faith, doubt, and intellect

So, based on some email conversations I've been having with Frank, I decided to head over to South Road Church this morning for worship. I had been there before, back when I lived in Farmington, and while I never had a bad experience, I never really got beyond being a warm body in the pew. I must say I was not disappointed with my decision to drop by, Frank had an awesome message this morning. It's been a while since I've actually heard a sermon that I could truly connect and relate to beyond the shared Biblical knowledgebase. I'd have to say my favorite line from the whole thing was something like this -

"We don't have to check our brain at the door when we come for worship."

That came out during the sermon in the context of how we can sometimes meet people outside of the church who are extraordinarily successful at their jobs, using their talents, skills, and intellect to full potential. However, those same people might not be using any of their true talents in church - college educated, business savvy, church stagnant one might say. That's where faith, doubt, and intellect come into play. We all have doubts or questions about any number of topics at some point in our life that concern our faith. It is by bringing our full intellect, all our talents, and determination to be faithful Christians that we owe it to ourselves, God, and the global Christian community to explore those doubts and questions. As Frank put it this morning (and I paraphrase) - "By exploring our doubts, we can come to a fuller understanding of truth and grow our faith." I think this was probably the first time in a long time that I have heard a preacher speak a sermon that actually put a positive spin on Christians having doubts and questions. And it was definitely the first time I ever heard a preacher say in plain English, during a sermon, that he would seriously question if a Christian who had never experienced a period of doubt and questioning, had ever truly understood the faith and beliefs they held (or something pretty close to that, again I am paraphrasing since I don't have a transcript or anything).

I'll definitely be heading back over to Farmington in the future, today was a good day. I even stayed for fellowship dinner, since apparently I have a knack for showing up to a church when they are giving away free lunch. Also, since I do know some of the people there already it was a lot easier for me to sit down and converse with a small group. I took the time and let them get to know me and my background a little more, and shared some of my past experiences - we had some good discussion about Catholicism, since I don't want Claire to feel put down or ostracized when she comes. Overall, I think taking the preemptive steps of throwing my views out there on Christianity in its varying "flavors" will help a lot. In the past, I think my expectation that people wouldn't push their opinions on me at the first opportunity was the cause of some pretty big rifts, so this was a better start. We may not have agreed at first, but since they knew where I was coming from and respected my knowledge and experience, they were open to hearing me out and understanding my take on things. Hopefully we can build that relationship further and all bring something new to the table. For now, I just want to bring a little humility where it pertains to interacting with different "flavors" of Christianity. After all, not every one likes chocolate ice cream, and a company that only made one flavor wouldn't be a very successful company.