Tour de Church | one

This summer has been a summer of transition. For those of you who know anything about Sara or me there has been a lot of changes. Not the least of these changes has been our decision to travel around to visit several churches as we are looking for a new church home. Now to be fair, for anyone expecting an update (which I'm sure you're not) on 6 churches (we are 6 Sundays in from June as that is when we started visiting) will be disappointed as we have not been at a church every week this summer. We have visited friends at their churches or were out of town. However, here is an update on our first church we visited.

The church is called First Congregational Church of Minnesota. We visited it on June 19th, Fathers Day. It is fairly close to our place which is a plus as that is something we both want. It is right off of 35W and 4th St by the U of M campus. The experience was pretty great. The people were great, small congregation of about 70ish. The demographic ranged from college age to elderly. 

The sermon the pastor gave was on the Great Commission and her message consisted of talking about how June 19th or Juneteenth was the day that slavery was abolished. Throughout her sermon she connected the injusices of today are the same things that Jesus spoke about in the Gospels. The things that upset us are the things that upset Jesus. She reminded me of the passage when it says "go and make disciples" that it is NOT saying go and convert a bunch of people to believe what you believe. That is how I have heard this passage preached on more than not. I really appreciated the different spin on the interpretation of the text. Disciples in Greek and Hebrew would translate to student or learner. We are to make other students of Jesus Christ. Tell them and show them who Christ is and then let God and the Spirit do the work on the person instead of telling them what to believe about Christ. 

The other significant thing I took from this visit was the song which is in my previous post, "bring many names." I cannot stand the organ, so that was not my favorite part as it sounds like everyone is dying as they sing with it, but the lyrics to this song are phenomenal. I loved the message behind it and a few of the other songs we sang. 

We then left the service and talked to a guy who has been a part of the church for quite a while and I immediately connected with him as he had been a drug counselor in a high school in the southern metro. He really didn't have any bearing on me liking or not liking the church, but he was a cool guy. We met quite a few other people in the church as well, all were friendly and wish us luck on our visit. 

Here is the website of the church if you're curious to know more about it. 

First Congregational Church of Minnesota

bring many names, beautiful and good

This is a hymn that was sung in a church I went to this weekend. Now, I am not a fan of the organ, it brings back a lot of weird feelings of when I was little and hating church. (I grew up in the Wisconsin Lutheran Synod, it wasn't a great experience, but not awful either) But while I listened to the congregation singing this song very melodiously, I read along with them. As I read the words, I would occasionally glance at Sara who was joyously weeping at the words she was singing and I couldn't help but feel over-joyed to see such a sense of restoration at work. It was pretty amazing and powerful. Which must be true, because I don't often post lyrics of worship songs. (Actually, never) But anyways, here are the lyrics to the Hymn "Bring Many Names"


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Bring many names, beautiful and good,
celebrate, in parable and story,
holiness in glory, living, loving God.
Hail and hosanna! Bring many names!

Strong mother God, working night and day,
planning all the wonders of creation,
setting each equation, genius at play:
Hail and hosanna, strong mother God!

Warm father God, hugging every child,
feeling all the strains of human living,
caring and forgiving till we're reconciled:
Hail and hosanna, warm father God!

Old, aching God, grey with endless care,
calmly piercing evil's new disguises,
glad of good surprises, wiser than despair:
Hail and hosanna, old aching God!

Young, growing God, eager, on the move,
saying no to falsehood and unkindness,
crying out for justice, giving all you have:
Hail and hosanna, young, growing God!

Great, living God, never fully known,
joyful darkness far beyond our seeing,
closer yet than breathing, everlasting home:
Hail and hosanna, great, living God!

paul. valid or not?

