Church... Faith... Tradition...

So I have been out of church for about three weeks and Sunday I decided to attend three services. The experience was a bit eye-opening and insightful. I was able to partake in the traditions of three separate but equal entities. One church was Freewill Baptist, one nondenominational and the last church was African Methodist Episcopal... So each of the services were similar in that the order of service followed a particular pattern and each service took up offering early. One church actually had two offerings. Now, I had no idea what a mission offering was so I neglected to write a fourth check. The first and last church had pretty long programs although the service proceeded swiftly. There was scripture reading, doxology, responsive reading, church covenant and other program points I could have done without.

I have fallen out of love with church and I don't know how to find my passion again. I don't even feel the way I used to feel because church was once a place of peace and refuge and it became a place of judgment. I don't want to sound negative but the black church has lost its way. We focus too much on appearances and not enough on making sure that souls are saved and lives are changed. Salvation is the only point of church but you would never know it... We don't even come together to learn... Most people don't even look at their Bibles except on Sundays... So how do we expect to reason together? I just can't deal anymore. I just need to chill...