“So you’re a Christian speaker, who speaks at churches, but you don’t go to church? I need to know more about this.”
I believe with zero judgment, my new friend was filled with sincere curiosity when she asked this question. She had no clue, but that day she challenged me with a conversation I’d been dreading.
I’d finally been found out.
A Christian woman, speaking into the heart of other Christian women. And at times that might mean in a church building.
My not attending a local church never came up in conversation until we settled into our new community.
A community quite a ways away from the hustle and bustle of city life where we lived among a melting pot of people who were mostly too busy to stick their noses into your holiness, or lack of it.
But here, in this smallish town, people seem to make time for these questions.
And interestingly enough, I’ve been hit with an influx of curiosity when getting to know people around these parts.
Where do you go to church, Why don’t you go to church? and Would you like to come to my church?
Not to be overly cheeky on the matter, but if there were a list of the most commonly asked faith-based questions I’d place a bet -what church do you go to? - would rank number three. Or two?
I can’t help but wonder if these churchy type questions lend toward labeling one’s story, or rather exclusive to the laborious internal work one’s done and as a result produces fruit growing well beyond church attendance.
After my sweet friend’s thoughts rolled out, I smiled and nodded and resisted the urge to come up with some lame reason that inevitably would have been a lie. Because the truth was, I didn’t know why God has never really had me in a local church building, at least not for long.
In the days that followed my friend's curiosity, I became very intentional to press in for answers to this church attendance topic, especially during a time I had great peace on the matter and so many others seemed to think this was an unholy act.
By no means, would this be the first time I pressed in on this question, but it would be the first time I adamantly sought resolve.
If this going-to-church question was going to become a thing around here, I wanted to be prepared. And honestly, there was this little piece within me that hoped God would finally release my growing family to one of the many local churches (cause there are a ton 😆) and we would find “family” there, and our growing family could finally be accepted as one of their own.