YOU’RE ALL HERETICS

And so am I, in a city with churches galore

Churches come in all shapes and sizes now. You get to choose.

And don’t we like that? We are Americans, after all — a country of religious heretics. I don’t mean we are all un-Orthodox believers; although some are. I mean heretics in the original sense of the Greek verb hairein, to choose. Heretics choose their own beliefs and go their own spiritual way, rather than conforming to the beliefs and practices of a tradition.

The choosing now is often over what church to attend, which is recent phenomenon in the history of the world. Before we had 39 flavors of denominational churches and 27 varieties of non-denominational churches, before we had 11 versions of English Bible translations, and before we had decisions to make about choirs or praise bands, sermons or teaching talks, Sunday-go-to-meeting dress or non-business casual, we had parish churches that everyone attended whether you liked it or not.

Not that that way of churchgoing is Paradise Lost, but churches like that were generally smaller and always intergenerational. You didn’t get to choose your family or your church family.

A new dust-up in church circles came recently from an Atlanta-based mega-church pastor who said this:

“When I hear adults say, ‘I don’t like a big church. I like about 200. I wanna be able to know everybody,’ I say you are so stinkin’ selfish. You care nothing about the next generation. All you care about is you and your five friends. You don’t care about your kids, anybody else’s kids. If you don’t go to a church large enough, where you can have enough middle-schoolers and highschoolers so they can have small groups and grow up the local church, you are a selfish adult. Get over it. Find yourself a big ol’ church where your kids can connect with a bunch of people, and grow up and love the local church. Instead, what do you do you drag your kids to a church they hate, and then they grow up and hate the local church, and then they go off to college, and you pray there’ll be a church in their college town that they connect with, and guess what: All those churches are big, the kind of church you don’t like. Don’t attend a church that teaches your children to hate church.”

Anglican

ALL SAINTS EAST DALLAS / allsaintseastdallas.org

Sunday worship service at 5:00 pm

Meeting at Central Lutheran Church / 1000 Easton Road

Baptist

LAKESIDE BAPTIST / 9150 Garland Rd / 214.324.1425

Sunday School 9:15am & Worship 10:30am

Pastor Jeff Donnell / www.lbcdallas.com

PARK CITIES BAPTIST CHURCH / 3933 Northwest Pky / pcbc.org

Worship & Bible Study 9:15 & 10:45 Traditional, Contemporary, Spanish Speaking / 214.860.1500

WILSHIRE BAPTIST / 4316 Abrams / 214.452.3100

Pastor George A. Mason Ph.D. / Worship 8:30 & 11:00am

Bible Study 9:40 am / www.wilshirebc.org

Catholic

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS MINISTRY CONFERENCE / udallas.edu/udmc

Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 2016 / Sponsored by Catholic Diocese of Dallas

Sessions on Faith, Scripture, & Ministry / Exhibitors / Music / Mass

Disciples Of Christ

EAST DALLAS CHRISTIAN CHURCH / 629 N. Peak Street / 214.824.8185

Sunday School 9:30 am / Worship 8:30 am - Chapel

10:50 am - Sanctuary / Rev. Deborah Morgan-Stokes / edcc.org

Lutheran

CENTRAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, ELCA / 1000 Easton Road

Sunday School for all ages 9:00 am / Worship Service 10:30 am

Pastor Rich Pounds / CentralLutheran.org / 214.327.2222

So many things to say about this, but before I do, I should give full disclosure that am the pastor of a church that is large by most standards, but not close to megachurch size. Our church is big enough to have diverse programming for all, with staff ministers for each age group. So we probably quality for the “unselfish” choice of church he advocates.

I grew up in a small church I mostly hated as a kid. I knew and was known by all the adults. I ended up loving the church enough to serve it vocationally. Which makes me want to thank my parents for not asking my opinion about where we went to church. They weren’t being selfish; they were being adults. And they didn’t teach me that the world revolved around me and my happiness.

I choose to believe God can shape faith and character into children and youth through small, medium and large-size churches. But maybe that’s just the heretic in me.

FIRST UNITED LUTHERAN CHURCH / 6202 E Mockingbird Lane Sunday Worship Service 10:30 am / Call for class schedule. 214.821.5929 / www.dallaslutheran.org

Methodist

GRACE UMC / Diverse, Inclusive, Missional Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 am / Worship, 10:50 am 4105 Junius St. / 214.824.2533 / graceumcdallas.org

LAKE HIGHLANDS UMC / 9015 Plano Rd. / 214.348.6600 / lhumc.com

Sunday Morning: 9:30 am Sunday School / 10:30 am Coffee

Worship: 8:30 am & 11:00 am Traditional / 11:00 am Contemporary

Presbyterian

NORTHRIDGE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH / 6920 Bob-O-Link Dr. 214.827.5521 / www.northridgepc.org / Welcomes you to Worship 8:30 & 11:00 am / Church School 9:35 am / Childcare provided.

ST. ANDREW’S PRESBYTERIAN / Skillman & Monticello Rev. Rob Leischner / www.standrewsdallas.org

214.821.9989 / Sunday School 9:30 am, Worship 10:45 am

Unity

UNITY OF DALLAS / A Positive Path for Spiritual Living 6525 Forest Lane, Dallas, TX 75230 / 972.233.7106 / UnityDallas.org

Sundays: 9:00 am Early Service, 11:00 am Celebration Service

UNITY ON GREENVILLE / Your soul is welcome here!

3425 Greenville Ave. / 214.826.5683 / www.dallasunity.org

Sunday Service 11:00 am and Book Study 9:30 am