As you may or may not know I am indeed a Christian. The other week my dad and I were in my car and he turned to me and asked “why are you a Christian?” to which I replied “because I WANNA BE WHY DON’T YOU HAVE BACK TEETH?”…I joke, he would’ve threw me out my own car if I had said that. He asked whether I went to church, I said no, he shot back with “oh so you’re only a Christian by name?”…ouch. I went on to explain very briefly that no, I'm a Christian because I believe Jesus was who He said He was. We engaged in a short yet intense debate on the person of Jesus and ended the chat with me saying “okay dad, I don’t want to talk about this any more”. Important note: my dad used to be a Christian but in the last 10 years has changed this, not too sure what he believes now but on the day of my baptism he pulled me to one side to tell me how Shakespeare wrote the bible…soooo yah…
This conversation, as anti-Christian as it was, I believe was one God used to help me ask myself the question: why on earth don’t you go to church anymore…?
The truth is there’s been 100s of things over the years that lead to my lack of desire to attend a church but I’ve long overcome the traumas that were inflicted upon me so there was no good reason I didn’t go to one anymore other than me just…well…liking to sleep on Sunday mornings.
I decided to go to a little baptist church 8 minutes from my house a few Sundays ago. I’d never been to a baptist church before, only ever the loud, charismatic pentecostal churches that resembled that which you see in films. This church however was a small congregation, a lot of seniors, a few Black and brown people dotted around and no podium, stage, altar…no anything. Worship was lead by two members of the congregation who didn’t have spectacular voices (sorry guys), with a little old lady on the piano tapping away. The sermon was short but impactful. The hymns all about loving God and the prayer lead by a lady called Hazel. She prayed very simply for us, for Ukraine and other people in wars around the world. It was truly nothing out of the ordinary but for some reason I absolutely loved the simplicity.
The major coincidence was the message for the day was titled ‘why go to church?’ and was delivered with no screaming shouting or tongues but explaining with scripture why we have church and what the church actually is. It stripped everything back to basics and helped me to refresh my mind as to why I’m a Christian - it’s not for the fancy chairs, cakes after service or speakers the size of my car but because Jesus is Lord. He was a humble man, he did incredible things (big up turning water in to wine - that’s my kinda Lord) but it was the confidence over the showmanship that drew people in. He didn’t need to ‘wow’ people by being flashy all the time, His presence was enough. I remember the part of the gospel that talks about the time he marched in to the synagogue, read from the Bible and basically said “so yeah, that’s me, I’m God” and walked back out, wowing everyone with the assuring, simplicity and confidence.
The next week I went to a church I used to attend before moving to London but will always remember this lesson from this small baptist church down the road - humility, simplicity and clarity are so important. When life feels like it’s all too much, strip everything back to the basics and ask yourself some important questions, get to the root of the issue and move forward with clarity.
Oh, also, cake after church is a win tbh, don’t know why I was acting like it’s not.
Cass
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Hi, thanks for reading! My names Cassandra Maria, I’m a comedy writer and creator from Birmingham. Day to day I present on three different shows across Premier Gospel and Premier Christian Radio and oversee Premier Gospel’s social media platforms. In 2021 I did a TEDXBrum talk on why it’s important to laugh in even the worst of times entitled ‘How Laughter Helps Horror’ and have a skincare page dedicated to bringing a little light to people fighting chronic skin conditions.
‘I remember the part of the gospel that talks about the time he marched in to the synagogue, read from the Bible and basically said “so yeah, that’s me, I’m God” and walked back out, wowing everyone with the assuring, simplicity and confidence.’ As in! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