One of my fondest memories about church involved a meeting during which we 
were all waiting to be trained on the new copier. We were waiting for the trainer, and I did what many pastors do: I asked if there was anything we could pray about for each other:
– Person #1 (20-something) “Please pray for my brother who’s run away from home and is addicted to crystal meth.”
– Person #2 (20-something) “Please pray for my parents. My dad just retired and he’s driving my mother crazy.”
– Person #3 (20-something) “Could we pray for my partner who is dealing with bipolar issues?”
– Person #4 (70-something) “Everything’s okay.”
– Person #5 (60-something) “Everything’s okay.”
– Person #6 (70-something) “Everything’s okay.”
Perhaps it’s because of the Oprah generation, or the social media generation, or our chronological generations, some of us feel more comfortable talking about our real life issues than others. I’ve known lovely church people with Serious Concerns who would no more share their personal issues than they would confess their most embarrassing sins to their straight laced Grandmothers. Some of us are comfortable sharing our stuff and some of us are not.
I imagine a church in which we share our stuff. I am tired of Mad Men Church in which we pretend that all is well, that “everything is fine” and nobody needs anything. I long for a church in which I can turn to the person beside me in the pews and – during the passing of the peace – I am free to say, “Things are not so great. Please pray that I get through this week.”
This is the future of The Authentic Church. It’s not about pretending to be who we aren’t. It’s not about walking into a sanctuary, enjoying the worship gathering, and then having brunch. It’s not about making ourselves happy while we pay people to Be the Ministers.
Can we really talk? I hope so. It’s a spiritual thing.
A Church for Starving Artists 
I got an email last week from a 20-something colleague who said they were thinking about me and wanted to know if I had anything going on they could be in prayer for me.
I paused. I am confident that people have been praying for me at various times in my life, but rarely are we asked for prayer requests. I responded with some sincere requests and it has pushed me to be more direct when I join in prayer for others.
LikeLike
Amen.
LikeLike
Dont put this on the church…this is about roots. This is about how we were raised. Most of us in the church will share in the right environment….dont put this on the”church”
LikeLike