Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2014

Why I Almost Left My Church…

Hello World,

With a church on nearly corner, it can be tempting to think that choosing a church is akin to choosing a grocery store…I can get some of this there and some of that over there and if I keep on sampling, I can find everything I need…

I’ve been going to my church since I was six years old…Yes, For 36 years, I have been either been taken to or driven to Central Christian Church in Southwest Atlanta every Sunday…I began going to the church because my father Dr. Denzil D. Holness was named the new pastor, and he has continued to be the pastor of Central ever since…When I was a little girl, our church was my second home and felt like it…There was lots of love and laughter and lessons about Jesus…I made some of my best friends there, traveled all over the country with various church groups and sought out the consoling of my church when the outside world was too painful to withstand alone (It’s hard to be a pre-teen and teen 🙂 )

However, as I got older, things began to change at my small church…Friends that had grown up with me at the church either moved away after college or explored other churches and never came back…In the beginning, it hurt me, but I eventually learned that adulthood warrants making new choices and sometimes those choices include people moving in and our of your lives…When I returned from the University of Georgia in Athens back to Atlanta and began attending my church again, my church was not the same…New people had come in and others had gone…

In addition to noticing the changes within my church, I noticed that I had also changed…I began living as a Christian in a way that I wasn’t willing to before college…And being the adventurous and curious person I’ve always been, I wondered what Christianity looked like through the lens of other churches…I was able to explore the mores of different Christian communities initially through a journalism internship with the Georgia Baptist Convention…I had done some of that in college as I wasn’t able to attend my home church since I was hours way, but this time, I was more intentional about my discoveries and open to what God was saying to me…I went to various conventions at different churches in a variety of denominations and I met Christians from diverse backgrounds and locations…Yet, I remained attending Central faithfully every Sunday….I must confess I felt obligated to do so as the pastor’s daughter…And I secretly wondered what it would be like to not just visit another church but to actually become a member of another church…

However, about a decade ago, Central began experiencing some difficulty…The neighborhood around the church had changed and many people had moved away…People got busy… People died…I’m not sure what else, but church attendance sharply dipped for a while…And I got very discouraged…Although I’ve never been a pastor and have no desire to be a pastor, I had lots of advice for father…I finally declared that I was tired of feeling like I had to attend Central and told my parents to consider themselves forewarned…I was church shopping and not hiding it…It was what I needed…I went to megachurches, medium-sized churches and small churches throughout the city of Atlanta and satisfied my curiosity about “greener pastures.”

And then one Sunday morning, an elderly woman called me and asked me to bring her to church…The first Sunday, I did so and thought nothing of it…And then the next Sunday, she called for another ride…By the third Sunday, I realized that God was speaking to me through that woman…I was needed at my church…And in spite of my church’s shortcomings, there was more for me to do there…So I returned…However, I came back with a new approach to being a member of Central…I decided that I would attend Central every Sunday, but I would not feel internally pressured to do something because I was the pastor’s daughter and I would feel free to attend another church on Wednesday evening for Bible study…It can get weird after a while if your father who has been your father for all of your life has also been your pastor for all of your whole life (at least as far back as you can recall)…And this approach works for me…

While I believe that you should receive a lot by attending and being a member of your church, being a part of a church is just as much about what you give…And sometimes, you can give in ways that you may have not considered…One of the ways I hope I give to my church is being an example to some of the children at the church who are from a disadvantaged background…I want to inspire them to dream big and allow God to bring them to heights they only thought possible for other people…

And over time, more people began coming again, and Central was on longer “The Valley of Dry Bones.” We returned to life…As the population of the church changed, I didn’t think it was possible to meet a potential husband at my church…And then one day Robert showed up…He came up with one of my friends who I grew up in church with…This friend was one of the friends that had moved away from Central and then he returned with a handsome friend to boot 🙂 And you know the end of the story…

Anyway, I’ve said or written all of this to say that deciding to leave a church is a serious decision and should not be done haphazardly nor without prayer to know God’s will…I’m not mad at or resentful about any of the childhood friends that have moved on to different churches…I trust that the same God who leads me to Central each Sunday leads them to wherever they go each Sunday…

Here is Pastor H.B. Charles Jr.’s perspective on “When It’s Time to Leave a Church.” Thanks to the TheOldBlackChurch.blogspot.com for the post idea…

Any thoughts?

Posted on Sunday, June 22, 2014

From Righteous to Ratchet – Your Christian News Roundup…

Hello World,

Every once in a while so many Christian news stories cross my path that I cannot devote a singular blog post to any of them…I MUST include them ALL…What you will read next ranges from righteous to ratchet…Some of the stories may inspire you and some may just cause you to shake your head…All of them are worthy of perusal to read on…

1. Jeremy R. Meeks aka Fine Felon aka #FelonBae aka Dreamy McMug Shot has been blowin’ up the Innanet since the Stockton, California Police Department posted a mugshot of the 30-year-old felon on its Facebook page on Wednesday. The picture of Meeks, who was arrested for felony weapon charges, was posted as a part of the department’s Operation Ceasefire enforcement mission. Little did the department know this post would have fired up a viral storm of women from all over the world declaring their “admiration” for the blue-eyed, gun-toting, practicing Christian of seven years…At least, that’s what his sister said…Yes, the fine felon is also saved… Hallelujah! Say Amen! LOL…Read more at The Christian Post…

2. There is almost nothing more unsettling than a Christian crook…especially one that that uses the church to steal money…And then again, the first treasurer of the church, Judas, was a Christian crook and stole money…Thankfully, there is one less Christian crook stealin’ folks money through the church…It was announced last Tuesday that Efren Taylor II was arrested on a federal indictment…According to an article on ABC News, “some congregants from some of the most prominent mega-churches, including Bishop Eddie Long’s New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., and Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Texas, turned over their life savings to Taylor. The DOJ claims that more than 80 people from Georgia alone lost more than $2 million because of Taylor’s scheme.” I don’t want to judge, but I have to wonder did the Holy Spirit tip any of these Christians that this man was a thief…What about the gift of discernment?

