I wish I didn’t have to
write this but here it goes. Every Sunday that I get up and pick a church at
random, I pray that I will have a positive experience. I like to think that of
the few bad churches I have been to that the worst is behind me. I wish that
was the truth, because this ended up being scarier then what I am willing to
believe. Here we go.
.jpg)
I had walked by this
church many times before and waited in front of it for the bus many times. The
only thing that I though might be unusual about it was that it was in the
basement of a business. First underground church I have ever seen. I got the
service times confused and ended up arriving 15 min late. But it was no big
deal in my eyes. There were only 12 people in the room. There was a senior African-Canadian fellow
leading the service (first time I’ve seen that). I immediately noticed that out
of the 12, there were 5 young men in their early 20’s. This was shocking. Young men in churches are
extremely rare. You’re normally lucky to get 1 in a room of 100. So this was baffling. They also all sat in the first two pews on
the left side of the church. One young
fellow looked noticeably interesting with his white pants white suspenders and
two bandaged up fingers on his right hand ( he later told me that he crushed
them in a minor workplace accident.)
I really felt there was no
option to be anonymous in this church. This guy was watching you. Really watching
you. So much so that he called me out when I accidentally picked up the wrong
song book. (There was more than one here).
When I had come in they
were in the middle of singing and I just simply joined them from the point that
they were at. After a few songs there
was a quick break where the leader started speaking. He stated an interesting
statistic that involved a survey of large group of people from around the
world. The question was “what is your
greatest desire in life?” The results of this survey generated some interesting
results including that 6% said “I want to own a bicycle”. Such a small thing.
We were then all told to be thank-full and count our blessings. And then the
singing continued.
The prayer was interesting
here. There was more than one person praying at a time and yelling over
each-other. The offering plate was passed around early, but just as I was
digging in my purse to get my loony out, it went right past me. Ok it didn’t
even go past me. They stopped at 2 of the 12 people in the room and then
brought it up to speaker’s podium and left it there. Yes I got blown-off for
the offering plate. Lame move guys.
This church was unique in
the fact that it was just a heavy amount of preaching. The service was 2.5hours
and 1.5-2h of it was just the church leader speaking. Ok speaking is an
understatement; this guy uses vocal punch as if he throws baseballs for a
living.
There is just a large list
of quotes from here on out so I thought I would file them accordingly.
Good quotes.
“The only thing we have is
what we give”
Senior lady stands up and
tells a humorous story about her and her sisters falling asleep in church.
“Our footsteps and our
path is directed by god-we need to stay close to god to help direct us-the lord
is my shepherd.”
“Church is where we come
to get our souls ready t meet god”.
“Sin does not rule a man”
“God will give us a new
heart and remove our hearts of stone”
“We must life for god
24/7”
Amongst all this there was
a point where the church leader called me out and asked me to stand up and
introduce myself. I did so and also made appoint of telling him about my
journalism and that toady they were church #26. The pastor was thrown totally off guard and after
taking a few min to collect himself looked at me and said “ well we hope you
decide to make church #26 your home.” At the end of these 2 posts, you will
look back on this quote and laugh. Guaranteed.
They also had this deep
obsession of repenting and being baptized. I like I know it is important and
all, but that seems to be the number one thing that is on the top of their
list. I have never seen this attitude before. The pastor also made it clear
that a repented man is a “new man” and must not carry forward any of the evil
or ungodly characteristics that he had before.
That all addictions and bad habits must be purged in full.
During this service i felt
something strange. I was ignored 50% of the time. Largely due to the fact that
the pastor head was turned to the
right and speaking specifically to the
group of 5 young men at the front left side of the room. This is how the conversation
went.
Pastor: “some people got
out to the moves and put ungodly things before their eyes, but we don’t do
that!”
Young Men: *nod and smile.
Pastor: “Some people go
out to the bars of the weekends! But we don’t do that!”
Young Men: *nod and smile.
Pastor” when that girl calls
you up and wants to hang out you tell her no! Cause we don’t do that!”
Young Men: *nod and smile.
This is the vibe I got
from that.