^{1 Corinthians 11:7-16
7} A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but woman is the glory of man. ⁸ For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; ⁹ neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. ¹⁰ It is for this reason that a woman ought to have authority over her own head, because of the angels. ¹¹ Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. ¹² For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.
 ¹³ Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? ¹⁴Does not the very nature of things teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, ¹⁵ but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. ¹⁶ If anyone wants to be contentious about this, we have no other practice—nor do the churches of God.
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Now to even ask this question is heresy to many people. But hear me out. I was reading through hundreds of verses in the Bible as I write a paper on my core values and beliefs and I came across this passage. In the TNIV/NIV it is Titled "On Covering the Head in Worship." As I read this  Paul first says woman came from man and man came from God. In the first couple of verses it seems as if man is better than woman. At least how I am interpreting this from Paul. Saying that man is in the image and glory of God and then woman comes is in glory of man, not God. Then later in the same paragraph Paul then says that man is not independent of woman after all, nor woman of man. Actually both come from God. Then it later says that men should cut their hair because it does not glorify God, it is moreover a disgrace to the man, but for women it is her glory to have long hair. (I'm screwed then) I do not seem to understand then what Paul is saying, he seems to contradict himself. This isn't the only place. Most of us know the various other sections of Pauls writings where he says that people shouldn't get married(1 Cor 7), boast (1 Cor 5:6, 13:3, Eph 2:9, and numerous other verses), or greed.
(ie...Corinthians 5:9-13  ⁹ I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— ¹⁰ not at all meaning the people of this world who are immoral, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world. ¹¹ But now I am writing to you that you must not associate with any who claim to be fellow believers but are sexually immoral or greedy, idolaters or slanderers, drunkards or swindlers. With such persons do not even eat.
 ¹² What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? ¹³ God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”) 
Didn't Jesus actually eat with these people? And if we reject those in the church - won't they just leave and feel rejected from the church anyways. Where does love, justice, mercy, or forgiveness come into play?
Now wait, shouldn't you tell me that I need to take these verses in context? Not everything you read in the Bible is literal Andy. You can't take what Paul wrote in 60 AD and assume it means word for word what it does today. After all the Bible has been translated numerous times to get to the English language. (at least that what most of us in the US read it in). Ok, if I am to take these verses in context - such as, who the author is, who the author is writing too, when the author wrote this, etc... then how can we claim such strong demeaning insults at people based off Paul's writings. I am thinking specifically of equality for all people, men as head of his wife, women in leadership positions or pastors in the church and homosexuality. It seems these areas get pulled out of Paul's writings and taken literally, but other areas do not. This just seems very inconsistent to me. How do we know the word homosexuality means the same thing then as it does today. I have read many times where the meaning differs then from now. How do we know that women today can't lead? Maybe women had no rights back in the day of Paul and weren't afforded the opportunity to have been instructed or taught how and what to preach/teach. Many men weren't afforded this opportunity either, but they aren't included in this text. Could this mean that those who didn't have proper instruction to teach/preach shouldn't do so? Well if women have those rights today, doesn't that then give them the authority to preach and teach today? If God calls them to this, why should she be silenced because of what Paul said some 2000 years ago, in a completely different culture/context/time than today in many parts of the world. (i understand this is still the case in some cultures that women still have no rights, but not in the state and so many other parts of the world). Could submitting to each other in marriage or even outside of marriage mean something different today? Does the submission for women in Eph 5 actually a literal statement from Paul? What about later in the section when he actually says he's not talking about marriage but Christ and the church? Or earlier in the sections that says above all we should submit ourselves to Christ.

I am not sure where I stand on Pauls' teachings. Many of the things I read from him go against the way in which Jesus lived his life. What am I to do with that? Even though many of these books were written before the Gospels, Jesus still lived before Paul and Paul attributes his works and ministry to Jesus/God. Then why do they seem so contradictory to Jesus' ministry? HELP!!!!!!!!!

i do not believe in Jesus.

This is not a new concept, thought or even self-critique from others. Matter of fact it sounds like some trendy, hip, progressive, post-modern, (whatever is cool to say these days in christianity) saying. But it has been something i've been thinking about for about a year now. Sara said this(the title) to me a few weeks ago and I have not been able to let it leave my thoughts. And the statement, "i do not believe in Jesus" is followed up by, "because if I did my life would not look like it does." This thought became more heightened on the heels of the tornado on the north side of minneapolis and across the midwest and south. specifically thought in north mpls, the tornado struck one of the most poverty stricken areas in minneapolis, leaving people with, in some cases, nothing. so what should my response to this be? go help clean up? and if so, go everyday? should my job be a priority or should helping others be a focus? give money? pray? secure my home and possessions?

another example is the way in which we live in America. How can any of us say we truly believe in Jesus and live the way we do? I will be the first to blame myself for not living how I think Jesus said I should. And what am I willing to do about it? Am I saying to God that I am following Jesus to the point of comfortability and the moment I fear or become uncomfortable, I acquiesce to what I want to do and the way I want to live. How can I fully believe in Christ and then own the things I do? Is the Bible and the story of Jesus more radical than we want to believe, I think so. Stephen Colbert, though his MO is more to be funny, he said something pretty profound that I have shared in the past that I think pertains to this post. He said on his show "If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition and then admit that we just don't want to do it." 
(I have posted this video in the previous post.)

These are just my thoughts. What I am going to do with them, I am not sure. I would hope it moves me to change. In what direction? That is the hard part. I feel like the answer is real easy but I am self aware enough to realize I do not want to change how I feel I should. So then what does that say about me? Do I really believe in Jesus? 

colbert. jesus is a liberal democrat.

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