Comments on: 1001 Gifts: My New Church https://anitamathias.com/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/ Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art Thu, 14 Nov 2013 01:16:17 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0 By: Anita https://anitamathias.com/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16657 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 20:39:36 +0000 http://anitamathias.com/blog/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16657 Thank you, Rhoda, Nancy and Ray. I really debated about writing this post, but churts (church hurts in Paul Wilkinson's phrase) are surprisingly common, and for me, writing is a way of understanding what happened, and healing. What we can do to one another is churches is really sad, and sometimes shocking!

]]> By: Ray Barnes https://anitamathias.com/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16656 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 18:43:02 +0000 http://anitamathias.com/blog/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16656 It sounds as though you have found the right place Anita.
I hope you will discover in it the life-blood a good church experience should offer.
Blessings

]]> By: Nancy Wallace https://anitamathias.com/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16655 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 16:19:21 +0000 http://anitamathias.com/blog/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16655 I found this a very moving post – partly because it had echoes of some of my own past experiences. You write beautifully about “staying through the pain”. May you be blessed and be a blessing in your new church home.

]]> By: Rhoda https://anitamathias.com/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16654 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:28:35 +0000 http://anitamathias.com/blog/2011/10/06/1001-gifts-my-new-church/#comment-16654 My husband once got hurt to the point he wanted to leave his church, and the assistant pastor told him, “If you leave you will miss what God is trying to teach you”. So he stayed and kept going though for a year he couldn't hear the sermons properly and didn't like to go. Now it is our sending church and such a blessing to us, and that assistant pastor was right that he learnt a lot in that time – humility among other things.

I love what you have said about not just leaving, but staying through the pain, and also giving grace, and staying where God has called you till he tells you to move. That is what I always go by too.

Anyway I'm glad you have found a great church that you feel at home in!

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