Get Your Strategy On
The Spiritual Journey
May182005 Filed under: Inside GCC Author: Tony MorganI have a search feed set up in Bloglines to capture any references anyone makes to Granger Community Church in their blog. This morning that feature helped me find an incredible post from a young woman who has started attending our church. Among other things, this is what "starlightm42" had to say in her journal post this morning:
…I’ve also been going to church, trying to fill that God-shaped (and maybe boyfriend-shaped too? lol) hole in my heart. A progressive one near my house called Granger Community Church, and occassionally on my lunch break from work I’ll go to a half hour service at the Bascillica at Notre Dame…The services there don’t do much for me spiritually, but they do have communion. And good wine, I might add.
I still don’t really subscribe to organized religion. It’s a personal journey for me, and I don’t feel comfortable sharing it with people I don’t know very well. The only person I’ve ever really felt comfortable talking to about it is Ryan, but for the most part he seems to be pretty disinterested in relating, even though he is a believer. So, for me I go to GCC mostly just to know I’m not alone. To know that there are people there if I need them, and to learn from them. But when I go to the services, I pretty much just fuck off and sit in the back and not really talk to anyone. That’s the way I need it to be, at least for now. It’s just a really personal thing, and very intense, and I feel very emotionally vulnerable when I’m there.
That’s powerful! Is there any question that we are living in a post-modern culture? I’m grateful for "starlight’s" vulnerability to share what’s happening on her spiritual journey. From it we learn among other things:
- It’s not about alignment with a specific denomination or religious tradition, it’s about the spiritual journey.
- People don’t want church or religion, but they’re curious about God.
- Anonymity at services is still a high value for people who are seeking God.
- Someone can feel anonymous and still have a sense of belonging at the same time.
It’s affirming to know that Granger offers people like "starlight" a safe place to consider the claims of Christ. God’s doing something in her life, and it sounds like she’s on a great path.
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Tony Morgan is a pastor and the Chief Strategic Officer at NewSpring Church where he develops creative solutions for communications, technology and NewSpring Ministries--the church's ministry that equips other church leaders.
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Mark Waltz
May 18th, 2005 at 3:25 am
Tony, refreshing indeed! I don’t know her name, but I’m thanking God for her search. It’s great to part of a church that offers a safe place for her and others to explore God in their journey. Thanks for the post.
Nick
May 18th, 2005 at 8:06 pm
Great thoughts….but do you mind editing her language? I know what you are trying to convery, but it can be done by cutting out the f-bomb. Does it need to be a direct quote? What if she took the Lord’s name in vain? Still quote it directly? A little odd that you let that language go unchecked. I know, I know…our society accepts this or does that…but that doesn’t mean you have to.
Steven Dilla
May 18th, 2005 at 11:10 pm
Great post - it is incredible to read stories like that when it comes to our communities. We will definitely be in prayer for all God is doing up there!
Brad Hinman
May 19th, 2005 at 11:08 am
Thanks for the post Tony. I will admit at first I was mildly offended by the language, but then I started to reflect on it. I wondered if the good Christian citizen part of me was what was offended and not the love and lead people to Jesus part of me. If we are about letting people come as they are, then how can we not expect this type of thing. Of course, we want to guide people and ourselves into a closer relationship with God and develop the character of Jesus, but I question to what degree we sensor the stories of those just starting their spiritual journey. Maybe we should just keep it real. There has to be a way to love and accept people without supporting some of their behavior. I don’t want to be religious. I want to be a follower of Jesus Christ.
Jonathan
May 19th, 2005 at 2:03 pm
I’ll also admit I had a slight knee jerk reaction to the f-bomb. I think you made the right call leaving her thoughts as they were. As believers, we understand the concept of “love the sinner, hate the sin” (at least we should) but I think to a non-beliver, our obvious offense toward their “sin” can come across as offense toward the individual. I think too often we think of a failure to condemn something as being equivalent to condoning it. We should be in the business of removing stumbling blocks from peoples paths, not pulling them over for traffic violations.
Anthony D. Coppedge
May 19th, 2005 at 6:07 pm
I’m with you on leaving the f-bomb connotation there, but by typing in “f— off”, it keeps the message without the expletive being there for all to stumble across.
My perspective is that as church leaders, we will have young folks hitting our sites and we should consider the balance between “keeping it real” and possibly creative the perception that we can condone it.
If a kid said that during a group Bible study session, would the leader not make a comment about “I’m glad your sharing your feelings, but in the interest of staying focused, let’s try and keep the language clean”?
Now that’s out of the way - very cool to know that GCC is allowing people to check it out at their own pace, and, in particular, that she is finding truth one step at a time.
My 2 cents,