"What's Faith Got To Do With It?"

When I was growing up in Clinton, South Carolina I attended the First Baptist Church. Everybody on Holland Street did. We were all staunch Baptists and most of our friends and acquaintances were too. It wasn't necessarily that we all thought the same way or even had the same views on God and religion, the First Baptist Church was just the place where my father's family had worshipped for years - and so we went there.

When my wife and I married we were wed in a Baptist Church, the one she attended in St Petersburg, Florida. She was Baptist, I was Baptist, so you would think we would attend a Baptist Church. Nope we turned Methodist. Something inside us told us we just weren't meant to Be Baptists any more. We didn't have an argument with the Baptists, we just had an amicable divorce.

When my wife and I had children we made sure they attended Sunday School and Church regularly at the Perry Methodist Church. They seemed to appreciate the services and both joined the church early on. We looked into the future and saw a long line of Coopers attending Methodist churches. Didn't happen.

Both of my sons and their families attend non-denominational churches. They like singing music that is not found in hymnals. They like having people playing musical instruments on the platform. They like having a group of people singing who are called song leaders. They like more informality. They like a less strict dress code. They like everything about it. When they visit us and attend church with us you can tell they feel stifled by my wonderful more orderly form of worship.

I like singing hymns. I like the sound of the organ playing. I like hearing a choir sing a cantata. I like a formal order of worship. I like wearing clothes that are dressier than jeans. I like everything about my more formal way of worshipping. And when I go to church with my sons I feel completely out of place. I am getting better but I still don't know the songs they sing, and I keep looking for the choir.

I am sure my poor old father, who never understood us turning Methodist, is spinning in his grave. He would never have felt comfortable in this kind of service. He might have attended just to be nice, but he wouldn't have liked it.

My opinion is live and let live. The fact that they are going to church is the important thing, and even more importantly that they have faith. Faith is the key to everything in my opinion. It is what gets you through the bad times and makes you appreciate the good times. All of the ins and outs of churches and church people are unimportant in the long run, but you gotta, gotta have faith.

I like the feeling that someone higher is in control, because I certainly am not. I can barely make the necessary decisions in my life, much less take care of the world. So yes faith is everything to me. It is my cornerstone.

I will be Methodist till the day I die but it surely isn't something I would ever want to force on my family. We all have different needs in order to find our path, I am just grateful there is such a variety being offered.

 

 

 

 

 

©2006 Jackie K. Cooper

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