This Church is Big Enough for the Both of Us

I used to go to a church that, hmmm, how to say this...was very isolationist. Provincial. Well insulated. An island of sorts. Like no man is. That kind of thing. It was impressed on the congregation that it was THE church and the other ones just couldn't measure up. Those churches did things we would never do in ways that we would never do them if we ever did do them. The first few years I went there I often invited friends to come because the teaching was sound. After awhile I invited friends because I figured they needed a church as good as mine. And eventually I quit inviting friends because I was embarrassed at the arrogance of my church.

For a stack of reasons my family moved on from that church and I've noticed a change in my heart that wouldn't have been easily rendered had we stayed. I first noticed it when a very charismatic couple visited us. I was able to talk with the wife briefly and found just how different we were but saw a glimpse of how much they could add to our growth. And maybe we could do the same for them.
I've also found myself inviting friends, not because I thought that we had so much to offer them but because they had so much to offer us.
And an even weirder thing, I've been excited for friends who have left for a different church and for others whose ministry in their church is growing.
Admittedly, it is weird that this is even weird.

I want to spend time with fellow believers who might do things differently than I would, but whose goal is still Gods great glory. And I wouldn't be wrong to say that this new (to us) way of thinking is shared by our church and its leadership.
We come from and maintain a mindset rooted deep in the knowledge of Scripture but we haven't been the best at exercising that knowledge in the kind of love that Jesus was known for. We are willing and learning. We want you, brothers and sisters, to come alongside us. We are seeing where we have been weak. 
We are seeing that this Church is big enough for the both of us.

Now I know that some will see this as some white flag waving ecumenisism. I would have called it that several years ago. No, this is not that. I'm not offering to help set up chairs at a consortium of the maritally confused. Nor am I offering to open the doors for a prayer to the generic god of the deificly deficient. Rest at ease, we should keep this all in the Family, realizing that the family is, more (cough, cough) diverse than we might admit. That word is ours. We can use it.

I'm looking forward to seeing you at church on Sunday, in serving during the week, playing with our children, or on the front porch with a beer.

Unsocialized Homeschooler

My son is at the age that compels people to ask if he is going to be attending preschool soon because "you have to get them socialized at this age".
Yeah, because putting together twenty plus toddlers will teach them great things.
Isn't this what parents are for? Barring, of course, extenuating circumstances.
A mother and her children getting together with another mother and her children do a far better job "socializin' the youngin's" than pre-school ever will. Mothers know what sin issues their children are dealing with and can instruct and discipline appropriately. At least they should be learning to be competent on the subject of their children.

The other question that comes up is what plans we have for our sons K-12 education. Growing up myself as an Unsocialized Homeschooler I have friends (shocker!) that all fall into the three main categories, so I'll make sure to offend with equality. Our response to each is generally thus:

-Private school, preferably.

-Homeschool, er...uh..ugh maaayybee?

-Government school? Cue crickets, wind dusted tumbleweed and a lone coyote howl... I hope not. Maybe waaay later?

But in answering those three questions the first response is often "Well, if you homeschool, how will you socialize your child? They have to be socialized, you know?" This is when I try hard not to laugh at them, pat them on the head and hand them a lollipop. It's not that it is an unnecessary question but that it is so ignorantly biased and insulting.  I've never been compelled to ask someone who is considering private school how they plan to keep their children from becoming snobby and insular. Nor have I asked someone considering public school how they plan to keep their child from wearing a trench coat, bringing a gun to school and slaying their entire classroom.

Simple observation can answer the socialization question. I can take 20 people I know, who are over the age of 22 and you wouldn't be able to tell how they were schooled. Most government schoolers make it out alive and without killing anyone. The private school snobbyness looses its shine, the awkward homeschooler is no longer awkward. And he probably would have been awkward at any school.
Schooling has little to do with your post-school social life. Parenting has everything to do with a childs in-school social life. Proper socialization and fighting snobbery is equally important for the government schooler, the private schooler and the homeschooler.

Easy stuff for me to say when it's all theory and my child hasn't started school yet.