Trying Church

My hubby and I have ongoing conversations about church--should we go, shouldn't we, are we called out or in, if we are supposed to go, where, and how do our minds need to change to survive it, what do we have to give, etc.

This quest has taken us to a body where they strongly preach the gospel as we understand it, and its great, but it is over a half hour away and we don't know a soul who goes there. Then, there is our old church, where we know half the people, but often don't connect theologically.

Today, we went to our old church. We have our children to consider, and they are getting older, need to be experiencing the fellowship of the saints, and it would be better if they felt comfortable with folks. So we went, and it was really great to see everyone. It felt so warm and homey.

The kids feedback from Sunday school leaves me nonplussed. I don't know how to respond. The youngest, I don't know what she learned or did, but she got a "stay off drugs" sticker (she's 5), and a pair of swimming goggles, which she loved. Of the middle two, the older one was highly annoyed that her brother wanted to cling to her, and declared she didn't learn a thing because she already knew it all. Apparently they discussed Jesus feeding the 5000. The oldest Sunday school kid said that they read the section of Nehemiah where it lists who built which part of the wall, but she didn't know what the application of that was. She did say her teacher taught them that if you pray stuff God says in the Bible that he'll give you, you're more likely to get it. Second child said she learned this too.

This makes me a bit nervous. In past churches, based on this idea, people have lifted anything God ever said to anyone and filtered it through "All God's promises are Yes and Amen in Christ Jesus" and figured if they prayed whatever Bible quote with enough fervor, God would of course give it to them. And if it didn't seem that he gave it to them, they would declare that he had in fact given it to them. Nonsense, superstition, bleh. But, I don't really want my kids to be disrespectful to their teachers, nor to teach them that church/sunday school/God and the Bible are bunk. So I tried to draw out from them what they know God has promised to give them in the Bible, but apparently they don't know of anything. Wonderful job of training that we have done.

The problem is, I don't really understand prayer very well myself. I know that when Jesus taught the disciples to pray, before he inaugurated the new covenant, he had them acknowledge our Holy Heavenly Father, and pray for his rule to come to earth. Remember that you are dependent on God supporting you. Ask for forgiveness (though I can't imagine anyone not looking around nervously when he suggested that God only forgive as well as a human!) How any of this teaching would be altered by the new covenant, I don't know.

Some will criticize me for being too critical of the kids' sunday school teachers. Maybe even suggest that if I think could do better, step up to the plate. Can I ethically do that? I guess that is a big question. Would anything I would teach violate the direction the leadership believes the church should go?

My kids need to be aware that the Christian life isn't lived in isolation, but that being part of the body of believers is an irreplaceable element of walking with God. And they also need to be trained in truth. They need to understand what Jesus has done for them, and what he has promised to do in the future.

The old church is great for being together with other believers, but the things my kids have been fed there have included a false story about the 12 days of Christmas being a Christian allegory of some significance, that the church is just the new version of the temple (God used to live in the temple building, now he lives in the church building? Hello?), and now this questionable doctrine about prayer. And they have been nudged about the baptism of the holy spirit, which I am really not all that comfortable with at all. I don't know if any of this matters, the kids don't appear to be retaining anything they are taught anyway--by me or anyone else.

Case in point: we were discussing the feasts of the Lord the other day. We came to the feast of Weeks, Pentecost. I read that it was initiated by God to commemorate the giving of the law. It was fulfilled on Pentecost, after the ascension, by the giving of the ____________. The kids didn't know. We rephrased--the old covenant was lived by the Law, the New Covenant power is the ________. No idea. The ________ gives life, the letter kills? None of it rang a bell. Holy Spirit. Somehow, the significance of the whole Jesus story had escaped them. He died and rose again to give us life through the Holy Spirit, so that we could live like Jesus did, moved directly by God. Needless to say, we've been through this, but apparently it doesn't have a place in their hearts yet. So why should I fuss about fluff in Sunday School? Maybe I should just be happy that they have a chance to be loved and known by others and figure that the Spirit will lead them into all truth in due time.

God promised me patience, right? I think I'll pray for it...