Why? Pet Peeve Series

Just a brief post.
I have been a pastor for 27 years but there is just something I don't understand. Why, after all of these years, do I still feel like a stranger in most denominational churches? Really, I just came back from a meeting in a church and I felt like I was from another culture. And it's not just this church, I see it in lots of churches.

In most of life we have two layers of "real." The outer layer is the one that we portray to our social world. And then there is the inner layer that we expose to our families.

But in most denominational churches there is even a third layer. It is the layer that we portray to the church. It is not even the person we are when we are at work or the post office, and it is surely not the person who we are when we are at home. It is another "religious" layer. It makes me feel like something is wrong with me. It makes me feel like 1000 eyes are watching my every move to see if I do something unfamiliar to the small village of people living in that church.

Hey ! Shouldn't we all be like we are at family reunions all of the time? (If there is somthing that you are ashamed of, stop it) Shouldn't we be "real" all of the time? Does every person have to look like the pastor? Can Christians put on personalities like a pre teen girl tries on moods or outfits? Shouldn't Christian adults be who they are all of the time and not some plastic fantastic version of mister "holier than thou?" What are we teaching in America's churches? How to be a hypocrite? How to be a more clever sinner?

I don't cuss, but you know, I have heard the words before. I don't drink, but you know, I have seen drunks before. And I don't fake, but I have seen fakers.
I feel like I have to be super loving to my cousins in some churches because they don't know how much of a stench hypocrites are to God. But how am I ever going to get them into that conversation?