Glad for Church

Psalm 122:1 I rejoiced with those who said to me, "let us go to the House of the Lord."

As a child I don't think our family went to church more than a couple of times a year and my first recollection of anything about church was when I was having emergency surgery at age five and a Pastor from Brown St. Baptist Church was comforting my mother before they asked me to count backwards from ten. Shortly thereafter we moved to sunny California for sickly Freddy's health and didn't connect with church until I went with a friend at age thirteen. I loved church from the very beginning. Everything about it. Couldn't get enough of it.

I loved the building and all the symbolism and the music and the praying and all the ingredients of the recipe that went into every batch of church. Every time the Pastor spoke I hung on the words, listening intently. I loved Sunday School and as corny as Mr. Kennedy was, and as strict as Mrs. Perlich was I loved to hear them talk about Jesus. When I went to youth group, I was in heaven. What a blessing. All these great, decent people who cared about me. I can't think of a single thing that I didn't love about church. It was totally true for me that .....'I rejoiced with those who said to me, "let us go to the House of the Lord".' No place I would rather be.

I felt safe, I was learning about something that was changing my life, I was with friends and people that loved God. For the life of me I don't understand why folks avoid church so much, or complain so much or can't sit still for awhile to listen to the most important information in the world. Today it seems that unless we are entertaining people in every possible way or addressing each individual's specific, immediate need or serving favorite foods or giving away prizes that it is like pulling teeth to hold a crowd's attention for very long. We are very distracted and very hard to please.

From the first time I set foot in church until now I have always gotten excited about Sundays or any time we could go to church. My heart would jump just at the idea of church happening, and it didn't matter what kind either. If the missionary was speaking, or old-time music was being played or an exciting youth event. If it was happening at church, sign me up and let's go. Maybe because I wasn't forced to go as a kid. Maybe because I really needed Jesus and understood that church was a big part of getting close to Him. Maybe just because I appreciated that people cared and I knew they had my best interest in mind. Maybe because I understood young what it was really all about.

I never made church about the politics or the drama or the likes and dislikes of people. I was just glad to be there. Even if I didn't particularly like it, I always made the best of it. Let me suggest just three things that might help you enjoy church a lot more. If this doesn't help, keep trying different churches or change something about you until you really connect.

#1 Come for the right reason... Church is about God for God by God.

#2 Come with the right attitude.... You get out of church what you put into church.

#3 Come expecting to meet God... Connect to everything with your Spirit and watch what God will do.

Over the years I have seen the good, the bad and the ugly of church. You name it. Problematic people, disastrous programming, unprepared leaders, boring sermons, weird music, sound system glitches, bad coffee, tension, trouble and general apathy. BUT, I have never gone to church and not gotten something out of it. Why? Because God and God's people are there. When God gets together with His people, wonderful things happen. You just have to plug in spiritually to make sure you see it and experience it.

Maybe we should adjust our expectations. Maybe we should get over ourselves. Maybe we should show some grace. Maybe we should grow up a little. Maybe we should pray some more. Maybe we should try harder. Whatever we do we should do it only for the right reason and only with the right attitude and at least expecting to meet God. Rejoice before you get there, rejoice when you walk in and keep rejoicing until you leave.

Hope I see you in Church soon, Pastor Fred

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