UCC Daily Devotional and Christ Church New Members.

I subscribe to the UCC Daily Devotional.  Today's Devotion reminded me of Sunday when we welcomed new members and "hired" Rev Caroline Dean as the youth minister.  The devotion says that youth will remember the church that they went to when young even when they stray from the church, possibly in the college years.  They will come back home when they settle down.I remember the youth group in the congregational church that I went to as a teenager.  It was run by a man who was a church member He would pile all of us in his station wagon after the meeting to go to the "ice cream parlor". The ice cream palor was owned by a member of the church. This was "homemade" ice cream and oh so good.  This was before the days of seat belts so we would all be sitting in the back of the wagon on top of each other.  It was fun.
.Jeannette.____________________________________________________

October 22, 2010

Coming Back to Church as a Grown Up

Excerpt from 2 Timothy 3:10-15 

“But as for you, continue in what you have learned and firmly believed,
knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have known

the sacred writings that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith

in Christ Jesus.” 

Reflection by

Lillian Daniel 

These days, very few people who join our church were raised in the UCC. Most

of them were raised in other forms of Christianity, and they may have some

negative feelings about the church of their childhood. And so they drifted from

church and sought to go it alone, without a faith community.  

But eventually, they hit something that is bigger than private, self-created

spirituality. Perhaps it is the death of a parent, the birth of a child, a

friend’s illness, a lonely patch in life, but suddenly they find themselves

remembering some of those childhood Bible lessons. They find themselves recalling

the blessings of the Christian faith, and they search for a church, but they do

so very tentatively, not knowing what they will find, and afraid of being

hurt.  

When they do find us, they have the same reaction that so many people do

when they discover the UCC. “This is the church I always wanted to find but

didn’t know existed.” But our church isn’t perfect any more than the churches

they left are all bad. And a miraculous thing happens to grown ups on a faith

journey. We come to appreciate moments from our past, like the Sunday school

teacher who taught us the “sacred writings” in our childhood.  

That is why when people join the church, we always say, “We give thanks for

every community that has ever been your spiritual home.”   

As the scripture tells us today, we realize that there is a connection

between who we were raised to be and who we are now. It might not be a straight

line, but you can connect the dots.  

Prayer 

Today I give thanks for the small and tender blessings of every place that

has ever been my spiritual home. Amen. 

<><><> <><><> 

<><><>    <><><>   <><><>   <><><>              About the Author     Lillian Daniel is the senior minister of the First Congregational Church,     UCC, Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Her new book, This     Odd and Wondrous Calling: the Public and Private Lives of Two Ministers,     co-authored with Martin B. Copenhaver, has just been published.