I grew up in a margarine and miracle whip family.
Somewhere between high school graduation and marriage, I fell in love with butter and mayonnaise.
I don’t know if it was the taste, or the thrill of newness, or the exciting rebellion against my upbringing. But I did it. I never bought margarine or miracle whip again.
Until this year, when we realized that my son is allergic to milk. It made him itch and snot (gross!) and his skin broke out in dry patches.
That’s when margarine made its way into my fridge.
I had to explain to my confused butter-loving children what margarine was. They couldn’t tell the difference by looking at it, and had a hard time grasping that there were more options in the toast-spread universe.
Church is like this.
We grow up on a certain church culture, thinking that’s the only option. And when that option ceases to be available for some reason, or we can no longer sense the presence of God there, or the leadership just flat-out lets us down, we itch and snot around and break out in dryness.
Some people go looking for a church substitute.
Some people find one at a church. Some don’t.
There are loads and loads of people doing church all alone, up in the mountains or next to the peaceful lapping waves of a lake.
When the presence of God floods a place, the big blue sky seems like a perfect cathedral.
As a girl who loves Jesus I totally get that.
As a pastor, it makes me ache. Because the Bride of Christ has failed to love that person in the context of a community.
We’ve put butter and mayonnaise out and told them if they don’t like it, they should go somewhere else.
And the not-so-crazy thing is, they do. They go and find margarine and miracle whip and thank God above that they got out of that itchy, dry place called church.
But the problem with doing church all alone by a lake is it’s hard to make disciples of all the nations by yourself. It’s tough to feel like Jesus is the only friend who knows your marriage is tattered and failing.
It’s lonely when you have no person to turn to when you want to shout a giant Hallelujah and hear one big laugh and see someone leap for joy for you.
I pray that we would “feel” church riding our bikes on trails, sitting on our porches in the rain, in our living rooms, and on the treadmill at the gym.
I also pray that the churches we attend would be places for people who like butter and margarine and vegan spread and mayonnaise and miracle whip and mustard and every other flavor. I hope that we can learn to have grace and mercy for one another and be united in our faith in Christ, not our preferences about church culture.
Because a church like that heals hearts, empowers believers, and builds the Kingdom just makes sense. And together, we are so much more than we can be alone; together, we are a family.
I will extol the Lord at all times;
His praise will always be on my lips.
His praise will always be on my lips.
My soul will boast in the Lord;
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
let the afflicted hear and rejoice.
Glorify the Lord with me;
let us exalt his name together.
-Psalm 34:1-3
Sorry 😔