Monday, March 9, 2009

Spritual Mutt

One of the churches we are currently attending is on Saturday night. It was the first one we visited when we began to look. We liked it, but there was nothing there for the older kids so we sadly crossed it off the list. This fall they began a Saturday night service and we began attending then. We still make sure to get the kids to church on Sunday, but Tom and I really like the intimate evening service.

This week's sermon was on Freedom from Religion. One of the points made was that many people just follow the rites and practices prescribed by whatever church they are going to and think that makes everything "right" with God. They also get the idea that there is one way - whatever they are doing - and that everyone else is wrong.

It was then I realized how much of a spiritual mutt I am. I was raised in the Christian church - Disciples of Christ. I went to a United Church of Christ youth group growing up. I married a Catholic with both his priest and my minister presiding over the ceremony. When that church closed I found an American Baptist church (the one place that has felt like home more than any other). I attended MOPS at a Lutheran church when my kids were young. My kids began attending Awana at a Southern Baptist church. They grew out of that Awana program so we began going to a different Awana at a church that I don't even know what the "official" denomination is. When scouts came along they met at churches, Timothy at a United Methodist and the girls at two different Catholic parishes. Then the search for a new church was upon us. I won't even list all the denominations that we looked at briefly. Now however we are attending and Assembly of God on Saturday night and an Evangelical church on Sundays.

With all that church background I have managed to sort out what is really important to me and my walk with the Lord. It isn't a certain kind of music, or a particular translation of the Bible or even the way a church is set up. Being a spiritual mutt, I have discovered what is the most important and that is HIM - everything else is just earthy trappings of religion.

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