LET THEM ASK

After the benediction Sunday I took up my usual post in the foyer, shaking hands, hugging, arranging for a trip to the “snack chest” for kids who looked at me smiling way too hard, and encouraging visitors to connect and come back to Miles Chapel CME Church.   One of them did.

Yesterday, after some texting, “Matthew”, a 24 year old father and Miles College student stopped by the church with his friend and fellow Milean, “Sheryll.”    We toured the church-community garden, and I told him about our other outreach and ways they could get involved.  Matthew told me some of his story. (Brother’s done a lot to be only 24.)  I told him some of my story.  That was good. 

The whole time, Sheryll listened ----- like, really listened.  You know the way you listen when you came along as a friend but you expect the preacher to say something wrong at any minute and prove that he’s just like all the others.  That kind of listening.

I know that listening because that’s how I used to listen when my college friends dragged me along

when they went to see their pastor. 

After the tour we sat down again, and I said what I always say,  “Do you have any questions?  Any?  Anything you’ve wanted to ask a preacher about God or the Bible but couldn’t or hadn’t?  You can ask me.”

We talked for another 2 ½ hours. 

They asked (not necessarily in this order):

1.      If there was only Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, where did Cain’s wife come from?

2.      Is homosexuality a sin?  Do homosexuals automatically go to Hell?

3.      What does “repent” mean?  Can people just tell God they’re sorry, and keep on doing wrong, and go to Heaven when other people who don’t ask for forgiveness don’t do nearly as much bad

stuff?

4.      Was the serpent in the Garden of Eden real or a metaphor?

5.      Were Adam and Eve real people or metaphors?

6.      Did they poison John the apostle?  Is the book of Revelations him hallucinating?

7.      Are all gods the same as God?

Those questions (and others) led to more Bible searches and conversations about

8.      Hominids vs homosapiens

9.      The big bang theory (the science not the sitcom)

10.  Tectonic shift and prehistoric supercontinents

11.  Translating biblical language into scientific language, and vice versa

12.  Yahweh, Jehovah, Elohim, and Allah

13.  Hoteps and denominations

14.  Why 46 year olds don’t text back as quickly as 24 year olds

The funny thing is:  every question they asked me was a question I had asked leaders in the church when I was a young adult.   

Most of the questions came from Sheryll because it turns out that she is who I used to be:  a child of the CME church who had questions  the adults in church wouldn’t address or recognize.  FYI: When church folk ignore or suppress an inquisitive kid's questions about the Bible, the kid doesn't forget the questions.  The kid assumes church folk (a) don't know what they'r talking about; or (b) are lying about God and everything.

Then, like me, Sheryll went to college and heard new stories and theories that contradicted what she’d been told about God and the Bible.  Some of it sounded more plausible than what she remembered from Sunday School.  Some of the new stuff sounded wrong, but she couldn’t compare it to Biblical truth because she had too many unanswered questions about the Bible, too. 

While I was in college at Alabama State University, a couple guys listened to my questions and searched Scripture with me to find answers.  After all the wonderful preachers and elders and bishops I had heard and ignored; it was the Christians who made space for my questions who led me to salvation in Jesus Christ.

I don’t know what “Michael” and “Sheryll” are going to do.  I hope and pray that they’ll connect long-term with Miles Chapel, but I don’t know. 

But I do know that they now know that there is a church where their questions are welcome and that the answers to their questions are in the Word of God. 

When the church makes space for people’s questions we make space for God’s saving grace.

---Anderson T. Graves II   is a writer, community organizer and consultant for education, ministry, and rural leadership development.

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is pastor of Miles Chapel CME Church in Fairfield, Alabama;  executive director of the Substance Abuse Youth Networking Organization (SAYNO);  and director of rural leadership development for the National Institute for Human Development (NIHD).

Subscribe to my personal blog  www.andersontgraves.blogspot.com .

Email atgravestwo2@aol.com

Friend me at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

Follow me on twitter @AndersonTGraves 

Click here to support this ministry with a donation.  Or go to andersontgraves.blogspot.com and click on the DONATE button on the right-hand sidebar.

Support by check or money order may be mailed to 

Miles Chapel CME Church

P O Box 132

Fairfield, Al 35064