Re: Denominational survey
Submitted by Chris on September 09 1999 at 20:09:30
In reply to Denominational survey Submitted by d on September 07 1999 at 16:20:48
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I loved that story that Heather shared with us some time ago. It was the one about the gay man who passed away and at his funeral, his friends started requesting bible passages to be read by the pastor doing the funeral. They did that because they USED to belong to churches but did not feel welcome in them and so they left them. That is what I felt and did about two years ago. I was a Baptist for about a year, belonged to the church and everything. I loved belonging to this church but then a certain series of things happened that made me feel most un-welcome. Before I was a Baptist, I tried Assembly Of God and Penticostal churches. And before that, I was brought up in the Catholic church. Now I belong to none, not even a nice non-denominational church (like my mom wants me to join). I do not feel very welcome in church any more and this is perhaps the saddest part of my Christian faith because I used to love church services so much, especially the music and singing. I now come here for "church" of sorts. I fellowship with Christians like myself, boylovers, gays, etc. I feel vey welcome here and I try to welcome others here when they are new here. We can't sing, though. I can't wait until we will all meet in Heaven so we can sing together! Maybe this isn't the kind of answer to your question that you were looking for but I guess I just had to get this stuff off my chest. I miss being part of a church congragation and I wish I could feel welcome in a church but I don't. The closest I have come to that was a Petra concert (for those of you who don't know, Petra is a Christian rock band....they are great!) I recently attended in a very nice, large church. It was great because I could lift my hands and praise God with eveyone else and for the first time in a very long time, I felt welcome in a church. Thank God for rock-n-roll, I guess. Your's in Christ's love, Chris |