Laura wrote an interesting entry about people who say they have "no regrets" and got me to seriously thinking about those people... Here are her thoughts.

There are times when I have been skeptical hearing people proclaim that, after all that they have been through in life, they have �no regrets.� Sometimes I wonder how it�s possible to arrive at that place. The way I see it, to truly live and then look back and claim to have no regrets would mean that either, a). you�ve never done anything regret-worthy, b) you have done regret-worthy things, but choose not to focus on them, or c). you have no distinction between right and wrong, and so nothing feels regret-worthy anyway.

Here are mine.

First off, my circle of influence and the people I have heard say this are churchgoers who have been going to church all their lives, and in this circle, what usually follows after "I have no regrets" is something along the lines�of "[because] God has forgiven me of anything I have ever done."� That said, I always thought that people who say these things say were just people who have never done anything really regret-worthy and are just hiding the fact behind a fashionable churchy phrase. It seems to me that church folks in today's culture seem to almost regret that they haven't done anything truly regret-worthy, and so they try to sound like they have. Not to make themselves look more holy (although some do do that), but to just look like they fit into the culture more. I think they're just trying to back away from the "hypocrites" tag that the church has been suffering for the last...I was going to say 40-50 years, but I guess 20 centuries would be more accurate. :)

"Outreach" has been the catch phrase of the church for a couple decades now. The focus has been to reach out to people who have never gone to church, and so churches have started changing their look to be more appealing to so-called "alternative" cultures and whatnot. It's affected the way pastors dress, the way church services are set up, the way sermons are preached, etc., etc. Besides trying to be "hip" and "cool" (ohhh, the baby boomer generation... :) ), churches apparently are also trying to focus on how they are sinners just like "the rest of the world." Which is still ironic and kind of funny, because they're still making a distinction between "us" and "them" even in their attempts not to make such a distinction.

I feel like a lot of traditionalists who read this would say, "That's right, Stephanie, preach it! Down with the modern church! Back to the old ways!!" Before you get overly zealous in your response, let me tell you, I don't think there is anything wrong with the church's focus on "outreach" and appealing to the culture around them. I think some churches take it a little far and become a little bit silly about it. And the shift in focus probably leads some churches astray. But I don't think there's anything wrong with it.

Besides... We'll slip out of this phase too, and into the next one, whatever it might be. The church follows trends just like all the rest of the world.

-Stephanie

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