when church is downright awesome

It’s hard church shopping. Especially when you know the perfect church is just 45 miles away. Especially when the variety of churches is so few. This week was no exception. It was the third time visiting this particular church. It will probably be the last – at least for a while.

This Sunday it started with a hymn sing. - a chance for the congregation to choose a few songs and sing them. It was welcoming. After the welcome and announcements the bell choir did a rendition of Mighty to Save, which was excellent. Everything was gravy, until the (interim) pastor spoke.

It started off good enough. Talking about the death of Bin Laden, an interesting story about a crazy group of Millerites. The pastor even mentioned that it was horrible to rejoice in an enemy’s death, even one like Bin Laden. Then it happened.

Let me preference this by stating that I’ve been to a lot of churches before and heard a lot of sermons. I’ve heard a lot of bad sermons, sermons proclaiming the prosperity gospel, even a pastor who demeaned Hispanics and women throughout a service.

Today, the pastor claimed that the verses 9-20 in Mark 16 where Jesus comes back to the disciples after his resurrection didn’t happen. His claim, from his mentor, was that if it couldn’t happen today, it couldn’t happen then. Of course his logic would not only conclude that the verses in Mark were untrue, but in fact much of the Bible.

As a visitor I was ready to bolt. We didn’t though. We stayed. I’m glad we did. Toward the end, during prayer requests, one of the choir members called out the pastor’s sermon. I’d never seen a member call-out a pastor during a service. It was awesome! The courage that this particular member had to call out the pastor on such blasphemy was remarkable. I was proud that the member had done that. I can only hope that the other members felt the same.

The pastor is an interim, and we don’t know how long he has been there. From the response from the choir member, he hasn’t been there long, or this is one of the first times he has said something like this. The church is in the middle of a pastoral search. For now we are going to skip the church – we’ll have to try it out again once they have a new pastor. 

journey for a church: not it

Sometimes there are just better churches. This past Sunday we went to a new church in Plymouth. We had already been to a church in Plymouth, but this time the church was in the middle of the tourist area. We circled around a couple times and found a free spot – this time. As the tourist season really heats up we pondered the thought of having to either pay for parking or parking far away and having to walk quite a distance to church.

The church itself was a typical New England looking church – white with a large steeple. From the front doors you walk into the church narthex next and a large fellowship hall. Staircases on both sides of the narthex lead to the sanctuary upstairs. The sanctuary upstairs was large and could easily fit 400 people, maybe 500.  The church had a good attendance of 100 people, but looked empty in such a large church that was probably full back in its heyday.

The church was traditional, yet different from another traditional service from the same denomination that we attended weeks ago. There was a large choir, acolytes, and yokes. There was a normal liturgy, great hymns, and we even said the Gloria Patri.  I am not sure I have ever been to a church that has done that.

The sermon, or should I say communion meditation, was good. It incorporated relevant biblical verses and real life situations. The pastor even had a high school student read much of the service as a way to involve and teach the young people of the church.

Even so, the church didn’t seem ‘it’. Can a church even have an ‘it’? Can a church be judged on the basis of its essence? I don’t know, but it was done on Sunday.