Scary Church

I went to a wonderful church service today...we sang some great songs, read some great passages of scripture and heard a great word from God...through my husband. We started a fun new kid's ministry, have a great nursery and fun people of all ages that meet each week together. We are all of about 60 people, if you don't include the two other language groups that meet in our building. I don't know why people aren't flocking to our building - I know it isn't about numbers but I think what we have is really great...a little known secret in the greater Seattle area.

Then, I read a blog today from a local pastor - he pastors a very large church in our area - let's call it "Fars Fill". He is extreme in his fundamentalism, believes that women were created "equal but with distinctly different roles from men in the church and home", does not believe in women being ordained, discredits what he sees as mainline protestant churches at every turn. And, for some unknown reason, people flock to his church. I don't get it. I personally think he's scary. I was talking recently talking to a guy from a church in West Seattle that was purchased by "Fars Fill". This was a great emerging church that had a wonderful cafe in its basement that was reaching out to the community, inviting them to play music, hang out and eat with them. He said that "Fars Fill" closed the church down after they purchased it in order to "ready" it for Sunday mornings.

They also closed the cafe and will be eventually reopening it as a space for their church people to use - not as much the community. I just don't get it. Someone explained to me once that young people of my generation and the one after me are flocking to fundamentalism because they are looking for boundaries in their lives, they grew up with parents who didn't give them boundaries so they are searching for them at every turn. Maybe that's it. People want absolutes, lists to follow, black and white. If only life were that easy.

The only absolute that I'm positive of is that God is love, He sent Jesus to prove to us how much He loves us. Jesus told us to love God with everything we are and to love others as much as we love ourselves. In some ways, that is more difficult to do than to follow a list of rules...but if we could do it, truly love others as much as we love ourselves maybe, just maybe we could make a difference in our world. Or, we can sit in our scary churches with our list of rules that people have to submit to before we will let them join the club. WWJD?