Unchurched #3

This last person i interviewed was my girlfriend from highschool. We had tried to keep in touch after graduation and we did for a while, but about a year or so ago, i lost contact with her and we didn't see each other while we were home on our breaks. Not long after starting this semester with this class i felt a big urge to connect with her again and rekindle our friendship. I had no way of getting in contact with her though. She somehow found me one day thought and imed me out of the blue to ask how i was doing. I was thrilled and over joyed. So i have been working on this friendship for pretty much the whole semester now. when i went home over break i got to go out with her one day and talk, and we had a lot of fun. it felt soo good to not be around a christian, is that a bad thing? well it did, not matter if it is good or not. So here are the questions i got to ask her and her answers.

what do you think the greatest need is in your area? She replied, "I think the greatest need in this area is more opportunity for kids to attend events and keep them off the streets. there needs to be places where they can go and hang out. a place that lets them try and relate to one another." After saying this, thoughts of youth group went through my mind, but i held back.

I asked her if she attended church regularly and she said no, only on special holidays like easter and christmas.

I asked her what were somethings that impacted her or interested her the most. She said abortion, drugs and recession were the three things that had her greatest interest. since she is a psychology major i can understand why these things have a big impact on her.

then i asked her why she thought most people don't attend church. Here's her answer, "I feel most people do not attend church because they can not find a religion that they truly believe in. that they may agree with some of the churches ideas but not all. they are looking for something they can relate to, or can believe in. also because we are ignorant to other religions that are out there.

if you were to look for a church to go to, what would you want it to be like? She said that she would look for a church that didn't judge people, to really not judge us for who we are or our lives outside of church. A place where anyone can go and feel like they belong.

The last question i asked was, what advice would you give a pastor who really wants to try to help people. She said,, " i think they should try and talk to a person and show that they are not there to judge only to help and be a friend."

my friend doesn't live the good christian life. I don't expect her to because she not a christian. She does things i haven't dreamed of doing, but yet i still sit and listen to her, i let her know that im not going to lecture her everytime she tells me she got drunk or drank. she knows where i stand, and me not swaying and not giving in, is my testimony to her. I hope and pray and some day, maybe months, maybe years from now she'll see something in me she really wants and maybe just maybe she'll decided to live for Jesus then!