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