Coming back to worship after being gone for a few months is a new experience for me. I won’t lie to you: I was a little worried about that first Sunday back. What important events had I missed? Would I remember people’s names? Very quickly I was relieved to learn:
- Lots of people have been in and out of in-person church. Some, for really good reasons, are still staying at home because of the ongoing pandemic.
- Church is a lot like All My Children.
OK, I better explain that second one! All My Children is a soap opera that ran for 41 years beginning in 1970. I watched it for about 15 of those years. My favorite AMC actor was Susan Lucci, who played the character of Erica Kane. She was nominated year after year for a daytime Emmy, finally winning on her 19th try.
The truth is that I actually didn’t watch that many episodes of All My Children. I would catch a few episodes one month and then maybe not catch one for another 6 months. I once went almost two years without seeing an episode. And, guess what? I found it amazingly easy to jump back in. Because many of the sets and characters remained the same and sure some things changed but it was familiar enough to still feel like my show.
And that’s how I experienced church these past few weeks. I was surprised how quickly I felt like I had never been away.
So, if you have been putting off coming to in-person church because you’ve missed some Sundays and worry that you may feel that it’s going to be awkward and you are going to feel left out, take it from me. That feeling won’t last very long. Before you know it, this place will feel like home again.
-Written by Rev. Amy Miracle
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My favorite soap opera moment in the church was the recent replacing of the carpet in the sanctuary. The announcement that it would happen, the revelation that the color would be different (gasp) had people on edge. And yet we survived and stayed tune.
In my younger days I was a devotee of “Days of Our Lives.” I got many condescending comments as to why I would spend time on a soap opera. I said because it was exactly like life: it has family, friends, romance, tragedy, humor, and day to day it doesn’t seem like much happens, but over time stuff you realize the events that have occurred, and you see changes in all the characters whether fictional or real. So yeah, just like church.