I am searching for the Truth.  I don’t mean some trite “Jesus is the truth” knee jerk reaction to my seeking.  I want real answers to hard questions.  The questions that generally evoke the ire of those in positions of authority in the church.  The kind of questions that show a mind that is alive and working.  I don’t think that the Creator would mind us asking “why?”.  One of the Proverbs says something like God hides things and kings seek them out.  The God who likes to play hide and seek isn’t the kind of mean grumpy old man who gets upset with our questions.

So here is a question:  Why are churches so exclusionary?

I was infatuated with the “seeker” church movement.  It seemed to me that of all the flavors of church, this was one that I could get into.  Seeker churches were more concerned with not putting people off than in getting “buy-in”.  There were no greeting committees, no rush to identify “new-comers”, no trying to embarrass visitors.  I really liked that last part.  The thing I hated most about church “shopping” was the idea of having to stand up or be acknowledged as a “first time visitor”.  That and the “share signs of fellowship”.  Just what was that anyway?  I took to just smiling an inane smile and nodding at anyone close by until I could sit back down.

Where am I going with this?  I found that most churches inadvertently drive new people away by invading their space.  In striving to welcome them, the people were pushing folks away.  I can see the allure of a great big mega-church.  The anonymity of a large crowd makes it easier to blend in and go unnoticed.  A smaller church has a harder time attracting new members because they are so familiar with the way “their” church runs, they are putting out the message that we don’t want you here, you will disrupt our comfortable, safe enclave.

One of my Facebook friends posted this link today: http://pastors.com/top-ten-ways-churches-drive-away-first-time-guests/?utm_content=buffer7c4ba about ways churches drive away visitors.  All the things I found to be true as a visitor are in this article.  What is meant to be that safe enclave where healing and growth can happen becomes a cliquish closed society where outsiders feel like they are intruding on an intimate gathering of family.  I don’t have any answers to these problems, because as soon as I say that we should just leave visitors alone, someone will point out that people come to church because they are hurting and need God’s love.

The fractious nature of modern Protestantism hurts more than it helps as someone searches desperately for a place to fit in.  I am not one to criticize church “hoppers” as I have been at a few different places myself.  I was looking for the “perfect” place to plant myself.  The problem was that I was the problem.  I was bringing my own hurt and disappointment with me into every place I went.  I was already broken and went looking for healing at a place that by it’s very nature is also broken.

I mean that Protestantism is built on rebellion, maybe revolution is a better choice of words.  Exlusionism is part and parcel of our nature. Calvin and Luther and the other “fathers” of the Protestant movement grew tired of the rigid structures of the Catholic Church.  In breaking away, they just substituted one form of structure for another.  Some churches have gone so far as to declare that any structure is bad and have gone way off the deep end.

In rejecting the hierarchical structure of the Catholic Church, we became an ungovernable mess.  If you look at the history of most denominations, it generally starts with “Rebel Church broke away from Revolutionary Church over the use of Ghost vs Spirit in the Name of the Third Person of the Trinity.”  Okay, that is a made up example, but tell me I’m crazy if that isn’t the very kind of thing over which denominations get started.

We celebrate our differences and are proud of our “uniqueness” instead of relishing the diversity of how we celebrate spirituality.  The Creator is so big that we cannot begin to understand how big.  Why would She not speak to each of us in ways we can understand, yet maintain Her Identity when addressing the whole of humankind?

We do injustice to Creation when we condemn someone who is different because somewhere someone is condemning us for being different from them..  Every snowflake is supposed to be unique, yet we don’t see the differences in a foot of the sparkly stuff.  So too is humankind.  Each of us is different, yet we are humanity when seen from a distance.

May we learn to cherish our differentness and embrace our sameness.