Seeing God's Children No Matter Where They Go To Church

God has been teaching me an ongoing lesson over the past couple years. Almost two years ago, I was first asked to play for a church other than my own. It was the Federated Church in East Arlington. It is a combination of both people of the United Church of Christ and the United Methodist Church. It was a challenge for me, because it meant spending a lot more time preparing to play for church than I normally do for my own (as I know the hymnbook pretty well, as well as our layout). It was also a challenge to step outside my comfort zone into another church. As time went on, I filled in for them now and then (they paid me each time), and I got to know the people. I was blessed to meet other people from Arlington, as many of them are customers of my Dad's. I struggled with spiritual/mental challenge of being there several Sundays in a row. I knew it was "work," as I was getting paid, but it felt strange to be in church both Sabbath and Sunday. I felt like a heretic for a while, before my loving fiance' (now husband) reminded me that it was a job, and nothing more, if that was what I needed to think of it as in order to maintain my trueness to my own faith.

I worked well with this theory, and still do, but God had a bigger concept for me to grasp. I was also asked to play for the Episcopal Church in town. This was a much bigger stretch of my Christian/Adventist understanding of truth. Being brought up in the Adventist church can do a number on one's psyche. I grew up knowing the truth, but that knowledge also created a fear of those outside of the "remnant." An even greater fear lurked about the Catholic Church. As the Episcopal Church resembles the Catholic Church in many traditions, I was a bit scared to play for them. Some part of me felt like I was stepping on dangerous ground, placing myself amongst people who might lead me astray. I think many Adventists are programmed with this concept, which I learned is false. I am not saying that I would be going to their church if I was not working for them, but my point I will explain....

I have played for them many times now, and in doing so have gained some curiosities. Each week they have communion. Our church only does it once a quarter. All participants during the service wear some type of robe and/or other garment(s). Many prescribed readings accompany the service, along with a hose of other traditions much different than the Adventist Church. The culmination of this lesson God has been teaching me happened tonight.

I had the choice for this term to either take a Religions and Cultures class or some other history. I chose the Religions class, as I wanted to gain my understanding of other religions in order to understand people better. My final project required me to attend a service of a church other than my own, observe, and speak to one of the believers. Since I was playing for the Christmas Eve service anyway, I used this as my event. I email the Reverend of the church this past week, and he just sent me his reply today. God bless him for putting so much time into it. I asked him a lot of questions, and he gave me so much background information that it made me understand so much better. I am a full believer that God wants us to have knowledge about other churches. We are not to live in our Adventist shells, holding our knowledge to ourselves, criticizing everyone who isn't "in the know." Knowledge is power. It dispels fear. Also, I finally realized that the people in both of these churches I play for are just that: People. They aren't weird. Not different. Just people. More than that: They are God's Children. He died for them, just as He died for you and me. Just because they go to a different church doesn't mean we need to be afraid of them, or even disassociate from them. They are people we come in contact every day, whether we know it or not. The real question is, will we act like Jesus did when He was here, with love and kindness, even when we don't know who's watching? I hope the answer is yes.