Hi gramps.
Here is an email I got from my sister regarding her decision to leave the church. Can you give me some help in answering some of her concerns? Here are her comments—
“I disagree with the style of church services. They aren’t keeping up with the culture / they are trying to speak to people in a different language. Hymns and the way Mutual usually is, for example, are just out-of-date, in my opinion, and I believe (from experience) that people would be able to connect with God much better if they were “spoken to in their own language.:
Darren, from Thornton, Colorado
Dear Darren,
If your sister disagrees with the style of church services, this has nothing to do with the style of church services, but everything to do with the spirit of your sister. She is an alien to the Spirit of the Lord. Such alienation always results from a deviation from the standards of the gospel. Those deviations may be physical actions or intellectual leanings. So there is no point in trying to convince her of the truthfulness of the gospel or of the applicability of any standard or procedure in the Church.
She needs to be accepted for who she is and loved as a sister and as a person. One thing we should always keep in mind is the 11th Article of Faith,
We claim the privilege of worshiping Almighty God according to the dictates of our own conscience, and allow all men the same privilege, let them worship how, where, or what they may.
That goes for members of our own family as well as anyone one else. So, respect her beliefs and support her in them as you would expect her to support you in yours. However, there are two things that you can do that would be effective in bringing her back into the fold– 1) Present to her a perfect example of obedience to the gospel and the demonstration of joy in the fellowship of the saints. 2) Fervently pray to the Father without ceasing for her eternal welfare. God is more interested in her salvation than you are, and “the effective prayer of the righteous availeth much.”
Gramps
