Habits are powerful. That’s true of good ones e.g. exercise, eating right, praying, etc. And it’s true of bad ones, “Hi, I’m Kurt, and I’m a nicotine addict. It’s been 20 years, this month, since my last cigarette”. It’s easy to start the bad ones. It’s hard to start and maintain the good ones. I have started and abandoned countless journals. I have gained and lost my body weight several times over.
Good habits and bad ones are tied together. The good habits can crowd out the bad. I got to see that happen first hand at a former church of ours in Findlay, Christ Church United Methodist. There, we had a friend Roger, who used one good habit to crowd out one really bad habit. You see, Roger was an alcoholic. He had been a married, upper middle class guy. He had been a CEO. But Roger had drunk his way out of all that.
But many years ago, Roger discovered Christ Church via a New Years Eve Service we had. Now, let me tell you, we almost cancelled that service. It was not very well attended, there were something like 10-20 people there the night Roger came. It really strained Cheri and I and all who put it on. But, Roger made the choice to join us that night. Then, he stared coming to Sunday School on a regular basis.
In that Sunday School Class, Roger found a home. He found acceptance, he found peace with God, and he found a way to push out a bad habit. But that was always a choice. Roger’s way to Christ Church was actually filled with a real world decision each time. You see, Roger’s favorite alcohol source was a carry-out, directly across the street from Christ Church. The right turn (no, I swear I’m not making this up) was into Christ Church and the left was into the carry-out. Staring with that New Year’s Eve service, Roger made the right turn.
Roger later succumb to the damage that years of abuse caused, he died sober and loved by a small group of people, our Sunday School Class. But with all the joy of his turn around that I feel, comes a great sadness for me.
It’s not with the passing of Roger. We all die, and I’m sure ,beyond any doubt that Roger is in a place of acceptance, healing and love. No, I’m sadden by the fact that Roger never crossed the building and joined us in worship on a Sunday. Roger felt unworthy to come into the Sunday morning worship service as all he had to wear were sweat pants and t-shirts. Each week he came, read the Bible, share his life with us, but quickly left without coming into the sanctuary. He left without joining the larger body of the church.
Let me make this clear, NO ONE at Christ Church ever overtly made Roger feel unwelcome. Christ Church is a wonderful, mainline Methodist church. But, they dressed up for church. Not a sinful thing, not a disrespectful thing. They were showing their respect for God, in their minds, in the way they dressed. They also made those in the circle very welcome. But Roger was not in the circle.
As a group of us founded a second worship service, the Backdoor Coffee House, where Roger would have been welcomed to come as he was and be among friends, we remembered Roger. Every time I get frustrated, tired and ready to give up at a church, I try to remember Roger. I do not want any other Rogers to feel excluded from that circle of worship ever again.
For me, welcome to the worship circle hits close to home. I gave up on worship around the age of eighteen, which means I gave up on church. Church took time away from political campaigning, from fund raising walks and rides, from blood drives, in other words it took away from “saving the world”. I never gave up on God and I know God doesn’t give up on me, but worship was a boring, waste of time. It took dating a Pastor (an evangelism technique I now frown up for some reason, at least until we get a single associate pastor at the Village) to get me in the doors of a church.
But, when I came back, at Christ Church, I discovered something about worship done right. God comes to us in worship. The story from the Bible we used this week in worship, from the Book of Chronicles says it best “if you seek God, God will be found by you, but if you abandon God, God will abandon you”. Asa in the story repairs the temple altar and puts away the abominable idols of his culture. Imagine that a society with bad idols (greed, anger, etc). I’ve never hard of such a thing.
Augustine, a great Christian writer & leader, said it best, “our hearts are restless until we rest in God”. Boy are we restless today. Today, some of that is good. Bettering ourselves & the world is somewhat restless. But, there is a lot of bad restlessness out there. We feel like we have to buy or earn our way into feeling safe, secure, rested. We enter into bad relationships, hang out with the wrong people to feel at ease. We use drugs & alcohol to try to bring us that rest. We think we can fill our spaces with things.
For me, worship done right is where I refresh, recharge, reconnect and recommit. I still don’t speak (and I consider music style a language) “praise music”. I don’t think the all powerful, creator of the universe, the God of Issac & Abraham & David & Jesus & Martin Luther King, Jr needs to hear from me how great God is. I am an insignificant creature, at an insignificant time, on an insignificant world. But, Cheri has been trying to get me to hear, it’s about me hearing that about God. God is great, God is powerful and God wants to have a relationship with me. Slowly, but surely, I find myself tolerating more praise music in the mix of songs we sing at the Village.
To be a follower of Christ is a team sport. Jesus didn’t mentor a disciple, but a team. It is also a contact sport. Going against the grain of our society, that says it’s all about each of us getting what we want, rather than us all getting what we need, is a contact sport. Jesus spent a lot of time in trouble with the powers that be. And we find ourselves in the same lot. Whether we are liberals or conservatives in our political and theological views, we will tick off the mainstream of faith and of society. Jesus did. Worship is where we join up with the rest of the team.
In the next few months, right after Labor Day, we will be launching a new worship service at the Village. It will be located in the Village Commons (our current worship space) and will be on Sunday as well. But it will be with a different style and with different people attending. Six to twelve months later, worship service number three will be launched. This world needs multiple places to refresh, recharge, reconnect and recommit to a message that God loves us and we need to love each other and make the world a better place. And that’s what the Village is about.
So, do you have a place like this for yourself? If you do, great. Pray for those who don’t and for us as we continue to expand our circle. If you don’t have such a home, find one. There are great faith communities like that all over the country, including one at the corner of Central & Monroe Street. We’re together Sundays at 10:30, and in a few months later as well. If you have ideas, talents, gifts to share, contact Cheri at cheri@villagohio.org. May the great and wonderful love of God crowd out the bad things of this world this week.
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