Are We Only Talking to Ourselves?

As I told a co-worker about mid-week Bible studies at our church, she asked, "what do you do there?" So I began to explain that the church members come and we all eat and then the pastor or someone leads us in Bible study.

"But what is a Bible study? I hear people talk about it, but what do you do in Bible study?"

Wow. How ignorant and exclusive are we as Christians? How often do we assume that someone knows what "Bible study" or "praise music" or "mission work" or even .... "FAITH" means? How many times have we let opportunities to share the simple message of God's goodness slip away because we boast and speak in these terms that may mean nothing to someone who wasn't brought up in a protestant church-going family?

I mean seriously, for someone who has never heard that Jesus died on the cross to pay for all the bad things we've done and thought, how terribly boring would "Bible study" sound? "Sorry, can't hang out tonight, I have Bible study." Just the word "study" has such a dry and obligatory connotation. Why not instead say something more like, "a group of us are getting together to discover the treasures God has in store for us in Heaven;" or, "We're going to get to know an awesome God who has forgiven us for all the wretched things we've done;" or, "Some friends are getting together to celebrate eternal life and plan ways to show our gratitude to the Giver of such an awesome gift."

Basically, as someone put it in church recently, we need to go beyond "talking to ourselves." Invite your friend to church and tell her what to expect. Don't decline certain activities because you're a "Christian" or it goes against what you believe. Explain that you want to bring glory to a Great and Wonderful God and Why in the world you would want to do that. Tell people what "small group" or "Bible study" or "Sunday School" or "mission work" means. Who is going to want a relationship with an awesome loving God if they never know who He is and why He is so awesome? Let's stop talking just to each other when it pertains to our faith and start talking to everyone else. Let's get out of our "Christian world" and open oursleves up to the world around us.

Thank you, Dallas area public schools

I know that Dallas shuts down when hit with "Winter Blasts". I get it. It is just not safe out there. Businesses are closed, highways are shut down, and citizens are warned to stay inside. I've been here long enough to learn that this is standard procedure. So when we had a "winter storm" last night and found ourselves buried under an inch or so of ice, it was no surprise that the news broadcasts announced that every school within 100 miles of here would be closed today. And we were reminded of this fact until 11 am, as the local news took over the airways and forewent any regularly scheduled programming to inform us of this.

So, the roads were bad, and school was canceled. I guess they didn't realize that by noon all the ice would be gone, there would be no clouds in the sky, and the temperature would get up into the 40s. So all the kids were home, parents were left to scramble to figure out what to do with them, and by the time the afternoon rolled around they were ready to dump them off on us. And that they did. We had better than average attendance at our tumbling classes tonight, and the kids were more rambunctious than normal as well. I actually spent 5 minutes with one of my classes doing sitting practice. All they had to do was sit. Just sit. And they couldn't do that.

So thank you, public schools, for not having class today. It really made my life easier. Really.