I have a confession. I skipped church yesterday. It was great.
Now, I don’t recommend doing this every week. Fellowship is important and as much as I really don’t like church people right now, I need them in my life. Plus, if you miss too many weeks in a row. you risk finding something like this in your mailbox.
C H __ __ CH
What’s missing from church? U R!
I really thought my church was above cheesy guilt trip postcards, but apparently not. We received not one, but two of these postcards in the course of a couple months. I don’t even know why we got the second one. We hadn’t been skipping and I swear I signed the sign-in pad.
But I digress…
After a long (and a not very good) week, the thought of putting nice clothes on and smiling at people was the last thing I wanted to do. So I put on workout clothes and took a leisurely walk around my neighborhood. I enjoyed the green grass of my neighbors, hearing birds chirp all around me, and even the dense humidity of a summer morning.
Some days I don’t need loud music and a worship order.
Some days I just want quiet and God.
Some days a walk alone on a warm, summer morning, taking the sunshine on my face is exactly what I need. I can sense God more in that than in the church building.
Yes- you’re right- we don’t need to be at church in order to worship. God didn’t make a rule about “you have to go every week.”
Actually yesterday I had the opposite experience- I was at back my church for the first time in 2-3 months (because I had been sick for a while). I was so happy to be at church, and I remembered how much I loved the worship music- that had been totally missing from my life for the past few months. ^_^
Yay for that! It is refreshing to come back after a long absence.
I think we need breaks from most everything in our lives from time to time. I think it helps appreciate them more and or them us. 🙂
Good point. It does go both ways.
Sometimes a change like that is necessary. It prevents us from going through the motions of life without really engaging. Thanks for the reminder to be refreshed.
Katie
I am so bad about getting sucked into the motions of life. Sometimes I just need to step back a bit.
What? Were we on the same page Sunday? We skipped too.
🙂
We have done this (my family & I) quite a bit the last few months. And have been pleasantly surprised to see God show up in some pretty dang cool ways.
We’ve recently found what seems like a neat little church, & will see where that goes.
God is good even if we his people are total dorks.
I just love that last line.
I cringed when reading that your church sent you that post card. Really. Like you needed another reminder of the downfalls of the church today.
As a leader in a relatively young church plant, this is one of those posts that remind me of why we do things differently. Why we’ve created a church that says it’s OK to visit other churches or to take a Sunday off every now and again. We recognize that God can (and should be) worshiped wherever we are. Church on Sunday morning is simply another place where we can meet Him. It’s not the end-all, be-all.
How awesome. Good luck with the church plant!