I am a spiritual Pioneer, and my journey started a very long time ago. A long time ago I was a Lutheran, and I attended Lutheran church, then Church camp.
I grieved over what growing up meant in that situation, because it meant we no longer looked at the miracles of Jesus with awe and wonder, and the colorful pictures of Jesus walking on the sea, and the feeding of the 5000, and all the other things we talked about as kids in bible study, was replaced with liturgies, somber songs, and just plain boring. I became a Spiritual Pioneer, because when my spouse was addicted to drugs and drinking and my life was upside down instead of right side up, we were sent to secular counselling and it didn’t help.
I became a spiritual pioneer, because every time I went to church the words they were saying did not quite help me, or really fit the bill.
I’ve been to Baptist churches, Catholic, Pentecostal, Assembly of God, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Church of this, church of that. They all do a great job of reminding me Jesus is Lord, but none have all the answers. When my kids were bullied and there was no bully policy in place (yet) Nobody knew what to say. Churches sent me to secular programs that couldn’t help, because for one reason or another, I always fell through the cracks. I was emotionally abused so “Help” was several years away on the secular program rosters. Housing for poverty stricken times was often elusive, food stamps cut off if the spouse will not attend the requirements, and so on.
Pat answers never worked for me. I could not afford to attend mega-conferences that are free so long as you can afford 300.00 for a motel and 100.00 for eating. I became a Spiritual Pioneer, because People were coming to me for answers, prayer and support because they heard I was a Christian, but I had no idea what to say to them. Often they would tell me they went to the pastor, he said he would pray but had no idea how to help their situation. Why? Because pastors and people who attend church all the time usually do not have situations fraught with drinking, drugging, criminal behavior, dysfunctional ways, abuse………………….
Nobody knew how to handle that stuff. I needed to get through a whole lot of stuff (bad stuff) that the word or the church did not truly know how to help me with…….because my situation never quite fit into the boxes that were already lovingly labeled and set out on the table for the master’s use………
I am a spiritual Pioneer………….(this was part 1) Laura Grace
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