Sarah Schnitker

The church I was going to at the time, they had done kind of an all-church survey, I think, just to get data on kind of how the church was meeting the needs of its congregants and ways they could improve.

And I assume that someone must have complained about my singing voice being loud and distracting.

And so the pastor of this church had met and asked me, hey, would you be willing to sing more quietly?

And at the time I said, hey, I don't actually think that's a fair thing to ask me.

And they kept telling me that I should just be quiet for the sake of others, that singing was kind of this freedom I should give up.

And

It was very emotional.

I was crying.

I was very deeply hurt.

This is like one of my most vulnerable things I do is come and try to express how much I'm grateful for the blessings in life.

And the pastor basically told me, you're not welcome here as you are.

And this was so incredibly painful.

I just took the time to really heal from that experience.

Kind of tried to practice my patience, let myself heal.

But then decided, you know what?

I'm going to go find a different faith community to be a part of.

And went to a different type of church that had a different style of worship.

But...

To this day, sing very loudly.

And I'm very glad I gave myself the time to be patient with my own healing from that experience instead of rushing back in because it's such a rich source of meaning and support that knowing God loves me and also that other people in my church community also love me and love my singing is really, really important.