Church follow-up

To follow-up on my church, a couple points.

1) I go to a church where the next closest one is 400 miles away. We are the only church in all of northern California. The next closest church to the north is in northern Oregon and to the south there's four churches in the L.A. area.

2) I go to a church that meets Saturday. We are not SDA. We are Seventh Day Baptist (SDB). I firmly believe in the Saturday Sabbath. That's the reason I work Sunday-Thursday - so I can have Sabbath off. Sunday morning is prime gym time for me, and then I go to work.

3) Our church is tiny - average attendance each week is about 25. This picture (click it for the full size version) is from a few years ago, but it should give you an idea of our size. We do potlucks every week.

I do the bulletins each week (Pastor Steve helps, too), count the attendance (which is why I know the average), am the church clerk, and administer the Web site (that's how I taught myself HTML). I feel strongly that in a small church everyone has to do their part to make everything run smoothly. I used to write for the denomination's quarterly Bible study guide.

They are not bad folks. They just don't know how to deal with me. Most people in this denomination are raised in the denomination. Our church (like many of churches in the western U.S.) has more "outsiders" coming in from the outside. Some of the "outsiders" in my church have been there for so long that they've melded in quite nicely. Jane married into the church many decades ago, and Anita has been there a couple decades as well.

I'm more like a hillbilly than a city girl. I was raised by parents that never taught us kids to bathe or brush our teeth. These are basic skills but I have had to learn them as an adult, which let me tell you isn't easy. I still don't bathe as often as most people. I finally got to where I brush my teeth once a day. I've been known to go 10 years without seeing a dentist. I don't keep my house very clean (I am a true slob). When the church folks came over to my apartment I had a LOT of cleaning to do so it would be presentable.

I work in the kitchen because a) someone needs to do it, and b) it gets me away from everyone and the chance that I'll do or say something wrong.

SDBs just don't do things like dye their hair blue or have a strange diet. Unless you are one of the folks who observe the food laws - then it's okay. We have several people in our church who do this, though it's not one of our doctrines. Me - I love the "unclean" foods such as lobster and pork.

They've put up with me. They know I eat pork rinds and drink alcohol. As these are considered issues of conscience and not doctrine, I'm not doing anything wrong. They disagree, but for the most part they don't say much.

Becky had the most shocked look on her face the week I first dyed my hair blue - but to her credit she didn't say anything. When I first went on Atkins people would tell me I could eat their food because it was "good carbs" - brown rice, lentils, etc. It took a while to get across to them that I avoided anything high in carbs; the glycemic impact didn't matter if the food was still primarily a carb. They bring and eat their carbs, good and bad. I bring a dish I can eat, sometimes a snack for myself, and usually eat Jane's salad, even though she puts apples in it.

They've put up with my belief in headcovering. One guy tried to talk me out of it, but gave up when he could see that I'd thought it through and could argue my side as well as he could argue his. If someone questions it it's usually a kid. I don't push my belief on the people there, and for the most part they don't push theirs on me. Again - it's a matter of conscience, not a doctrine.

So really, it's not them; they are your normal average church folk. I'm the mutant in the way I was raised and the way I currently live. I won't fit in at any church so church-hopping would be pointless.

Technorati tagged: church, God, Holy Spirit, Sabbath, Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, Adventist, Baptist, seventh day