I stepped out of my comfort zone a little bit this past weekend. Yes, despite my conference-cynical, singles-events-aversionist tendencies, I broke out and went to the Alabama District Singles Conference. I don’t have any grand ideas about the amount of people who read my blog, but I sure hope anything I say doesn’t come back and bite me in the rear.
On a scale of 1-10, I’d have to say it was about a 6. 5 being completely unbiased one way or the other, 6 meaning just a shade more positivity than negativity.
In Its Defense
This particular conference proved me wrong on a few points, but namely, that it was not desperation-filled. I was not accosted, never pressured. And that was a big plus. Cuz I tell you, if some needy dude had tried to awkwardly thrust himself into my life, I would have dipped out of singles conferencedom quicker than a Ninja Turtle could take a bite out of a slice of pizza.
There was a candid moment when the ladies had a little break out session and we did an open-discussion type thing. I was able to speak up (read: hop up on ye olde soapbox) about how the church pits “doing a work for God” against desiring marriage (especially for women) as well as pits the ideas of education and career against marriage and family. So, it’s like, okay, on one hand, I’m cool if I ignore the fact that I do desire marriage and am happy just passively doing “God stuff,” but on the other, I’m uncool if I try to better myself in the interim because by doing so I’m shunning marriage and family. What’s a girl to do? So, we discussed. That was good.
Things I, Uh . . . Wasn’t Crazy About
Not that I expected this “conference” to be bursting at the seams with people—I mean, it was held in a rather podunk Alabama town. But I did expect there to be more 20somethings. So that was a tad bit of a downer. I mean, not that it was crawling with old geezers. There was a sprinkling of 20somethings. I just wished there were more.
I hate to get . . . racial, but I’m going to be for real. I was the only black person there at first. A black dude did show up the next day, but come on, two out of the whole Alabama district? Remotely related to that is that a man asked me if anyone had ever told me I looked like Condaleeza Rice. Come on. #1. I do NOT look like Condi Rice. #2. Homegirl is a sharp lady, but it just didn’t feel like a compliment to me. The only thing Condi and I have in common (well, looks-wise, I guess) is that we’re both . . . you guessed it. Ah, maybe I’m being nitpicky. I’m sure the guy was just trying to be nice or something and he couldn’t think of anything else to say.
The main (male) speaker was a good speaker as far as speakers go, but the things he had to say I could have heard at camp meeting or something. I thought this was a singles conference. It seemed to me his messages weren’t really tailored to singles issues.
The schedule was kind of whack. I’m sorry. But why would they have Friday night, Saturday morning, a big break in-between, and Saturday night? What about out-of-town folks who have to make a 2 ½ hour drive back to Montgomery, and then get up and go to church the next morning?
Some Cool Things Despite the Above
The female speaker at the conference was a really neat lady. She spoke some things to me in the Holy Ghost that were encouraging and confirming about what God is going to do in my life. That was a super plus.
During the above complained-about super-long break between Saturday morning sessions and Saturday night service I went with some others to Books-a-Million to chill. This dude sitting in the chair next to me struck up a conversation and we had a really good talk about the church and Jesus matters. It turns out that he was raised in the same faith I am now, but later on broke away for various and sundry reasons. But it was great. It felt God-ordained or something. He told me that he is glad that I happened to sit next to him and that from talking to me he has a better understanding of some things. Awesome.
I ran into a guy who just happened to have relocated to St. Louis. He also did J-Terms at UGST and is attending now, he knows a bunch of St. Louis-connected people I know and attends the same church I visited the times I’ve been up there. I’m not checking for this guy in the least bit, but it was so uncanny because my future plans are currently leaning St. Louis-ward. (More on that later.) It felt like a sign or something.
And lastly, I did meet one of my goals, and that is that I did break out of my comfort zone and made an effort to talk to people that I probably wouldn’t have ordinarily. So . . . maybe I should knock the rating up to a 7? Okay, okay. The final verdict is 7 out of 10.
2 comments:
Hey, have I ever told you how much you look like Condi? ;) Sorry couldn't resist. I would love more of your perspective of race and our religion. Although I have seen vast improvements regarding diversity in our churches down here, it still seems we could be doing more.
Though I have a lot to say about issues dealing with race and the church, I tend to shy away from talking about it too much because I don't want to make my blog smell too strongly of soapbox. Plus, when I think (or write) about things that I have experienced in that arena, it sort of depresses me. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't need to be talked about.
I would agree that there have been improvements, which is especially notable in the South since it's burdened with a history of not so great race relations, but there is definitely room for improvement.
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