Maybe that's why?

[lerite]

Today's sermon made me roll my eyes. I wasn't enraged, just annoyed, the way I was by the way Legolas kept rescuing Tauriel in The Hobbit. I found it frustrating that every time the pastor came up towards a call to do something about a social justice issue, he pulled up and diverted, almost without segue, to talk about some bland uplifting issue

Comments

[peojkl]

As some members refer to ourselves (in rueful self-mockery), "the frozen chosen." I do think emotional style is a huge part of it.

I'd like to talk more about these issues. I know you are gone. Maybe after I spend several hours memo-writing I might try writing some of my own ideas.

People can actually act with commitment and courage from a wide variety of emotional styles. I think the slowness to act is tied as much to fear and entangling commitments as to emotion.

But I do think the public expression of emotion is a good thing and matters.

Church Cultures

[ext_2931964]

I grew up in Christian churches, and am still a Christian+panentheist+agnostic. At a time when I was simply a Christian, I studied and worked full time with YWAM, an international interdenominational Christian missionary organization. One of the things YWAM encouraged us to do while in school was to try out lots of different churches, to learn about them, their cultures, their doctrine, etc.
Without explicitly saying so, they were also getting us to break out of our previous churches and denominations in order to help us find the church that was the right fit for each of us. The lesson I really learned was that I don't agree 100% with ANY denomination's doctrine, and never will. But, by ignoring all the fine points of doctrine and focusing on more cultural elements, I could find a church where I belonged. My choice at that time & place was to bounce between two churches in the Miami area.
One was a small church in Little Haiti with a congregation that was excited to be at church every Sunday. Some of the teenagers lead music, with

Re: Church Cultures

[lerite]

True; it's harder because going to church is one of the main ways I guarantee that I'll see my parents fairly often, and I'm deeply rooted in this particular congregation. A singing-and-dancing church makes more sense, and when Carl gets a job and we move out of Madison, that's probably what I'll look for in the new town.