marjorie says...
My visit to Legacy Christian Church on Sunday was interesting not only for the political angle, but also for my own personal reflection. I rarely go to church, but as many of you know I was raised to be a churchgoer, and not just in a passive Sunday morning service kind of way. For this reason, being in church, regardless of the type, isn’t a strange experience for me.
Around 9:30 Sunday morning I began getting ready to go to Legacy. As I was automatically putting on a skirt, it dawned on me that a lot of women at the service would probably be wearing slacks. After all, when I watched the early morning service online, I noticed women in slacks on the stage. Nonetheless, I had almost a gut reaction that I had to wear a skirt. I’ve noticed this over the years when going to other services as well, or simply walking into churches wearing anything but a dress. Even as a tourist. I always notice it. Personally, I think this is somewhat amazing…that something can be so inculcated that it pops up like this decades removed from my childhood.
While I was at the service, I had a moment of wishing I was still a churchgoer, of missing that Sunday morning community. Fast on the heels of that came this strong feeling that if I were going to go to church it wouldn’t be at Legacy. Not because of the message, but because it simply isn’t my culture. And frankly, I think I'd have this reaction regardless of what church I visited.
Where I’m from, we do things differently. Our prayers are different, our way of interacting is different, and our services are most definitely different. This isn’t a bad thing, just an observation about my reactions.
None of this means that I couldn't integrate into a different church just fine. It's just a description of some gut reactions I had, based in feelings rather than logic. It strongly occurred to me that when it comes to just visiting, I kind of prefer the church I grew up in. And I think this is about culture more than anything else. This past Sunday morning I definitely had a bit of insight into how my upbringing influenced my own personality. Indeed, I’m a product of my environment in many ways. And you guys can decipher that however you wish.
Ps: I should say that aside from general disagreements I have with the message being disseminated from the pulpit at Legacy, in general I liked the pastor. When I compare him to a lot of other evangelical pastors (that I’ve mainly seen on television), I liked his style and persona. He was low-key but a charismatic speaker at the same time.
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