Thank you, Sherri.

It was never drilled into me that I HAD to go to church, but somewhere along the way it became one of those inner "shoulds" that would cause me great guilt and shame if I disobeyed. It wasn't until just recently that I realized that going to church is meant to be a healthy, joyful thing, not yet one more law we're supposed to follow blindly.

I think Church is supposed to be more about being part of a caring community of fellow pilgrims, nurturing and encouraging each other for the next leg of the journey. That would make it a tender tidbit of wisdom from a very loving Companion who knows us so intimately well that He sees how alone we feel, and knows how much our hearts need the uplifting care from each other...contrast that tender image against the finger-shaking church-or-hell image of God we somehow adopt along the way.

Unfortunately, church isn't always the caring community of fellow pilgrims we need it to be. It took me several years to find the church we go to now, and until we found this one, I couldn't stomach going to the other churches in the area at all...very cold, distant and uncaring. IMHO, that's not what church is supposed to be!

In fact, if we truly believe that Church is meant to be "a caring community of fellow pilgrims, nurturing and encouraging each other for the next leg of the journey", then that makes THIS site very akin to Church, doesn't it?! Who ever said it HAD to be a "building"? Church is wherever two or three of us are gathered...I'm one, you're two, and you know that there are dozens more within this community who would quickly and joyfully volunteer to be the third...

[ September 13, 2005, 12:38 PM: Message edited by: Eagle Heart ]