"Hmmmm. I wonder if it fits again now that I've lost some weight?"
Now fully distracted from my original purpose I pulled it out and tried it on. I was completely delighted to find that it fit. It was a bit (Ok - very) wrinkled from being shoved in the back of the closet so long, but it made me feel pretty.
So, I started dancing around in my fancy black dress.
Charlie, who was hanging out with me in my room, said "Mom. Stop it."
"Stop what honey?"
"Stop dancing. You're not at church."
Say what? I chuckled. But, it made me realize the vastly different experiences my children have at church in relation to my own experiences as a kid.
I grew up in a conservative Brethren in Christ church which has it's roots in the Anabaptist tradition ( Mennonites, Amish, Church of the Brethren, etc. have the same historical roots). Our services were very traditional. Hymns were our mainstay. And, people simply didn't clap or raise their hands in worship. And, they certainly didn't dance.
Fast forward to today. John and I take our family to non-demoninational church that I suppose could be considered 'charismatic'. I am still hugely self-concious about raising my hands or dancing...and I generally don't. That conservative upbringing is still pretty deeply ingrained.
But, many people in our church do these things. And, I guess now Charlie associates dancing with church.
So, I'm curious. What kind of church experiences are your children having? Is it different from your own as a child? Would you consider your church traditional or contemporary? I'd love to hear.
Hard call.
ReplyDeleteWe are contemporary but def. have traditional things as well.
The other day, the kids sang some songs and one of them was kind of like a rap song that we had used for VBS. I kind of clapped along, thought it was weird but not that important. Some people were just downright upset about it.
A lot of our older members like to sing the songs from the hymnals and a lot of the younger crew would rather some of the newer songs.
I guess I really can see both sides.
We are Brethren and do go to Five Forks Brethren in Christ. WE LOVE IT!!!! It is truly the best church we have ever been too. However are church..........has drums. We have an organ, a piano, a BAND?! We no longer wear plain clothes. We still hold all the beliefs but our church and conference felt by dressing like such and standing out from others was putting us apart from other rather than bringing others to god. Rebels we are! We have a HUGE church with over 1000 in attendance each week. With such great numbers we have the most amazing programs for everyone. In the 1st grade class I teach there are never less than 20 first graders each week. In our wednesday AWANAS club the are nearly 200 kids each week it is such a great place. Now our auditorium hold 600 at a time we have 6 services on Sunday between there and the chapel and the teen's place. Since it is that large we bring in big Christian bands but yes still we have NO dancing. Hands held high, singing, swaying and strobe lights but no dancing ;) Here is the website if you want to take a look:
ReplyDeletehttp://fiveforkschurch.org