I was called out a third time in the service as he
spent his 1.5-2hours preaching on people were flipping pages in there bibles
every 5-10 min. This is not a church service that just focuses and breaks down
one or two things this guy I am sure covered 10-15 topics. I just eventually give up and sat there and
wrote my notes. Then the point came where he addressed me and asked me to read the next
line. I looked up and politely told him that I had fallen off track since I had
been taking notes. Once again you could see on his face that I threw him a
total curve ball. He went on preaching while one of the senior ladies ran over
to me and helped me flip to the right page. Then I read the scripture quote and
sat down.
I have encountered this
“teacher style” of preaching the before but I am not even sure you could call
it that. It was more like a bible rant from a prosecuting lawyer.
Harsh/Odd/Questionable
quotes.
80% of church money is tax deductible. The tradition for having no-low tax on a church was started in
ancient times.
“All must appear before
judgment”
“Church cannot be a social
venue.”
The pastor recalls having Elvis
style sideburns when he first came to this church and how he progressively cut
them off.
“I don’t want you to say
amen! I want you to go home and do it!”
“the unrichous will not
inherit the kingdom of heaven.”
“Fornicators, Idolaters,
adulterers and the effeminate will not inherit the kingdom of heaven. “
“God says if you are effeminate
you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.”
“Men lower your voices
when you come to church!”
“Brother _____ does not
wear sister _____ dress!!”
“If you want to live long,
keep gods commandments.”
And my personal favorite.
“No matter what kind of Bow-tie, Shirt and Bubble bath you give a pig , it is still a Pig!”
One thing that was
mentioned at the beginning and end of all this was the issue of dating. The
pastor made it quite clear that none of the young men in the church were
allowed to date unless they bring these girls to church and they get approved
thru him first.
At the end of these 2.5
hours I felt nothing less then what I must feel like to get punched in the gut.
Regardless, I made a point of going to the front and introducing myself to the
5 young men in the room and I asked if it was ok if I could ask them some
questions for my article. They agreed and we all sat down. As I asked my
questions, everyone left except for one senior lady, the group of 5, and the
preacher who walked in and out of the room and sat down at one point and
watched me. But it was clear from the look on this guy’s face that he was right
pissed off with me.
First I told them about my
article and the finer details of what it was about, and then I started my
questions.
First I mentioned that it
is supper unusual to see this many young men in a church so small. I asked them
why they picked this church. The reply was typical of that I have heard at
other churches. According to them it has
god’s love, gives them strength, and preaches the true message.
Then I addressed the young
fellow with 2 broken fingers and asked him why he started coming here. He told
me that he was a very messed-up kid and that his father started bringing him to
a Pentecostal church. He at one point moved to the city with his mother and
then just found another nearby. There was a young fellow that raised his
hand and mad an extra comment, saying
that if you don’t show up to church the pastor calls you up and checks on you
and sees what’s going on. Despite the terrified
look on my face he assures me that it is a “good thing” and that the
pastor is a “good Sheppard” I was also told that they feel like their
relationships in the church have more meaning and value then ones outside of
it.
The last question I had
for them was a good one. I asked them what do they do for fun. (Considering
they are restricted from doing EVERYTHING!)
And the one young fellow pipes on the end and says “we EAT!!!!” And then the group laughs. But they did tell
me that they want to do activities that “are not sinful and glorify god” so apparently that includes go-carting, talent
shows, karaoke, board games and they all apparently play in a band and jam
together.
I went home after all this
and tried to get some house work done. But I couldn’t.
I was thinking about what I
saw today and as the minutes and hours when on it was bothering me to the point
where I needed to do something. So a called up my good friend and pastor. I read
off to him everything I saw and witnessed today. And then I pulled out the pamphlets
they gave me. Then I mentioned this one.
.jpg)
He asked me to open it and read form
it, at one point he stopped me and said “Alanna, you didn’t find a church, what
you found was a cult!”
Yep. That’s how I felt.
The crazier part is that he
recommended talking to a friend of his that was deep into this cult and left! That
interview was intense. Keep an eye open for the post!
Ps. apparently this place
may be called Grace Pentecostal Church, but that is not what they stamped on
the back of their pamphlets…
.jpg)
Weird hey?
No comments:
Post a Comment