Some days doing what I do can be a really enjoyable thing. But too often I find that there really is a lot of confusion about what it means to live a ‘Christian’ life. There is real confusion about what ‘Church’ is all about.

I suspect this train of thought could go on for several weeks actually. And I know that there will be many that will take a different perspective to it than I will... which is ok... if they want to be wrong... (ok that was where you were supposed to give a wry grin and say to yourself ; Aye but what does he know? But those of you that know me also know I can be a bit tongue in cheek as well...)

I would like to focus on what church is to be about in light of the up-coming ‘BACK to CHURCH SUNDAY’ coming up. I talk to people that claim to be Christian but they haven’t been to a church service in donkeys. Sometimes for perfectly good reasons, well at least they think so, and sometimes I agree with them. But more often than not I find folk just miss the point. Somehow we have gotten confused and think church is about us, truth is it is about God, about Jesus and what he came to do. We think that if the church service doesn’t ‘do it for us’ something is wrong with it.

We were bored, it was too charismatic, not charismatic enough, the building was too hot, too cold, the singing was too loud, not lively enough, someone spoke to us and we didn’t like it, someone didn’t speak to us, the sermon was too loud, I couldn’t hear the minister. And on and on the excuses go. Just be sure you pick a good excuse, eternity is a long time to live with it.

Truth is too many folk haven’t been in years and have no idea what is going on in the church in 2010, rather it is stuck in their head that it is the same as it was in 1926 or something and they weren’t even born then. Or the opposite is true and they think the church has changed too much since 1926. And then there are many that have never been to church apart from school services and funerals or a wedding or two, but still think they won’t like it having no idea what it is really about.

Back to Church Sunday is 26 September and would make a good day to try it out. I will make a shameless plug and say the church I minister in is the best, but I suspect other ministers might say the same about their place of ministry... I won’t pretend that the church I am minister in is for everyone, not a chance. So check us out, you might be surprised.

Plan for being Back to Church on the 26th and I’ll address other confusion topics more in the future, I’m going to have fun with this one.

Rev. Jon Bergen

Illusions

It has been a wee while, OK, OK over 8 months... have I really been that busy...? I suppose not really but should at least be getting my stuff up that I do for the Brechin Advertiser most weeks... so here is one from two weeks ago and I will try in the coming weeks to do better, I know, I know--I keep saying that but... so here is a newish one anyway... (reminder to self--put this paragraph in the clipboard for future use...)

This past week I had a chance to talk with a good group of teens about illusions. The contrast of what you see compared to what is actually there. Our world is full of illusions at times that leave us a bit confused and wondering who and what we can believe. 

Religion is one of those things that too often gets confused for what it isn’t as much as what it is. Christianity especially these days is under a rather strange attack considering the long history it has had. Yet one of the problems is that ‘Christianity’ has to many become an illusion of being the same as religion. 

The reality of Christianity is far too many only see the illusion of the outer trappings of the ritual and the buildings and then they look behind the curtain and see the ‘rules and regulations’ and that is all they see. Or they see the rules and regulations and say that isn’t for me or worse say wow the hypocrisy of it when they have this stuff called sin but nobody pays attention to it. It really comes down to that it has never become personal to them. Many see the outside but never meet the personal God that is really there waiting to become a personal friend.

We celebrate the glitz and glamour of the celebrity life style and at the same time the celebrity types are trying to lock us out of the their world so we don’t see the illusion of  brokenness and shallowness of their world that they see. Yet some of them if we really knew the personal side that goes beyond the outer appearances, we would think ‘wow nice folk too bad others can’t see they are just normal. I remember well the first time someone looked at me and said; ‘Wow Jon, you are almost like a normal person.’ But then I realized I had shattered their view of what they thought a minister was supposed to be like and I said ‘thank you what did you expect green skin and horns or something?’ The problem wasn’t me it was with the illusion of what they thought from afar a minister was supposed to be, but once we got to know each other personally the image changed.

So it is with Christianity, it has its challenges and folk have illusions built up about what it is supposed to be, but once it becomes personal and the perspective changes the illusion goes away and suddenly it can make sense. I suspect that this is true of a lot of life but when Jesus becomes personal instead of a building in the middle of the town or out in the country, the whole story changes. 

Till the next time,

Rev. Jon Bergen