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.

journey for a church: week 1

I’m not sure where to begin. So, I’ll begin with the ending.

As we left the beautiful red doors of church number one I was pleasantly surprised that I was not disappointed by the service. In actuality, I was surprised how inviting the church was among other things. I think it helped that it was sunny and 60 for the first time in months. It also helps that the town of Sandwich is a quaint Cape Cod town. How did we get here?

It did not start with a new house (but it did end there). No, it started with the fact that driving to Attleboro every Sunday just became too far and too time consuming. In fact, Attleboro is not even the closest Evangelical Covenant Church to our house in Wareham. Except, we had already established a relationship with the church before moving down to Wareham, and it was not that much further than the other Covenant churches that were a little closer. 

The idea of actually becoming a part of the church was just not possible from that far away. Additionally, with the looming of a baby on board (along with gasoline prices escalating again) we knew we had to switch churches. It was nice to go on Sunday morning, but simply impossible to go any other day of the week.  We decided to look for a collection of churches near our new home. We came up with eight churches in Plymouth and Sandwich. Later, the list was cut to seven because one of the churches had mentioned only supporting men in leadership on their website.

Over the next several weeks we will be going from church to church trying to find a home. I won’t be giving out specific church names or denominations until the end, but hints will be in each blog. The series will go eight weeks (I’ll have to find an additional church to make it eight again). However, the series could end or be extended if we find a church or if the eight weeks are not enough.

Church 1

It was a warm sunny day in Sandwich on Sunday. It made it easy to walk to the small New England church from the side street where we had parked the car. We could see the big red doors of the entrance as we crossed the street to the church.

We walked in to see that the procession of clergy were making their way to the front for the beginning of church. Everyone was singing the first song. A simple wrong turn to the church had made us a minute too late. The church obviously started right on time. After the procession went past we (and a few others that did not quite make it on time) stepped into the sanctuary to find our seats.

From the beginning it was obvious and no surprise that this was high church, with strong emphasis on liturgical worship. This didn’t faze either of us. Well, not until I was singing along with the first hymn and noticed that there were no titles in the hymnal. Finding this peculiar I moved on.

On to the sermon. The sermon can be make-it or break-it with me. In this circumstance I was not persuaded either way. The pastor gave great examples of faith and one not so good example, Augustus Caesar. It wasn’t gripping with theological problems, but it didn’t get me off my seat in awe. All in all it was good.

At the end was communion. Not just communion, but communion with a wafer. It was different and not how I would do it. However, they do have communion each week, which is missed out, even in most Covenant churches. At the end of the service we had a very friendly couple come up to us and talk for a few minutes. This as well does not happen in many churches. A welcome sign from a welcoming church.

the great stresses in life

I remember in 8th grade (or maybe it was 9^th ) learning about the Holmes and Rahe stress scale in health class. I remember this long list of events, some horrifying, some not so horrifying. Of course they have two lists: one for adults and one for non-adults. As a non-adult, I remember being able to list a few that were going on in my life at the time, like a change in school and some that I had gone through in the past like the death of a family member.  Years later, I am not sure I would have guessed that I could have already buzzed through some of these stressful situations by this point in my life. This test is not just listed with bad events, but good and even great events. To this: over the next few months and then in the years to come I will be sharing in two of these great events – home ownership and parenthood.

One is the greatest materialist achievement for most people. The other, the greatest human achievement. They both involve stress, but they also both bring joy. I hope to share some of these events in the months and years (depending upon when blogs become archaic) to come.

For now enjoy the growing of life:

15 weeks

red state, blue state...

I live in a blue state. But here on Cape Cod it’s a little more conservative. So much so that I frequently hear people say, “Oh, that Obama - he’s a jerk.” There’s no evidence surrounding the claims of course. It is a mere comment after some extraneous other comment. You know, like liberals exclaimed for five years – “There are no WMD in Iraq. Why are thousands of people dying over this? Why are billions of dollars being spent over this? Bush is a jerk.”

The biggest complaints I hear though are why liberals are liberals: healthcare, environment, education, and difference on economic viewpoints. Point number one: healthcare. “Obama’s a jerk because he is taking my hard-earned money and using it for someone else’s healthcare.” Unfortunately, in today’s society not everyone is able to afford healthcare. Should they not be able to have check-ups every year? Should they forgo the same rights as people who can afford healthcare? Do we dare play Darwin with other human beings?

Point number two: environment. “Obama is a jerk because he won’t let us drill every inch of the United States to unearth oil.” Well, as Republicans often ask their Democratic colleagues, ‘Do you want our grandchildren and great-grandchildren left when this debt?’ Well, do you want to leave Plant Earth destroyed for an unsustainable resource for our grandchildren and great-grandchildren? 

Point number three: education. “Obama is a jerk because he pays those teachers so much money.” With Republican Governors and state run governments it looks like people may not have much longer to complain about teachers’ pay being “too high”. Although, I find it ironic that the rally cry to rein in teachers’ pay is led by Glenn Beck who made $32 million in 2009. If Glenn Beck can make $32 million for speaking on the radio and tv, I think it is okay for a teacher to make $30-40K for educating our children.

For me, I am thankful that Obama hasn’t found any yellowcake. I’m thankful that he sees education as a key to our future, and thankful that his wife finds educating people about healthy eating a key issue as well.