What i love about my church...

Since I normally spend so much time complaining (venting) about things I see in life that I think are wrong, today I will brag about something that I think is pretty great... My church.  I know that no church is perfect and I am not claiming that this church is, but I am claiming that this is a great church, and it is a church that I am proud of.  

To start things off I will let you know about the church.  It is a small church about 12 minutes outside of the city.  There were 53 people there this past Sunday and there were 9 children for children's church.  The last youth meeting had 13 youth and although the church is small you can just feel the love and the excitement and you can just see the growth every week.  You might be saying to yourself, "If there are only 53 people then how is it growing?"  Well, 2 years ago they had only 17 people.  The age group is pretty varied but about 65% of the church is middle age/elderly and there are lots of children and many young families.

Things that I love about my church...

1.  Generosity - I have seen this church not just say that they want to help people, but I have seen this church reach into their own pockets and give not just their money but also their time to help other people out.  Their was once a time when they were given the "opportunity" to help out someone and without batting an eye they said "What else is the church for?"  This is far from a rich church but it sure does enjoy giving as if it was a rich church.

2.  Loving - "You shall know my people for they will have love for one another."  You can feel the love from the people if you ever attend a worship service with us.  The people are genuine and very friendly.  My church is not a church you will go to and be ignored.  My church is a church in which you will leave feeling as if you have made some new friends.  The greeting and fellowship  time (that time where everyone walks around and shakes hands with one another), can easily go for 10 minutes because the people just want to find out how each other is doing and because they want to smile and find out about each other... my church is interested in who you are.

3.  Open minded - This past Sunday my wife and I had a friend come over and sing a song to the church for worship.  My friend has a beautiful voice and is very talented and God has surely given her a gift, but still I thought that some people would get upset because the style of song was contemporary.  Remember that the average age of this small little country church is middle age/elderly.  I thought for certain that somebody would have a problem when my friend started to sing a Bethany Dillon song that sound real "poppy".  Imagine my surprise (and shame for not giving my church enough credit) when my church gave the loudest and most enthusiastic applause that I have ever heard them give.  Imagine my surprise again when so many of the middle age/elderly people came up and thanked my friend and gave her sincere love for the song that she song.  Now that you have imagined my surprise and shame imagine my pride...

4.  Strength - My church is just a little old church , but it is a church that is strong enough to have lasted 125+ years and it is a strong enough church to fight against an organization that it no longer wants to be a part of.  For those who are unaware, my "little" old church used to be Methodist but my "little" old church decided to take a stand against the large denomination when my "little" old church didn't agree with many of the things that the Methodist denomination was accepting.  My "little" old church is now fighting for it's very survival for what it believes is right and I KNOW that my "little" old church is going to win.  How "little" was David when he fought Goliath?

5.  Unity - The day of Pentecost was successful for 2 reasons.  The first reason was because the Holy Spirit came down and touched the people.  The second reason is because the people were united and all in one accord.  My church is united and if one person should fall then the rest of the church will pick that person up and carry them until they can walk on their own again.  My church voted 100% to leave the Methodist denomination and that is unheard of.  My church is united in making a difference and helping people not just helping themselves.  My church is united in wanting to serve God.

I'm sorry if I seemed to be bragging about my church but it is because I really am proud of my church.  This is a church filled with great people who want to do God's work and this is the kind of church that makes me proud and happy to be a Christian.  I know that if I have lived a less than perfect life these people would not look down their noses at me and I know that they would love me just the same.  I love my church because it is not mine so much as it is God's church and I'm just happy to be there.  I love my church because there is no drama, no back stabbing, no hurting one another, and no pettiness (I am not saying that all churches have those, but the few ones that do have those things do give the rest of the churches a bad name, so please do not think that I am writing about any church in particular).  I love my church because it loves me and my family and that is what Christianity is all about...

My church is named Mount Pleasant Community Church.

chris

Something different...

The other day I was thinking about how it seems (at least to me) that maybe all that I have done so far on my blog is just say what things I think are bad about the world without maybe saying anything bad about myself.  I don't want for anyone to ever be able to say to me that I think that their is nothing wrong with me, so with that in mind I am going to become very vulnerable in this blog and open up about what things I think are wrong with me.  Please feel free to add other things about me that you believe are flaws, things wrong with me, or things that I should work on.  I know that I have a lot of work in order to become the person that I want to be and I am open to helpful suggestions.

1.  I think that my sense of humor often hurts me in reaching out to people.  I don't have a bad sense of humor, or a dirty sense of humor, but my sense of humor can often be sarcastic and I believe that I often offend people without really wanting or meaning to.

2.  I have been told recently that I come across as arrogant and if that is true than I would definitely like to change that.  I truly don't think of myself as better than anyone else and I really don't feel that I am above others.  I am on the look out for this habit in myself  so that I can make sure that I don't do this anymore.

3.  I have a VERY difficult time in trusting other people.  This is very obvious to me because this is something that I feel everyday.  I believe that the reason for my lack of trust in others is due to how I was raised, and because of the amount of betrayal that I have experienced in my life.  I want to get better at trusting others so that I can build deeper and closer relationships with other people.  I currently only trust about 5 people in this world and I would like to be able to trust so many more than I currently do.

4.  I feel as if I am very demanding of my friends and of other people.  I think that a lot of this is because of how demanding I am of myself and I would like to become more carefree towards my friends and myself. I don't want to push others away and therefore miss out on their great friendships because of my being demanding.

5.  I am a very insecure person.  I am really going to open up the vulnerable can on this one by saying things that I am insecure about:  my weight, I feel as if I don't have any friends, I don't really feel as if I have accomplished anything in my life, I have yet to influence the world in the way that I would like to, I feel as if no one truly loves me (but God), I find that I find myself to be unworthy of love (but from God, I know He loves me), I don't really have any talents worth mentioning, there are things in life that I would love to do but I can't really do them now...  Just to name a few.  Please do not respond with things that are supposed to make me feel less insecure.  I am not doing this blog to fish for compliments but I am doing this blog to be as sincere and real as I can be.

6.  I have some phobias in my life that really affect my living and I let these phobias affect my life.  I really wish that I could overcome these, but they are a huge thorn in my side and I have lacked the strength to defeat them.

7.  I have really let things get me down this year and that is probably my deepest regret.  As a Christian I wish that I would have been a much stronger person than I have been this year and I feel that I could have accomplished so much more had I had a more positive demeanor and attitude this year.  As a Pastor I do not feel as if I have been the persevering role model through problems that I should have been, even if not too many people have been aware of the problems that I have faced.

8.  I often wish for things that I don't have and I let these things get me down.  I'm not jealous, or covetous, but I do get down on myself when I think of how I don't have this thing or that thing.  I wish that I had a family (children, closer blood relatives), or a job that I felt called to, or more friends, or enough money to pay all of my bills, or a better car for my wife that would be able to pass the inspection that was due on it two months ago, or a closer relationship to God that it seems to me that other people have that I seem to be lacking.

9.  My wife says that I am a very judgmental person. I do not think that I am, but I do respect her opinion enough to believe that this is something that I just don't realize about myself.  I don't want to prejudge people because there is a lot that I might miss out on who a person truly is by doing so.

So far these are the only things that I could come up with.  If you have any comments that might be able to help me than please leave feedback.  If there are other things that you think of that you believe that I should work on these please let me know.  If you would like to be anonymous I understand and all you have to do is put anonymous and even I would be unable to find out who you are.  If you are unable to come up with anything than I ask that you would please remember me in your prayers and I ask that you would pray that I improve as a person due to this endeavor.

Sincerely,

Chris R. Gordon