Hello!
To start off, I believe in God, and I pray all the time. I love to just talk with God, seek peace, guidance, and patience. I ask God questions, I try to live and learn and love in a way that reflects the guidance God gives me through prayer.
I've been praying, more or less, for as long as I can remember. Even when I went through my "agnostic phase," I think something inside me was still praying.
But in the past several months, I have felt distinctly called by God. I have made a few changes (mostly on the inside, but a few big ones on the outside, too), but something that I keep longing for and feeling a need for is to pray with someone else (maybe one other person or a small group). I haven't really prayed with anyone else (apart from sitting in the back of a church) since high school, and I no longer identify as a Christian like I did for a brief time back then, so I don't think I would want to go back to that sort of environment. It was a very charismatic pentecostal youth group, and looking back, I think it was pretty fundamentalist. But, man...the music and the prayer...I miss that. Sometimes when I sing by myself, along with music in the car, I feel that same sort of ecstatic connection to God and to the rest of the world. To life, to love, to creation. My soul SINGS.
I want to pray (and maybe also sing) with someone else, but I don't know where I can do this, or how. Maybe a very liberal Christian church with a *rocking* band? (I feel that I should add here that my husband thinks Christian rock is ridiculous.) Or a black gospel choir? Or a UU drumming circle? I just need to do *something* and I need to do it outloud and I want to do it in a group.
It's hard to explain, but maybe someone here will know what I mean. And suggest some "outlets" for me? I live in a medium-sized college town and we have a large variety of resources. Should I see a priest? A pastor? A counselor? Should I learn Hebrew and go to Shabbat services?
I am sort of a lay theologian and I love learning and thinking about God, but I keep it all to myself all day because my husband is an ardent atheist. This makes me feel isolated and I really need to find a place to connect to others and to God and I want to SING and PRAY outloud. Any ideas?
There's even a semi-megachurch on the edge of town I half-thought about going to, just to see what kind of music they hand. It seems like the kind of place that would have good music. On the other hand, I'd really not go off someplace on a Sunday, as that's so "churchy" and I don't want to have that talk or majorly awkward moment with my husband. Maybe a weeknight thing, it doesn't need to be religious.
To start off, I believe in God, and I pray all the time. I love to just talk with God, seek peace, guidance, and patience. I ask God questions, I try to live and learn and love in a way that reflects the guidance God gives me through prayer.
I've been praying, more or less, for as long as I can remember. Even when I went through my "agnostic phase," I think something inside me was still praying.
But in the past several months, I have felt distinctly called by God. I have made a few changes (mostly on the inside, but a few big ones on the outside, too), but something that I keep longing for and feeling a need for is to pray with someone else (maybe one other person or a small group). I haven't really prayed with anyone else (apart from sitting in the back of a church) since high school, and I no longer identify as a Christian like I did for a brief time back then, so I don't think I would want to go back to that sort of environment. It was a very charismatic pentecostal youth group, and looking back, I think it was pretty fundamentalist. But, man...the music and the prayer...I miss that. Sometimes when I sing by myself, along with music in the car, I feel that same sort of ecstatic connection to God and to the rest of the world. To life, to love, to creation. My soul SINGS.
I want to pray (and maybe also sing) with someone else, but I don't know where I can do this, or how. Maybe a very liberal Christian church with a *rocking* band? (I feel that I should add here that my husband thinks Christian rock is ridiculous.) Or a black gospel choir? Or a UU drumming circle? I just need to do *something* and I need to do it outloud and I want to do it in a group.
It's hard to explain, but maybe someone here will know what I mean. And suggest some "outlets" for me? I live in a medium-sized college town and we have a large variety of resources. Should I see a priest? A pastor? A counselor? Should I learn Hebrew and go to Shabbat services?
I am sort of a lay theologian and I love learning and thinking about God, but I keep it all to myself all day because my husband is an ardent atheist. This makes me feel isolated and I really need to find a place to connect to others and to God and I want to SING and PRAY outloud. Any ideas?
There's even a semi-megachurch on the edge of town I half-thought about going to, just to see what kind of music they hand. It seems like the kind of place that would have good music. On the other hand, I'd really not go off someplace on a Sunday, as that's so "churchy" and I don't want to have that talk or majorly awkward moment with my husband. Maybe a weeknight thing, it doesn't need to be religious.
