Four Days

Been an interesting four days.

Besides refereeing three soccer games and working on the foundation to the greenhouse and mowing the lawn and taking nap, we've had numerous talks and discussions with a variety of people on a wide range of subjects.

We've met with two different pastors from two different denominations. Both churches are places where we see God working. We've had brunch with some old friends who are frustrated with the direction of the music at their church. And we've spoken with some people who are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America which just voted to allow gays and lesbians to be clergy members.

It is amazing because in some way, shape or form God is at work in all these places. One pastor told us that their building is big enough and he sees the church going to multi-venue worship. They need to go out into the community to reach out to others and not bring people to their fancy building. The other pastor laid out their plan for growth but it is all in God's hands and they won't grow until God tells them to. And there are really neat things happening in the church. Lives being changed. For eternity.

The conversation with our old friends was equally enlightening. The music in the church seems to be that anything written after Martin Luther wrote "Amazing Grace" is bad. The pastors seem to believe that if they keep doing what they've been doing they can't get fired. How sad! Where is the innovation, the excitement of trying something different, of failing spectacularly? I can't find anything about church being safe. We worship the creator of the universe who is so big we can't wrap our puny little minds around it. That is exciting and scary.

And then there is the ELCA, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America a denomination to which we used to belong. We left over 15 years ago. At their annual convention in Minneapolis over the weekend they voted to allow gays and lesbians into church leadership positions. In the name of reaching out and being welcoming, they put the teachings of the Bible up to a vote. Majority rule.

And when we vote on the Bible, the Bible will always lose because we tend to vote in our own self interest. How sad.

One estimate was upwards of a third of the members will leave over this and go elsewhere to worship. Or just quit worshipping altogether.

Such a contrast: the pastors talking of reaching out and of equipping their congregations and sending them out to their neighbors and reaching the lost, the sick, the widows and orphans, the AIDS sufferers, the hungry and the homosexuals. And the pastors who want it safe and secure and comfortable and conservative. And the denomination that is prepared to tear itself apart instead of trying to come together to work out a solution that fits the Bible.

lots of time spent in prayer this weekend. And lots more to come.

And by the way, I do know that John Newton wrote Amazing Grace...