As most of you know, I use public transportation to get to all of my churches, (plus occasional car-pooling), and this church is within easy access of the LRT line.
So when I came in, I was greeted immediately. Everyone was very friendly and interested in what I had to say and what I was doing there. I met the leadership, and I was quickly whisked around the building and given a comprehensive tour. And of coarse the first room I was shown was the nursery/mothers area. It was a room sectioned off all by itself, with a bunch of kids playing with lots of toys, and even further back was a separate changing/nursing room. I noticed the TV in the children's area and I was told that the sermon was broadcasted into the children's area for any parents that may need to stay there during the service, which I thought was a smart idea.
But if any of you know me, you know that this was a less-than-comfortable experience for me (touring of the children's area and "meeting the kids" that is....).
That's like a person with a fear of spiders, walking into a museum, meeting the friendly and enthusiastic curator that tells you she is honoured to have you there, and then immediately saying "You really must see our new exhibit on tarantulas! It's one of our crowning gems!", and then being taken by the hand and ushered into the exhibit, while trying not to lose your composure.
Needless to say, I survived it. It was very uncomfortable.
I don't blame her in any way, there is no way she would have known.
I feel that this church has really tried it's best to be accommodating. Besides the children's/mothers area, they had barrier-free washrooms, a side kitchen, caffeine bar, among other things.
Random side note:
A large donation of 100 lbs of potatoes were donated to the church, and everyone got a load of free potatoes at the end of the service. Mine are currently in my fridge (soon to be french fries ;).
The main room where the service was being held kind of threw me back. It was pretty low-lit and fully set up to accommodate the band. (P.S. the whole "Fire Fall" this was from a conference they had, and they had just not taken it down yet).
As for the demographics of this place, there was roughly three dozen people, in their 20's-30's and a few people beyond that. 50/50 gender ratio. Despite being mostly caucasian, there were some First Nations people and African-Canadians at the service.
As you can imagine the worship started with the band kicking into high gear. People in this church express themselves in a variety of manners; some people people put their hand to the sky in praise, some sit quietly with their head bowed, others go to the front and start jumping and dancing in front of the band, and some feel it right to fall to their knees and bow their head to the ground. All of the above are considered acceptable here.
I asked afterwords that if there are cases of speaking in tongues that occur here. The church leader told me that it happens on occasion. One thing I am really hoping for while doing this project is to actually witness a person break out into tongue-speak, but it is rare. Hopefully I will be so lucky as to see it in one of the next 47 churches.
One of the songs in the worship was At Your Name, which is one of my faves. Partly because it gives you an excuse to jump around.
I find this all so interesting because when I was in NYC, part of my studies centered around the idea of "what is God's name"? This was part of the teaching we received from our Jewish faith leaders. They referred to the part of the bible where Moses encounters the burning bush and he is instructed to go to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to free the Israelite's. (back in those days everyone declared things in the name of their god). So Moses asked Gods name. He got two answers: the first was the well known "I am what I am". That is short for "I am not telling you", which is something pretty bold. Considering that it used to be believed that God(s) could be literately "invoked and controlled" if you called their name, Moses learned quick that this wasn't gonna work with this one. But he got a second name too: YHWH. But you can't pronounce it, and yet you say it constantly every day of your life. Follow the link for the rest of the explanation.
Breathing the name of God.
One of Rabiis teaching my group said that he suspects that when Moses approached Pharaoh and asked in whose name do you declare this?, Moses likely let out a long, loud and clear breath. Just image that going down for a second. I am not sure about you, but if I was Pharaoh, I would have been deeply intimidated, when the very force of life itself has told you to step-off.
I also found the violinist in the band a refreshing touch. However, this is not the first violinist I have seen preforming with a worship team.
One of the church members came up to give some of his personal stories and reflections. This was mainly based around his father death and his choice "to get right" with his remaining family members. He told us how he and his family had come from a Catholic background and then came to find God and love Christ in a new way. He said a lot, but there were two things he said that I found very profound:
#1. "People lie al lot at funerals. And I really don't like them."
So luckily, I have not attended many funerals yet at this point in my life, but that was kind of a shocker for me. He said that people will say a lot of things, but they didn't really go visit that person very much, nor were they close with them. etc. I think the point of this is that we need to reflect ourselves and how we keep our relationships with those we care about.
#2. "....He was Catholic but had not come to Christ yet."
Thank-you.......
THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU! THANK-YOU!!!!!!!
Finally some one acknowledged this!!! I once had a friend say that there is a difference between being religious and being spiritual. And there are many people in this world which are spiritual but not religious. But I think the less talked about are the religious but not spiritual. People that are literately so wrapped up in the procedure and practices of their religion, that they forget what is really the most important point. Having a relationship with God. and actually coming to embrace the salvation Christ brought us! And building the bridge with your heart and soul, that brings you closer to the almighty! Kind of ironic eh?
Today's service was very "quotable". Here are a few Gems for you:
"The grace of God does not over-look sin, it gives you the power to overcome it."
"The refugees are coming and I am not panicking! Our job is to LOVE people into the kingdom!"
"We can't be Christians that are like ostriches with our head's in the sand!"
"What is the end game? The end game is to fill heaven, and plunder hell!"
"God will honour you, but he expects you to honour him back!"
"God does not hold your past life ransom! Forcing someone to pay for their sins is witchcraft!"
And of course with talking about the world falling apart and refugees, we ended on the topic of the prime minister. We were told to pray for him and all of our leadership, as the bible taught us that we should. That didn't surprise me.
But what did was the fact that he is a professing Christian, and he took an Alpha course!
Here is the link to the artificial on him doing the course and his faith:
Justin Trudeau's Christian Faith
And here is a link to the official web-sight for the Alpha course:
Alpha Course
"we need to stay vigilant and informed so we know how to pray."
"I am not a Liberal, but pray for him!"
One of the big topics that was talked about today was the end of the world. Which was kind of uncomfortable for me. "I don't want to be an sensationalist" he remarked. He pointed out that a lot of the thing happening in the world are symptoms of the "end time" He also acknowledged that the idea that the end time will be "soon" is something that people have been throwing out there for forever. He brought up 1 Thessalonians 5:2
"For you know quite well that the day of the Lord's return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night." NLT.
Therefore we must remain vigilant and ready at all times. He reminded the room that the Bible says that in these time we should not panic. And that our focus should be to step up and love people into Gods kingdom.
He also gave his thoughts on the famous "Weeping and gnashing of teeth" line. In his mind, the rejection of God, and living without God, is a hell-filled life.
I think it is well put.
After all this they took the time to have people come up to the room that needed praying for so they could lay hands on them. What surprised me was that after they were finished praying for them, they started gently falling them to the ground and allowing them to just lay there for however long they needed. They also had a pile of personal sized blankets ready to cover each of them with. One of the young men that was prayed for and laid to the ground, had a noticeable medical disorder to do with his spine. He said that after he got up that something surprising happened when he fell. He said when he was under the blanket that "I did get warm, I got hot!". He explained that his back is almost always in pain or stiff when he walks, but now he feels fine!
"I didn't ask for healing, but my back is no longer stiff!"
On a final note I would like to just say how comparably guy-friendly this church is. I really think they have done a good job making this environment comfortable and inclusive for men, without going to the extent of alienating the women (I have actually seen that before.)
And pulling that off is hard.
Bravo to you River City!
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