When I was a teenager, my family got into church. I don’t mean we started showing up on Sundays I mean we got into it, really into it. We were there on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, special events, church trips, and anything else that happened when the doors were open. Each member of my immediate family had an experience of faith and we lived into it the best way we knew how. Mostly, we listened to what I would now consider coarse, often hateful rhetoric offered as “The Truth”. We heard it in Sunday school. We heard it in the services. We heard it in the parking lot and at Dairy Queen after church.

But I had questions. There were things that didn’t add up theologically and there were things I simply couldn’t believe because they weren’t really in the bible when I looked for them. After several engagements with certain leaders, I ended up leaving that church. I followed that with another church and then another church because despite my attempts to ask deeper questions about the Christian faith, church leaders seemed to want to put up roadblocks as soon as the questions made the leadership uncomfortable.

Eventually, I answered a call to ministry. This led me to attend seminary and once again, I found professors and people in authority who at first encouraged the questioning but only until I found a ‘sacred cow’ type belief. Four years of seminary opened my eyes to things I never would have imagined. Some of these things were painful and hard to digest at first but I kept pushing myself and my faith and continue to do the same to this day. Yet, there were, to the end, those who suggested I read only certain writers and study on certain ideas to find “The Truth”.

No matter where I have been in my faith journey, I have always had to deal with those who wanted to limit knowledge and faith exploration to a certain comfort level for the leadership and majority of people. I think this is a poor way to approach faith. I believe it is hard to trust people who aren’t willing to hear and address the hard questions of faith and offer people room to explore those honestly.

The reason for bringing this up is I feel like there are people in our worship community who have questions. I think there are people who, like me, had these questions long ago and had their curiosity squelched beneath comments like, “That’s what the bible says you just need to read it right” or “That’s just what we believe” or any of another in a long list comments intended to keep people toeing a particular line. I hate lines. I like exploration. I want to encourage exploration. With that in mind, I want you ask these questions. You can catch me after church. You can email me (lmjarrell@umcsc.org). You can find my phone number on the weekly bulletin. Whatever your method, I want to encourage you to ask the questions and seek to learn more, dig deeper, and wonder about faith freely.

Science Fiction author Brian Herbert said, “The capacity to learn is a gift; The ability to learn is a skill; The willingness to learn is a choice.” May we be a willing people where our faith is concerned.

        

Our United Methodist Women will resume their monthly meetings the second Sunday of each month beginning on August 10 at 7:00 pm. We are ready to get back to our Mission focus and work! We would love to have you join us in our efforts to be the hands and feet of Christ in our community.

Devin and Dylan Jenkins and Elizabeth Moseley—Congratulations on your graduation! by Claudia Hartley

All of Zion’s Graduates by Hazel and Terry Robinson

Doris Starnes on her birthday June 4 and Kathleen Robinson on her birthday June 19 by Hazel and Terry Robinson

Janice McCain by Hazel and Terry Robinson

Emma Massey on making the All Star Softball Team by Barbara Hall

Our Graduates by Carolyn Massey