nikaTheJellyfish wrote:
I think a lot of times we are. At the end of the day, church is for NTs. Church is for people who don't hate the say hi to your neighbor part of the service. Church is for people who don't have auditory processing issues, enjoy being social, and don't mind bright lights, etc, but I have also found that I can fit into church. I go to a Lutheran church and was raised within the Lutheran church. It is quiet, routine-based, and I know what to expect when. This consistency is very comforting to me and I can connect to this routine. It's like I'm a robot plugging into a main computer server. Services are also less social. I never need to get anxious about bright lights or really loud music. I have been to a lot of churches who want to make things more exciting and more contemporary. For me, this is a nightmare. It takes about 5 minutes of that for me to need to leave or just shut down. It's not a question of do I want to be there, but do I have access. Me and sensory overstimulation is like asking someone who is blind to read to participate in the service. They would not be able to participate because they can't see. I wish there was a way to get churches to understand that this is the same for sensory processing disorder. I'm not mean or excessively irritable. I'm not spoiled or picky. My brain works differently. I need different things in church to be happy there and experience church at the same levels as others. In the Lutheran church though, I can get a lot of that without needing anything special. It's quiet and predictable; so I can relax and think.
That's interesting. I've been looking for a new church recently and have found liturgical churches to be very confusing, as someone who is more accustomed to evangelical churches. I visited an Episcopal church the other week and it was like visiting a foreign country, even after having attended another mainline denomination for the last several years. For me, I was so self-conscious about doing something wrong that it detracted from the worship. But, I am sure for people who are raised in a more liturgical denomination or who at least attend one long enough to sort of crack the code, that structure and predictability becomes very comforting.
05 Apr 2014, 9:13 pm
