I got a funny email from a friend a while back about checking out a new church after a radical faith shift. It’s always so brave to explore new possibilities and take the plunge and see what’s out there. The part that made me laugh the most was when he said he felt guilty for liking the coffee bar! Oh, the joys of our church baggage.
It made me think of the things that used to matter to some of us when it comes to church and how much things can change after we find ourselves unraveled but somehow long for a community to be part of again (there’s a whole chapter in Faith Shift centered on exploring possibilities of community after our faith comes apart).
But for fun here–and with a little help from some friends–I finally finished 2 Church Bingo Games I had been working on for a while–one for before a Faith Shift and one for after Unraveling. All of them might not resonate, depending on what faith tradition you came from. My background on the whole was in attractional conservative evangelical churches, and I’m sure you guys could make similar ones for different denominations and experiences.
If you are part of churches that have the things on the first one, please don’t take offense. If you are searching for new communities and still like things from before, this isn’t to make you feel bad. If you read the things on church-after-unraveling and are like “these ones will also make me break out in hives”, that’s okay, too. None of these are good or bad. Sometimes it’s just good to laugh at the whole crazy thing.
This first one was so me for so many years. I would always go for blackout:
After we go through the weird and brutal season of Unraveling, sometimes we try to give it a go again, hoping to find spiritual community. Oh, how things change:
What would you add? What was important to you then? What is important to you now?
BINGO!
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ps: I forgot to let anyone know that last fall I created a new page on the blog called “share your faith story.” If you want to share a bit of your faith journey or how you connect to these different seasons in your story, or any reflections from the book, it always helps others feel less crazy, less alone.