Hi, and welcome to the Five Word Prayers Daily, a five-day-a-week daily devotional where we share the word prayers in our heart.

I'm Lisa Whittle, and I welcome you to just five minutes with me, which I trust and pray will be five minutes well spent.

Well, it's the start of a new week, and I like it when a new week rolls over, don't you?

Mondays are hard for me, but they're good too because we get to kind of have a clean slate

as well. And I don't know about you, but this month on the podcast for me feels like some movement.

Some progress is being made toward moving forward, which is the goal, by the way. It's our

growing up, moving on month, and we've covered social media and life mission, and this week

we're talking church.

Now, we've talked about the church here and there on here, but I'm dedicating a whole

week to it, and I'm going to really pull apart some areas we need to grow in with the church,

I believe.

And I'm going to do it in sort of a unique way by answering one question every day that

you all have asked me as I've

talked about my long-running experiences with the church for over 40 years in different venues

and what the church and I have been through together really. So let's get started with our

first question today, probably my most asked question about church, at least current.

You may have heard me say before that my longest relationship has been with the church,

and besides with my parents, it has been. I was brought to church in utero, and I've been there

ever since, and it's probably been one of the most

complicated relationships I've ever had as well, but one of the most wonderful and rich.

All the emotions and feels literally all across the board. And people that know my history with

the church have often asked me two questions. First of all, how have you been able to move past church

...