🏷️ religion

According to the latest re-release from the Pontiff, other churches (such as mine) aren't real churches because salvation only comes through the Catholic church.

Now, I don't believe that this is true at all, but lets pretend for a second that it is.

Why not share? If you get to choose who gets to heaven, do us a favor and spread it around already! Jesus earned it, not you--so why hog it!? There's plenty to go around!

Submitted this to "My View," and got rejected. Their loss is your gain!

"The body is one and has many members, . . . If one member suffers, all suffer together with it." 1 Corinthians 12:12;26

As a pastor of a Presbyterian church, I am suffering with my Roman Catholic brothers and sisters.

We've closed buildings, too. What sad occasions.

The diocese has made some hard choices. A shortage of priests, a population decline, and lower giving has put all churches in a difficult place. My hope is that, though we may close buildings, every church will grow in our love for God and neighbor.

I am the Pastor of the Lafayette Ave. Presbyterian Church, a church that has (sadly) not yet shared in the Elmwood Village's re-vitalization. Hopefully, this will soon change, but sometimes I wonder if Lafayette's building will one day join the growing list of former-church buildings.

We have just over 50 people attend most Sundays. In a sanctuary that seats 1200, that means that we have about 1150 empty seats.

In addition to the common Christian value of following Jesus, Presbyterians also value stewardship.

Other Christians value stewardship, too, but we focus on it particularly.

This old-fashioned word reflects a timeless responsibility. God has given people resources to manage on God's behalf. We have a responsibility to care for creation, to be efficient, and to be generous.

Every day I ask myself if we are being good stewards of the God's resources. Honestly, I don't know. Some days it seems to be such a waste, heating and maintaining a giant structure when others have great need. Other days I see the glory of God reflected in the building's architecture and the ways it serves the neighborhood. I remember that our building represents the commitment of thousands of people, to God and to their neighborhood.

I share these thoughts because all churches must face the hard questions of stewardship. My Roman Catholic brothers and sisters are practicing this discipline now, and they have my prayers. Many have attacked them, but we owe a debt of gratitude. In addition to faithful worship, they provide quality, affordable education, services for immigrants and care for the disabled. Their ministry, like ours, is not perfect, but it deserves continued support.

Even so, I know that many Catholics are frustrated with their church. To you I say, please do not lose hope. We believe in a God who raises the dead, and this same God cannot be stopped by closed buildings, a priest shortage, or anything else. God can reconcile you and your church--and you ought to pursue that goal.

Again, If you have given up on the Roman Catholic Church, please re-consider. I suspect that you miss Christian community in worship and service, and you can find that in your Parish, even if it has merged. However, if you cannot achieve reconciliation with the Roman Catholic church, you may want to prayerfully consider a Christian community where you have a say in its stewardship. You are welcome in our community and in other churches--if only for a time--until we can all be reconciled.

Finally, I know that there are plenty of people who have given up on any sort of Christianity, in part because we have done such a bad job of stewardship. I confess: we fall far short of our ideal. We may not reach this ideal soon, but the church needs these prophetic voices of criticism to push us toward it. Would you consider working with us? Criticism is easy. Will you help us be faithful?

Stewardship is hard, but together, we can make best use of all that we've been given to love God and neighbor.

I'm going to have a real post soon. (I took pics at the falls last weekend), but until then, look at my church's website (I made it using wordpress, despite not knowing too much about computers.

elmwoodjesus.org


Thanks to Mr. Deadlier for the link help

I like her thinking.

Ok. For those of you who are tired of all of this religious stuff, sorry if I got it started.

Now, full disclosure disclaimers:

1. While I profess to be a Christian, and even find employment as a minister, please do not assume that I am the person that is from your family, or on tv, or shouting at you at a march. There are a lot of people that call themselves Christian, and a lot of them are messed up.

2. While I do not particularly like being linked to all these folks that give me a bad name, I will not deny them. They are my family. It's a screwed up family, yes, but I am one of us.

3. As a Christian, that means two things. One, I can work to make a church that is very much unfaithful and hurtful, more faithful and less hurtful. Two, I can apologize on behalf of my brothers and sisters. We are supposed to love you to the point of giving up our lives, and we often we fail miserably. There are plenty more things that I could apologize for, but you get the point.

4. I will share my faith with a person who is open to it. I will even admit that I would be happy if you chose to follow my faith. This is not because I see you as worthless until you believe what I do. It is because my faith teaches me to love my neighbor, and I cannot love you without sharing who I am. That being said, I will always do my best to listen, to understand, and to respect. I never want to coerce or threaten (I especially don't want to do this on behalf of God).

Ok, enough disclaimers for now.

At pride fest, I bought a bumper sticker that had a Ghandi quote on it. It said, "Your Jesus I like. Your Christians I do not like. So unlike your Jesus."

I, too, despite plenty of bad experiences with Christians (yes, it happens to us Christians, too--probably more because we always find each other!) I still really like Jesus.

Jesus spent most of his time talking about the Kingdom of God. Most people assume that this means that he was talking about heaven, but he said that it was near. When he taught his followers to pray, "Thy Kingdom come . . . on earth, as it is in heaven," it seems to me that he was concerned about the here and now.

Jesus mostly talked about the Kingdom in stories. (I know, quite different from the propositional, black/white thinking that most Christians present.) These stories call for radical love--to the point of self-sacrifice--and a re-oredering of values. "The last are first and the first are last" is a good summary, but the amazing thing about these stories is that I have thought about them for most of my life, and I still can't really wrap my mind around them. Once I thought that I could use them against other people, but now I think that God mostly uses them to change me.

Anyway, this Kingdom thing, it's powerful. It's other-worldly, but its more this-worldly. I'll describe, for now the Kingdom and the way we live by amending the quote from @uncutsaniflush's post:

We (Chrstians) are called to loves our fellow, AND God. Loving God helps us love people that sometimes give us no other reason to love them. We also believe that heaven is something for which we should work now - here on earth for all people together to enjoy. We also believe, however, that we cannot do that on our own. Christ showed us how to live in such a way to create that heaven, and his Spirit empowers us to make such a bold attempt

We needs, and find it through prayer (among other practices). Our inner conviction, and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and enjoy it is severely lacking, or worse, misguided when we try to make it on our own.

We believe that knowledge of ourselves and a knowledge of our fellows is limited by our perspective. We know ourselves AND our fellows better when we pay attention to the Spiritual. A life of fulfillment is a gift from God.

We seek to know ourselves and our fellows AND to know God. We believe in building the hospital AND the church. We believes that a deed must be done AND a prayer said. Both support each other. We, like the atheist, also strive for involvement in life and not escape into death, but we no longer fear death, for we believe it does not have the last word. We also want disease conquered, poverty vanquished, war eliminated. We wants people to understand and love each other.

We also want an ethical way of life, but find that we cannot accomplish it on our own.

We also believe that we are our brother's keepers; and are keepers of our own lives; that we are responsible persons and the job is here and the time is now."


So, if you compare this with @uncutsaniflush's post, you'll find that a lot of the believer's values are similar to the atheists. I'll admit, many atheists do a better job of behaving morally than many Christians. I guess I just can't deny the spiritual realities that I have experienced.

I've got more to say, but I am tired, and my wife wants to use the computer.

Thanks again for the welcome. Again, please remember that I am not trying to offend. If this bugs you, please just don't read my posts.

More later. . .