Reason #237 why I hate visiting churches: the "meet and greet" portion of the service. You know, that time during the music when the pastor or music minister encourages you to "find 5 or 6 people and shake their hands and tell them you love them." This is very uncomfortable if you're a visitor, especially when you turn around to greet the person behind you and they are all very busy shaking each other's hands and catching up on the antics of little Billy and Susan. Especially when you've never met these people and feel rather awkward about professing love to them so you just kind of mumble something incoherent. Especially when you're sitting in a row by yourself and end up just sort of standing there all bereft while everyone else is hugging and laughing. And especially when the one person who finally comes up to you asks you if you're single. Seriously. Since when is it a good idea to ask about that right when you meet someone? It's bad enough that my relatives ask me every time I see them, but at least they're related to me so in theory they have more of a "right" to ask me than a complete stranger. (Even though I still say it's none of their business, and trust me, if I'm dating someone, the whole world's gonna know about it eventually.) Anyway, all of this discomfort certainly has motivated me to be more understanding and compassionate towards visitors, should the day come when I finally do find a church to call home and can then focus on welcoming other people.

And I decided not to go back to this particular church, although my reason for not returning has very little to do with the meet and greet. My real beef is this: topical preaching. Or rather, bad topical preaching. I'm not completely against topical preaching although I do prefer a more exegetical approach, but when it's so scattered I can't make sense of it or it has nothing to do with the Scripture presented as the main focus, I have a problem with that. Yesterday's message was part of a series the pastor has been doing about community and spiritual growth, and this message was called "How Can We Help Each Other Grow?" Well, I had a particular interest in what he had to say about this due to some discussion that's occurred on another friend's xanga, but what followed was not about growth at all but about making everyone else feel good. In order to grow, we should make everyone feel accepted, appreciated, loved, and affirmed (they all started with the letter a per typical preaching alliteration, but affectioned isn't really a word, so loved it is). Now, I'm not saying these are bad ideas (they're very positive, necessary things), but I'm not so sure of the connection between these things and spiritual growth, and the pastor didn't clear it up for me at all. Most of his supporting comments dealt with child-rearing and being a good friend. And you know what Scripture he had underneath the title of his message? Romans 8:28-29, which says, "For we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers." Beyond reading it, stating that these were his life's verses, and saying that this is why we should grow spiritually, he did nothing else with them. Each of his points had other Scripture attached to them, and they had little relevance to his message.

I know I'm being very critical, and if this were an isolated occurrence I'd be more inclined to let it slide, but it's not. I've been confronted with it at practically every church I've visited since I've been in Knoxville. Does no one care about just talking about what the Bible says? Why does everything have to become a how-to list? God's Word is sufficient in and of itself; it doesn't need to be "dressed up" or manipulated to help someone support the ideas they want to get out of it. I would much prefer an in-depth look at those verses in Romans in their context and just as they are than hear a scattered message that dealt very little with Biblical truths. It seems to me that a message should be shaped around Scripture and not the other way around. Is that too much to ask? I don't think so, but it seems very hard to come by. Here it is almost November and still I haven't really found a promising church home. I know God will provide, though, so keep looking I must! I'd appreciate others' thoughts on this!

I have the best mom in the world.

I talked to her late on Friday night (or rather, I bawled into the phone while she tried to calm me down), and Saturday morning she left Memphis at 7:45 and drove 5 1/2 hours to see me. I had no idea she was coming; she just called while she was on the road and told me she was on her way. She said there was no way she could have me upset and not be there. She got into Knoxville around 2, and we went to the mall, then to see Dreamer (which was very sweet and made me like horses even though they've always kind of scared me), and then to Wal-Mart where she hooked me up with some necessities, and then to Ruby Tuesday for a late dinner and gab-fest. It was so so so so wonderful to see her, and it made everything that's been wrong in my life lately seem a little more...not wrong. She left this morning after we ate breakfast, and it was a quick visit, but exactly what I needed. So it's official: you're never too old to need your mom. I'm living proof.

EDIT: I just saw an advertisement for a CBS miniseries entitled Category 7: End of the World. Is it just me or is this a gross exploitation of the events of the past few months? Are they trying to make something so completely ridiculous in the hopes that people will be able to forget about the real tragedies? Is there nothing off-limits?

And on tomorrow's edition of Erin's xanga: reason #237 why I hate visiting churches. (Don't misunderstand me: I don't hate church; I hate visiting churches.)

Today I had no classes, and tomorrow I don't either! I did, however, have to attend an eight-hour training seminar that's required for the technology grant I got. It wasn't bad, actually. We're receiving some useful tips and guidelines for when we start designing our module, and we had a lot of time to plan out some of the content and the types of mulitmedia we'll need to use. It's going to be a massive amount of work, but it will be really useful and I've wanted to learn more about web design, so this is perfect. Plus, I get paid for it, and today they said that if we meet all of the deadlines/checkpoints, they will add $500 to our overall grant money, which means that my partner and I would each get $1500! I can't even tell you how much I could use that money. It's unfortunate that I won't actually get it until June, but what a happy day that will be! This whole grant thing is a great idea, so if any of you go to graduate school, apply for grants! (And when I'm complaining about this grant thing in Feb., remind me that I once said it was a good thing.) But it's good experience, extra money, and adds to your c.v. Plus, we got catered lunch from Panera today, Moe's for lunch tomorrow, and free books, one of which has the unfortunate title How to Turn Learners On Without Turning Them Off: Ways to Ignite Interest in Learning. I mean really, does sexual language have to be everywhere? Spare me!

And...I was tagged by Stef.
Five Things:

Five things I plan to do before I die:
1.) Visit every continent.
2.) Write a novel or a book of poems.
3.) Get my PhD.
4.) Go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef.
5.) Go to Italy.

Five things I can do:
1.) Read fast.
2.) Scare away boys. (I'm not saying I want to do this, it just happens.)
3.) Giggle about nothing.
4.) Giggle about everything.
5.) Spell "a lot" correctly. (Please please please anyone who reads this--it is TWO WORDS!)

Five things I cannot do (that I'd like to be able to do):
1.) Read Old English without having to look up most of the words.
2.) Blow a bubble with my gum. (Isn't that sad?)
3.) Speak fluent Spanish.
4.) Do a cartwheel.
5.) Teach at Union.

Five things that attract me to the opposite sex:
1.) Smile.
2.) Sense of humor.
3.) Compassion.
4.) Kind eyes.
5.) Love for God.

Five things I say most often:
1.) I love ______
2.) What in the world?!
3.) Give me a break!
4.) Oh please.
5.) I'm tired.

Five celebrity crushes:
1.) Colin Firth
2.) Topher Grace
3.) Jason Mraz
4.) Mark Ruffalo
5.) Viggo Mortensen