“Before you move ahead and start reading this, let me take a moment to tell you a few things. I believe in God, but I’m not certain what all that means anymore. You would think someone with a divinity degree would not say such a thing. Oh, I know a lot about what other people have said about God. Then we have church history, comparative religions, theology, church management, and a lot of other things that have very little, if anything, to do with God.”
So begins “Playing Hide & Seek: A Non-Church Goers Guide to God” which is a book I wrote a long time ago.
I remember a few things about that book. First, the publisher couldn’t get anyone to endorse it. We tried everybody and I still have this great letter from Tony Compollo, who was a really hot preacher and writer at the time, chiding me because I wrote that “No Savior will ever sleep in the White House” and he had slept in the White House and was offended.
Second was when Rev. Bennie Mitchell, of Conner’s Temple Baptist Church here in Savannah, walked into a room, saw me started shaking his head from side to side and said, “Mike, Mike, Mike”. He sat down beside me. “Why did you put all of that stuff in your book? I mean, yeah we all think it but we never say it! You wrote what we really think!”
Last were all of the people who don’t go to Church but believe in God who wrote or called to thank me for writing that it’s ok. God sometimes goes to church but not all that much. She’s busy saving the world and all.
After being a part of the special thing that the Jefferson Street Baptist Chapel was back in Louisville, Kentucky I’ve had a hard time with Church. I mean if they knew when God was going to make an appearance they would put it in the bulletin; probably right after the sermon but right before the collection. At Jeff St it seemed like magic was happening all of the time and there really is something magical about an experience with God!
After leaving Jeff St, I tried. Technically I’m a member of First Baptist Church of Savannah but I haven’t been for almost two decades. They still send me offering envelopes though! Gotta love that determination!
Then I bounced around a little bit. I went to Chapel by the Sea Baptist Church a couple of times but the sermon was “If you jog on Sundays you’re going to hell” and I had just finished jogging.
I’ve gone to St. Michael’s Catholic Church several times because I like a really good Mass from time to time. I was telling my best friend the other day that I know all of the responses and when to kneel and stand and I’m ok with genuflecting in general. But I can’t take the homilies. I learned all of this stuff from Fr. Vernon Robertson at St. Martin of Tours in Louisville and he was the greatest Priest ever! Then again, I now wonder if he was simply preparing me for my love of the island of St. Martin.
God does work in mysterious ways.
So all of that to say, I’m heading back to Bar Church in a little bit. Sam Adams and Gordon who play damn good live music here on Tybee started Bar Church several years ago (become a friend on Face Book by going to Tybee Church). It is in the Wind Rose Café. Somehow a bar band turns a bar into a church with votive candles, a large screen with words to songs and Scripture verses and the people who don’t go to Church attend.
I was the first member of the clergy to be asked to “bring the word” to this crowd. I had a blast! So Sam invited me back and today is the day. Johnny O is the first non-ordained heathen to “bring the word” to them and he will do that Sunday after next!
“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the Saints,” sings Billy Joel.
Me too!
That’s where God is.
