Why I dig (and attend) the Open Door

A post a long time coming...but tonight gave me some good fodder for blogging on this very topic.

1. My friends are there. People are always glad to see me, don't you want to go...where everybody knows your name (sing it with me) and they're always glad you came... Well, it's true. I was one of the last people to leave tonight cause I just like hanging out with the people at the OD.

2. We sing loud. I have been to a lot of churches where only the choir sings. Catholics are notorioius for this--and they will only sing the first (maybe second) verse of a hymn. C'mon, is that worship??? I like singing loud and I like listening to other people singing loud. I love watching grown men sing their hearts out and raise their hands while singing "The First Noel." (I'm not kidding.) The guys in the band are great too.

3. We meet at night. Which has meant that I've had choices for Sunday morning--I can do nursery at Bellefield, spending time with wonderful pre-toddlers, or I can go away Saturday night to Sunday afternoon, or I can go to church with Babelbabe and co. I love going to other churches--having evening services means I can go to other churches and still go to mine!!

4. There are a lot of men there. This may sound shallow, but I am a librarian. (We are a vocation that is peopled mainly by women.) I am a children's librarian in a public library. We have 1 male librarian in our building and 5 other men who work in our building. Our patrons are mostly women (more so in the children's department.) When I worked retail, my co-workers were male, my customers were male...I just like having two perspectives. I like men--it's rare to find a church that has so many nice ones. (Okay, this is a crude stereotype, so brace yourself: men at church are often milk-soppy--the men at the Open Door drink Guinness.) (Disclaimer: when you link off this blog, you are encountering opinions that may or may not be endorsed by Sarah Louise.)

5. BJ Woodworth. I've known BJ since forever--he did Cornerstone which is the college ministry at Bellefield and then moved on into other roles. When he was starting up the think team on the Open Door, I joined to a large degree because he was heading it up and I liked his ideas. (I later left to become Catholic for a year, but that's another story.) BJ believes in me and in my abilities as a writer and a librarian. That means a heck of a lot. BJ has an amazing wife, Katrina, and the most adorable kids.

6. John Creasy. I got to know John better this summer as I attended Trialogue and volunteered at the Open Door table at the Union Project Farmer's Market. He is a great guy and a wonderful musician. As a member of the Arts thing-a-ma-jig, I worked with John on the labywrinth we had last year for Advent and the stations we had this year for Lent. I also love his wife Alyssa and their cute as a button baby Teah. (rhymes with Princess Leia) Oh, and he and Alyssa are in this super cool band, This Side of Eve.

7. Bible Trialogue. This is a meeting on Tuesday nights at the Quiet Storm, a local coffee house. Basically, the idea is to meet and discuss the text for the sermon two weeks hence. It is a great way to really dig into the Scriptures and this summer got me out of the rut I was in about the book of Acts (I really didn't like it.) (But now I do, and I have had many discussions on the churches in Acts because I spent all summer going to Tri.) I've chosen to go to a women's Bible Study at Bellefield Tuesday mornings, which means that I work Tuesday evenings, so I'm not attending Tri at the moment, but I long for the summer when I can re-join the conversations there.

So that's the Cliff Notes. I miss dressing up on Sunday morning for church, but on the other hand, it's nice to show up in jeans, rumpled after my Sunday afternoon nap, and fit right in. Tonight a guy I knew from library school (let's be honest, he was my professor) came up and said do you remember me? Wow! I spend so much time trying to reconnect with people from my past, I hardly ever have someone approach me with that line!! The sermon was all about pride, and I thought, if I have pride, one place is about the people I hang with: they're pretty cool. But if I think about where I met these folks, it wasn't at a "pick your friends club." I met Babelbabe at Yoga! I've met a lot of friends at the OD (and that's not a God thing?). After years and years, I am still talking on the phone (sometimes daily) with my best friend from high school! I think that borders on miraculous, don't you? And another friend thing: tonight on the way home, I went to Whole Foods to get some dinner (their hot bar is great!). My friend Amanda had said she was stopping there on the way home, an hour (45 minutes?) previous. She was still there when I got there, and we got to sit down to dinner. It was a divine appointment--we hadn't talked for awhile and it was just good to reconnect. The best part--I didn't even realize I had parked right next to her car!! (I have a bad memory for what cars my friends drive--so thanks to Blackbird for Friday's show and tell, at least know I'll know what Babelbabe's car looks like.) What I'm saying is I need to remember that God has chosen my friends, has wrapped them up like many beautiful gifts. Pride is forgetting what God has done. Remembering what God has done is the beginning of humility.

BJ read some quotes from CS Lewis (the Narnia guy) about pride. One of them said that humility before God is forgetting about one's existence or thinking of oneself as a small dirty object. This BJ commenting on the quote: "So where are you going?" "I'm going to go feel like a small dirty object, wanna come?" BJ had a ton of fun with British accents while reading the Lewis quotes, and I am reminded of another reason I love and attend the OD: I love to laugh. The sermonists at the OD love my laugh and I've even been told that one of the best things about giving a sermon at the OD is having me laugh at the jokes. (Thanks, Jake!) When Lou Mitchell was at the helm at Bellefield (oh how I miss those days), he would stop after I laughed and say, "Oh good, Suzi's here!" (I have a very distinctive laugh.)

I guess I'm rambling, and I know it, but I feel like I'm right in the middle of a ton of questions in my life, which is right where God wants me--because as long as I'm asking questions, I'm engaging God--it's when I think I know what the road ahead holds that I often forget to ask for God's map. We sang this awesome song tonight, "Jesus You Alone" which we sang forever it seemed--I've been feeling dry, like I haven't been talking to God enough, or listening, and this song was my heart-cry.

So thanks for a great Sunday (in which I had pancakes cooked by Babelbabe's hubby)
(in which I had a 3 hour nap! which might explain my awakeness at 12:17 am)
(in which I sang loud and stood tall)
(in which I reconnected with friends new and old--one is silver and the other gold)
(in which I finally called Verizon and got my DSL back on track!)

Guten nacht (which means good night in German).