2 thoughts on “Contact Me”

1. Catherine as I read what you have written I sit and ponder not only about the church peeling away the old dirt but individuals as well. To have a life change in the church there has to also be a life change in it’s people. If we look at life and the people in that life we are all a little bit like Kodak. We often try to raise our children the way we were raised, We don’t take well to changes in our work as they are not the way it use to be. We don’t take well to our declining years because we can’t do what we once did. We let so much of life pass us by being we are a church, a business, a family or just an individual because we have become so comfortable in the old dirt and scrubbing that old dirt away is so scary for some, takes to much energy for others etc. We as a people forget so easily that life is about growth, that you can’t have new growth without change. I suppose one might say it is commendable that we want to raise our children as we were raised, keep our businesses’ as they were, preserve the church as it was but it is kind of two faced because we also want all that innovation has provided, we want to accept that growth, that change because we feel it betters our life. Our youth and our young families have lived in this world of innovation all their lives, we ask why it is so difficult to get our young families’ in church and the answer is usually always the same, “they have busy lives raising their children.” We had children, we had busy lives for our time, the things we have to do to bring up a family today are no more time consuming than they were in our time, but the number of young families’ in church have certainly declined over the years. These young people don’t know about wood stoves, homes without bathrooms, etc. how can we expect them to support a church without innovation, to support a church that talks a language they don’t understand, to support a church that doesn’t have the tools and equipment to work with that they understand. We don’t have computer classes that are centered around learning the life of the church, we don’t have geo cashing trips for our youth, we don’t do soccer games or ball games, we don’t engage our youth in our churches. If we engaged our youth more I believe we would find more young families’ in our churches.
   Catherine, just y thoughts on your thoughts, have a great day

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   • Thanks Gayle, your comments build on my reflections. The other thing that I didn’t address is that we grew up in a world where we didn’t have to share our faith with others, because others were just like us. And so we never learned how to share our faith with those who have never heard the stories and don’t really know how to tell people WHY we come to church and what difference it makes in our lives.

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