3. While Actress Meagan Good was promoting the movie “Think Like a Man Too,” which came out this weekend, she also discussed her forthcoming book with husband DeVon Franklin, a minister and vice president of production for Columbia Pictures, entitled “The Wait” on Jimmy Kimmel…Good and Franklin waited until they were married to have sex…Simultaneously, Good has been criticized for her sexy attire and belief that Christians can be sexy…Rolling Out has a new interview with Good in which she fleshes out her belief…Do you think that Good can promote being sexy yet advocate being celibate unless married at the same time?

4. Apparently, Frank Schaeffer, son of famous American evangelicals Francis and Edith Schaeffer who founded Switzerland’s L’Abri, is now an atheist who believes in God according to his new book “Why I aAm an Atheist Who Believes in God,”…I actually enjoyed Schaeffer’s book “Crazy For God” in which which he reveals his conflicted views about the church…but now he is saying he is an atheist?! That’s just asinine…Read more at The Huffington Post…

5. In other atheist news, “Tim Lambesis, lead singer and founder of Christian metalcore band As I Lay Dying, recently confessed that he and other members of his band had become atheists but kept claiming to be Christians so they could keep making money selling records to Christians,” according to an article on The Christian Post…Lambesis, who was recently sentenced to prison for attempting to order a hit on his estranged wife (Yes, I actually typed that), said that most Christian bands he met had similar beliefs!!! Again, I’ma need my fellow Christians to pray for more discernment…

6. In positive Christian news, have you ever heard of the new GSN dating show “It Takes a Church” The show, hosted by Natalie Grant, debuted earlier this month…Here is the description from the website : Each week, IT TAKES A CHURCH visits a congregation from across the country to surprise one unsuspecting single with the news that they’re about to be saved from the dating world. The church’s Pastor will task their congregation of cupids, to find the best possible matches for the dater, but in the end, our single will decide which suitor to put their faith in. The congregant who brought the chosen suitor will make a difference to their church by winning a donation on its behalf. The new show already has a lot of fans including Gospel Artist Donnie McClurkin…Here is Elev8’s article about the new show…

7. President Obama showed up in the most unlikely way at the The Faith and Freedom Coalition’s Road to Majority Conference on Friday…According to TIME Magazine, “small figurines of Obama’s head, first spotted by the Huffington Post‘s Igor Bobic, were placed inside the urinals in the mens’ restroom outside the conference hall.” One has to wonder what faith these attendees have if they allowed such a filthy and degrading depiction of our nation’s president to be a part of the conference?

Any thoughts?

Posted on Tuesday, June 17, 2014

The Stones That Built Me Strong – New Book Alert!!!

Hello World,

As I’ve said before in previous posts, summertime is the best time to catch up on your reading…Over the past few weeks, I’ve featured fiction books so today I thought I would feature a non fiction selection…Presenting The Stones That Built Me Strong: Turn Hurtful Stones from Your Past Into Stepping Stones for Success! by Alissa R. Jones…

Are you holding on to something you need to let go of?

Have you ever felt like all the odds are against you to succeed?

Have you ever felt like you fell in love with the wrong person?

I came up against these questions at life’s most trying moments. For many years, I was silenced by fear and suppressed the bad memories of my childhood. At the age of 11, I was abused by a man my mother let rent a room in our home. I discovered my dad I’ve known for 13 years wasn’t my dad biologically. I looked for love in the wrong places, trying to fill the void of all the things important to me being taken and leaving me hopeless.

When we don’t deal with our past it can’t be healed. I made a choice to marry a man for the wrong reasons. In hopes of holding on to him, I continued to lose myself in the process and deal with situations I should not have.

With each stone thrown at me, I have come to know peace, understanding and forgiveness through turning to God. After turning to God, I learned that what was once a negative and a hurtful stone can turn into a positive one. I realized sometimes God places these obstacles and trials before us to humble us, and prepare us for what He truly has in store for us.

The Stones That Built Me Strong: Turn Hurtful Stones from Your Past Into Stepping Stones for Success! is available on Amazon.

About The Author:

Alissa R. Jones is an author, motivational speaker, project director, woman of God and the list goes on…But most of all, she is a survivor. She is the Founder and Director of S.W.V., Survivors with Voices Foundation with a mission to help survivors embrace seen and unseen scars, find a voice, and heal. S.W.V. provides an outlet in which their voices may be heard. Alissa R. Jones was born and raised out of Springfield, Ohio. She currently resides in Houston, Texas with her husband Robbin A. Jones and their children. For more information, visit the author online at survivorswithvoices.com.