Life is so strange. After ten years of not being part of a Christian community, looks like my husband and I are returning. Of course, both of us have a completely different view of Christianity now than we did when we left. What’s strange is that it seems to both of us that Christianity has changed quite a bit, too.
We’re attending a fairly traditional United Methodist Church. It’s far more traditional than anything we’ve been involved with for probably 15 years! Yet, in our search for a Methodist community, every minister has introduced themselves to us by their first name – not even with a “pastor” preceding it. A church we visited in Round Rock, Texas (an extremely homophobic part of the world) all agreed, without much argument, to become a Reconciling Community. They were surprised at how impressed we were with their willingness to accept the label since only one other Methodist church in Austin has been willing to take it on. For them, it was just plain, common sense and they don’t see anything bold or courageous about it. It’s a little too traditional for us in terms of theology, but what a fantastic community!
The church we are joining is not a Reconciling community. But we both feel incredibly drawn to it, for some reason. It just feels like the right thing to do at this point in our lives. I can’t tell you why and I don’t even want to try. Maybe five years from now it will make sense. Then again, maybe I’m simply finally learning to live life without insisting that it make sense.