to live a boring passionless life. I want to live boldly and I want to be able to look Jesus in the face and know that he was proud of the life on earth I lived. None of our worldly worries are truly worries. They're meaningless. Once we get to heavens gates, our worries will look like a speck on an ant.
I know certain people like certain things but to me, if I leave church feeling uncomfortable and full of passion and self awareness, then the pastor did a good job.