There is something about Church that is so personal and can shake someone to the core. I write this for many reasons. I have had issues with the church I currently go to and I also found out today that the head pastor at my church in Oregon was laid off.
Church is so personal to every person. There are many reasons for this, such as it is the one that you grew up in, and/or its where you first learned about Christ and/or its where you were baptized and/or where you have made your church family. However once you have been in a church for a while certain things begin to bug you, that is when problems begin in a church. After going through all of my ministry classes I feel extra critical about things once I go into a church. In my mind I evaluate the worship, the way the preacher preaches, how friendly the people are, who does the prayers and who is serving the communion. Now you may think well i understand a couple of those things but not all of them. But as I have been to many churches it is the most telling of the type of people allowed into those roles that says the most about a church. It says who is and isn't allowed to do certain things in the church. What is interesting is I thought we were at a period in time where sexism and racism should be diminishing at a rapid rate. But in my church women are not allowed to serve communion or lead a prayer in front of the congregation, this for obvious reason bug me, among other things.
What actually bothers me the most about church is how leadership forgets its role a lot of the time. A pastor is a head to lead a church in the direction of God. It is to follow His will to the best of his ability and be able to convey that to the Church (by the way we are all called to do this in some way or another it just may not be at the head of a church). A deacon's "job" is to be representatives of the will of the main population of the church. All though sometimes this position is not filled in the church I believe you should always have believers that are to be the representatives of the church to be able to ask for the things needed as the body as a whole.
Now sadly the next category of people I feel does not fulfill their role most of the time. The Elders description in the Bible is someone who first must be above reproach, married to one woman, temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, an apt teacher, not a drunk, not violent but gentle, not QUARRELSOME, not a lover of money, not a new Christian, most of all he must be well thought of by outsiders. Here is my main problem with most elders. They are quarrelsome. They think that they are right without explaining themselves or demonstrating that what they are doing is from the Lord. Now I know I can not judge heart and only God can do that but seriously people? Are you doing God's will without explaining why or how you got to the conclusion that God is directing you into that path? Are you truly looking after the well being of the church when most of the congregation will die within 10 years and your not doing anything to get new people in 9 months out of the year?
Half of the time I'm sitting in the church wondering why in the world this is the decision we have made. I know that a lot of people go to church for many reasons, but why do we let things get so bad before we try to fix them? I want to go to church and be excited to go have fellowship with other Christians instead of being disappointed knowing that majority of the church wont even connect with God on Sunday mornings. When will we demand more? When will we demand the change...I am thinking of starting my own church where we actually analyze the Bible and go back to what God's original intent was. When we could go back to having passion for Christ and truly be awestruck by what He did to save each one of us, and just connect with Him on a personal level. Anyone else want to start this with me?
This is the store that Brian and Tyler got kicked out of because the guy was trying to make an uneven trade and they were cautious of it and the guy got pissed!
This is a big "work of art" in Manzanillo
This is one of the animals in my room.
and here is my frog
This is Jennifer trying to getting Emily play that the remote was a phone again. It was the cutest thing to hear her saying "
She loved playing with the cards that we were given that were paired with your room. Which is what she is playing with for most of the above pictures.
Double 
The view from my parent's balcony.
This is how a lot of our days were spent. It was awesome!
