Thoughts on the last class...

In the last class we had a Guest Speaker, Bishop Cray, speak about the church in England and the main line denomination in the UK. I thought it was very cool that they have congregations that focus on certain groups such as under five year olds/preschool congregation, youth congregations and special interests churches like surfing. He brought up the point that one can keep their culture and interests and create a congregation around it. In the Surfer Café the Surfers came right off the beach and into the café with their Surfer wear on and they had a gathering of worship and study as a church. I like how this shows one can come to God as they are and it is fine. God is not legalistic but many churches are. I’ve witnessed guests coming into a church with unacceptable clothing and being asked to leave. Legalism and exclusivism is not the nature of Jesus but only the nature of certain people.