Church #64. Edmonton First Chruch of the Nazarene.

Hello and welcome back ladies and gentlemen! Today we go north! Which sounds strange when you live in one of the most northern cities on earth. But regardless we are on the NORTH end of the city today. As for this church today, I noticed two things immediately. #1. This church is almost entirely populated by seniors. Nice seniors. Friendly happy ones! And this service had roughly 60 of them.  And #2. This Church is the most white-walled octagonal room I have ever been in. Also.... the seating is much more limited than most churches. But in all  fairness, the chairs at this church are super comfy!

I also spotted an exceptionally nice guitar sitting on the stage. I may be the drummer. But I still can appreciate a nice guitar.

As some of you may know, occasionally I run into some memorable charters in my church adventures. I saw another one of these people today who was truly unforgettable.  He was in the row in front of me. It was a heavier set man, with slicked back white hair (somewhere near the senior age bracket). He was wearing white pants, a Hawaiian print shirt, a fanny pack, tinted safety glasses and a leather jacket covered in sponsorship logos one would see similar to a race-car driver. The most predominant of these had to be the large (RITZ*) logo in the center back of the jacket. Yes. Like the crackers.

Like Most churches I have been too, this Sunday service started in song. But I gotta throw out a piece of constructive criticism here. I like singing along to worship songs. I honestly do. But you need to slow it down. The band itself had no issue keeping with the quick pace with the songs, but the rest of us were struggling to keep up. Or just giving up.
Maybe because it was a room full of seniors and one crazy young blogger barely being kept alive by her cup of coffee? There was not a lot of singing participation with almost all of the songs. With the exception of the one slower song picked for a moment of quiet worship. Ironically it was during that song that everyone came together because they could actually keep up. But seriously....slow it down.

This Church also had something interesting I haven't seen before. A kneeling bar near the stage. Due to the fact that this church lacks traditional pews, there was no easy way to have kneeling benches in the seating area. So they put a free-standing one near the front.
Smart!

I am also gonna put this out there to start, the leader of this church is a FANTASTIC speaker! If you want a quality educated speaker to give you comprehensive lessons on scripture, and how to apply them to everyday life. This guy is your man. And for as much as I loved what this guy did today, I am not going to lie, the start is a little rough.

The Church leader started out by stating (almost in a joking way) that our faith and worship is valuable. And if there was "nothing on the other side"  our prayer would be pointless.  Now I have heard this before, from another high-quality speaker at the Catholic church I visited on Easter Sunday, and I let me pretty rattled.  That I am not sure what the first thought of the other people in the room was, but I then had to ask myself  "what if there is nothing on the other side?" I find this thought most disturbing.

I can't help but question if this kind of talk is really a good idea. On one hand, if this man's job is to grow my faith, this kind of talk is a very bad move. It is like taking a knife and running it down the center of my faith. Or on the other hand, if this man's job is to make my faith strong, then maybe exposing its weak points is necessary for growth. But all this remains to be seen.

The church leader started by leading the congregation in prayer. As part of the prayer, we confessed that we had followed other gods in the past ( the pursuit of money, material wealth, status, etc.) and that all of them have ultimately come up empty and unfulfilling.

After that was done. There were some quick awards handed out to church members and the children were dismissed.

The scripture focused on today was Mathew 6:25-34

Mathew 6:25-34 NIV

"Do Not Worry

25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^e ?

28“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

The church leader personally admitted to having a lot of personal struggles with this scripture. 

I can totally relate. I worry all day.... Every day. 

What I really loved about this lesson is that the leader literately took out major key words, and broke them down, to help give a full understanding of what this piece of scripture is telling us to do. 

I won't go over every word he did a break-down for, but I think the most significant one he analyzed was the word "Seek" .

In this case, the word "Seek" can be related to; desire, enquire, try to obtain, peruse, demand. He stated clearly that the command to "seek" is not a passive command but a very active one. He used the example of a parable in Luke 15, that tells the story of a poor woman that lost one of her only coins in her house. And how this woman feverishly turned the house upside-down looking for this lost coin. The church leader said he was also in a similar situation when he decided to start packing the night before his flight that was taking him out of the country to go study. And low and behold, he could not find his wallet. He was also turning the house upside-down in a state of desperation. One may also know the same feeling if you have ever lost a child in a shopping mall. He described this as what it means to "Seek". And that we should seek God's kingdom and righteousness with that kind of fever and focus in our hearts and minds. 

"Chase after that first!" 

 

Then there was also talk of what it looks like to peruse God's kingdom personally? This is when the " you can't serve both God and Money" thing came up. He also stated that "worry is tied to money and the heart", and that worry reveals a lack of faith.  Then explained the difference between belief and faith. And he used our chairs as an example. He asked us if any of us thought about the chair we sat in today? Did we question it or take a hard look at it before we sat down? Most likely not. Belief is thinking that the chair might hold you up, but you are not 100% sure. Faith is knowing without question that the chair is OK to sit in, and just simply sitting down.  

He also noted clearly, that a pagan is not an evil person. And that in fact many of them are very nice people. They just don't happen to know God.

A really interesting idea he brought up is that worry chokes out faithfulness, and he related this to Mathew 13-22.  This talks about the parable of the sower and the 4 types of ground that the seed falls on. He said we who are worried are the 3rd type of soil, which is the thorns. Relating to the faith that grows, but is choked out by its environment. 

All the church members here were exceptionally friendly and open-minded about my project and I fully appreciate the interest.  Over all, I had a good time and would recommend this church. 

Ps. Be ready for a surprise next week!