What Does Church Mean to Me

When Pastor Dave asked me if I could write something about what church means to me it really made me stop to think. I am not sure I have really thought about it before to actually put it to words. For me it is more a feeling; a feeling of sharing, joy, contentment, and sometimes agony. Agony in that I sometimes thing of things that have happened, things I have done and things I should probably do and though I know I can’t change things other than what I should do it still makes me sad. It then gives me contentment in the fact that I learn every week that despite my short comings and some of the things that have happened there is redemption in the end and there will come a time when I will understand why those things have happened so that leads me into joy.

It is a wonderful experience to get to share my insecurities, my doubts, my not understanding, and my accomplishments with my church family. Our church family at Genesee Lutheran Parish is one of the best I have ever had as they do not make me feel less of a person because I don’t understand something or the doubts I may have instead they help me with those. I feel like I can discuss most anything with them and they are still going to accept my family and me. Their wonderful support during the rough times are what got me through. If I had not attended this church and gotten to know these people that support may not have been there.

I put this question on Facebook for my friends to answer and it is amazing that most everyone came up with basically the same answers. I would like to include the answers I got:

•  A time to worship our Lord. A time to be with our church family. A time to sing Praises to the our Lord, A time of Peace from every day life. A time to learn and share. A loving time. 
•  Love, peace, family, acceptance, forgiveness and no one judging you.
•  A sense of community, acceptance, understanding, shared views-but different variations of the same view, peace and a much needed crying room:)
•   A church is an organization in which established doctrines and principles are taught. The authority of God to effect ordinances necessary for salvation can also be found in His church.

As you can see and I could see most of us see church as a family or community and we think of it as love, peace, acceptance, a time to learn, and forgiveness. One of them put no one judging, that has not always been my experience with all churches I have attended some were much better than others. When I have that feeling of not being judged it makes the experience of attending church a more desirable experience and one I want to continue. The judgment has not always come from just the congregation but also from the clergy, the thing is I basically do not have very bad things to be judged on most of them were for little things and that always made me wonder what they were to do if I did something really bad. When a place you come to worship and find contentment is filled with judgment it cannot be a place to find that peace, love, family, acceptance, and even to be able to share views. So when I am move to a new place I have tried to find a church that can fulfill my needs and makes me feel like I really want to worship there. I really want to feel like I can be one of that church family, as writing this I am finding that that is one of the most important things to be, it is that sense of family and belonging. After all aren't we all part of God’s family and as being part of a family we want to be accepted for who we are?

So what does church mean to me? I go back to the beginning and can strongly say it is feeling; a feeling of sharing, joy, contentment, sometimes agony, and belonging.