journey for a church: week 3

In the age of unwelcoming churches, have congregations turned a corner? With last week off, this week we attended a new church in Sandwich that, much like the first church and the End Times church, was welcoming. Surprising indeed. The church is not a seeker church – it’s in fact a church that has been around since the first Europeans arrived in Massachusetts and rich in history.

We went to the traditional service. Like many mainstream ‘traditional’ churches it had a welcome, liturgy, and hymns. Some unique aspects of the service were a liturgical prayer and a Lenten moment that happens each week. There weren’t any awkward moments and as visitors we weren’t asked to raise our hands.

Of course the one problem about visiting different churches is that when you arrive you aren’t sure whether the service or the regular pastor will be there that particular Sunday. This week the normal pastor was gone and a visiting pastor gave the sermon. The sermon was wonderful, but it doesn’t reflect the regular week-to-week service. Although I suppose if the visiting pastor had a bad sermon it may reflect badly on the church.

We really enjoyed the worship. But we will have to revisit the church to get a better overview during a regular Sunday. Look for a blog on this church again in the future. Next time we go we will be attending the contemporary service. We’ll be looking for little kids (none of which were at the traditional service) and the regular pastor.  

life

slashing budgets, slashing ecology

With all this talk about slashing budgets whether it is on a national, state, or town level – public funding is taking a big hit. Why?  Well, simply so we don’t leave a huge gaping hole in our children’s children’s pockets. One problem with this thought though, or at least a bit of irony, is that many of the same people who are trying to reign in government and public spending are calling for the opposite in the way we look at our future ecologically.

And no, this isn’t just about greenhouse gases or wind turbines – although that is a big part of it. The way we are tearing apart the earth our children’s children’s pockets may be nothing to worry about if there is no land or resources to be had, whether it is that the land is gone through buildings, houses, giant malls, etc, or through laws (or lack thereof) that allow companies and people to destroy and pollute the land at will.

Through over-killing of such animals as the beaver, buffalo, and fish, many animals are scarce, some even extinct because of human interaction.  Here on Cape Cod a huge complaint is in regard to fish limits. They complain but don’t acknowledge their ancestors overfishing from the past making their living more difficult today. The laws for catch limits are there, in fact, not to keep companies and people from making as much money as they can, but indeed to make sure that their children can continue to fish in the future.

Once upon a time places where animals and birds could be seen in abundance were plenty. What can you see in those places now?  Homes, grocery stores, or even abandoned strip malls. Sprawl is everywhere and is causing a gaping hole in our children’s children’s ecological future.

journey for a church: week 2

It was supposed to be an easy Sunday – a mainstream church, a contemporary service – no surprises, right? At least that is what we thought. We arrived early and were able to have our pick of any seat. It didn’t look like the seats were going to fill, but eventually many of the seats in the pews began to fill as the first worship song began.

It was a little awkward at first. The worship band was not singing loudly and neither was the congregation. After the first song though the worship band seemed to be a little more comfortable and everything seemed normal – sort of. Then the worship leader began to walk down the aisle. Back and forth singing the whole time. I was afraid to stop singing or give eye contact in fear that I might get called out by the worship leader to sing louder or to start jumping up and down and raising my hands like he was. Luckily, eye contact was not given.

After avoiding awkwardness was the welcome time for visitors. The pastor asked for any new visitors to raise their hands. So awkwardly enough both of us raised our hands and received a small welcome packet.

Then – the sermon. On the projector screens appeared up a collage of photos – a little kid with a bowl of water, a couple other photos, and an Apache helicopter. You might be wondering, “Why an Apache helicopter?”. It might become clear when I explain that with the four photos is also an intimidating caption - “A Study in The End Times”.

The first week of Lent seemed like an easy enough Sunday to attend. But alas this church decided to coincide Lent with a series on the end times. It went from awkward to just plain bad. With the word rapture being thrown around I was holding myself down from walking out of the church. In all fairness there were a couple points made during the sermon that were theologically correct – from there urg. At the end the pastor went on to describe that if you didn’t do your devotions, prayers, tell your friends about the gospel each day, and if you instead decide to make up your own gospel, when you come to a huge crisis in your life the cross you’ve “made” won’t be big enough to withstand this huge crisis. Compare that analysis with the idea that it is God and not yourself who is in control.  The pastor’s sermon completely contradicts the knowledge that love does indeed conquer all, and that forgiveness is not something that you can count (Matthew 18:21-22).

We walked out disappointed, much like the rainy day in Plymouth.