Christianity dumbed down

For a long time my husband and I attended churches that spoke to the lowest common denominator. They wrote their sermons for 7 year olds and nonbelievers. This disservice to the church is very common among many denominations. Then, one day, we happened upon a church that was different.

We decided to check out the evening service of a church we often passed. We thought the building looked very old and the architecture was interesting, and we wanted to see the inside. So we went to a service and were surprised to find a pastor preaching challenging, relevant, unsafe sermons.

He wasn't preaching to the lowest common denominator. He held himself (or maybe the elders are responsible for this) to a higher standard and he spoke so that anyone could take something away, but also so that everyone got more. We dug deeper and more thoroughly understood each verse. Sometimes we spent months or even years (well, the church spent years, we weren't there that long) on a very small section of scripture because there was SO MUCH information to unpack. My husband and I were changed, and maybe a bit spoiled.

We moved to Alaska for school, and we have not yet found (or heard of) a church that spoke to us on that level. More accurately, we have not yet found a pastor that spoke to us that way.

We've been to several churches, most were ok. We've also been to two churches with outstanding communities. OUTstanding! Fellowship and grace and love like I've really, really never seen.

I guess we'll keep looking. Or maybe we'll stick with one of the outstanding churches and just listen to podcasts of the more challenging stuff on the side. I don't know.