Positive worship and nice stories...

(by Tim) Promoted from the comments beneath another post, this from Pastor Benjamin Glaser:

I mentioned Satan and eternal damnation in a recent sermon I did during supply preaching and a person came up to me after the service and subsequently told me that "We do not like to use words like that here. We like Positive worship."

And this from Fr. Bill Mouser:

Benjamin's comment reminded me of a conversation I had with an Epsicoapl matron 15 years ago, as we walked between the sanctuary and the parish hall after worship one Sunday. We were, at the time, in the middle of a survey of Genesis which I was teaching the adults. I had asked them each week to quickly skim the narrative portions of Genesis in one sitting. Repeated exposure to Genesis in this fashion would, I hoped, help them see its contents in overall perspective.

"I will be so glad when we are finished with Genesis," she said. 

"Oh?  Why is that?"

"Well, each week, I read Genesis quickly, as you asked."

I waited for further comment, but her lips were pressed firmly together.  Taking a gamble, I said, "And, that's a problem?"

"Well," she sniffed. "It's full of many things that are not nice."

Reading Fr. Mouser's comment to my dear Mary Lee just now, she chuckled and said, "It certainly is."