Church # 19. Evangelical Fellowship Church. Jun 15, 2014.

So last we spoke I mentioned that church I found on the way home from the  grocery store. Ps.  This thing totally doesn’t show up on Google maps or anything. I took a quick glance and noticed that the service was at 10:30 so that gave me all I needed to know.

I was a quick walk from my house as most of the churches I have been going to  are. As I walked into the entry way I saw that another service was just getting out,  it appeared to be of the same demographic mix of people as the service going in. ( don’t quote me on this, but I think the earlier service was in German) . It was filled with mostly people of the retirement age and I was getting a lot of weird look like usual with people wondering what the heck I was doing there. 

I felt the need to get away from the crowd so I moved off to a back corner where I found an elderly man aprox 80 years old.  I we sat down and had a nice conversation ( one of the sweetest old men I will ever meet) he mentioned how things have become hard at  his age  and then told me that in the bible it tells us that there will be coming years in our lives where living is hard. I haven’t found that part yet. But ill believe the guy.

A lot of the seniors in the church are normally the first ones to greet me, which has been the norm at almost every church I have been to. Then they ask me if I had been here before? And that of cores results in me telling them about my little project. Most of them are deeply shocked and confused and say”that’s nice” and simply scurry off.

I had another one of those today, but this time when I told her about my project she reacted with “ but you should not be going around to other denominations because some of them do not act like PROPER Christians.” My only thoughts on this were REALLY??? REALLY???  YOUR ONE OF THOSE??? . God help us all! 

This was one of those “bare churches” as they call them. Not much had changed in it. Epically not the seating, which was still rocking the pea-soup green upholstery. Classy :P

 Despite the out-dated colour,  they were some of this most comfy  pews I have ever sat in. There was also little “reserved” singes on some of the pews. Why they are reserved? I have no idea? For the elderly? For all those people with children ?  For the people sneaking in last min hoping on one noticed? I digress. 

I counted about 50 heads mostly of people over the retirement age, with maybe 6 people in their late teen s early 20’s.  There was no children at this service. I the pastor was your average middle aged whit guy who bore a resemblance to Don Cherry. I the one thing I can be sure about this guy is that he knows how to conduct cause even without thinking he was waving his hand away as we sang the  first few songs. 

This service  was odd in the fact that at no point was a section of scripture  taken out and discussed and analyzed. It was just along rant from the pastor trying to address “ hot button issues”  with the modern church, while actually doing nothing to address them. Spoken like a true politician. So all I have for ya at the moment is a long list of quotes that I was able to jot-down in the time I had. 

-“ people are tired of conflict”

-“everyone’s personal gifts are important”

-“you cannot buy your salvation”

-“allowing or not allowing speaking with tongs and ticks.”

- “False Religions are the ones that deny Christ is God.”

…………I’m not going to get into this. However I would love to see the look on their faces when all the richly tolerant Buddhists agree with them. Hahahahahah! * Please see my article on the Tao Buddhist temple to more fully understand the joke. 

-“to help the church stay on track, avoid false teachings”

- “the church has to be careful on the matters of morality” 

The one interesting fact that I got out of this was the answer to why the Greek-Orthodox church split off of the Catholics.  Apparently it was all over the question, “who sends the holly spirit”? Pretty silly little thing to have the entire church split over, but apparently it was a big issue at the time. 

Communion was offered but I decided not to take it, it just didn’t feel right. It was done in an odd manner thou.  There was groups of people that came up, about 15 people at a time, stood in a half circle and had the bread and wine distributed to them. (Apparently at this church there is an option of wine or grape juice) . And then the pastor would say a prayer to each group, but I noticed that he did not repeat the same prayer for all 4 groups.  Each was different. Interesting. Side-note: one of the guy in the half circle was backing up and not looking where he was going, and almost feel over an artificial tree. 

Just as I was getting up to go, I got Into conversation with a middle aged women who I told about my project who swiftly moved me across the church  to meet with the other 12 or so of college aged kids there. So I did as I always do, I get in front of them and explain my project. I this 5 min of each of my adventures fills the gap that contains the best and worst part of my Sundays. The best part is that moment when I talk about my 100 churches and how I got into all this. The crowd  is interested and listening and I’m happy.  And then the moment comes that shitty when I tell them I am also a Universalist and I am also going to 10 different places that are not churches.  That’s the moment when half of the crowd losses eye contact with me and leaves. Sad moments be Sad. 

I would like to take one last word to mention the pastor. I had this feeling as a watched and listened to him that he had some kind of a weight on his shoulders. Something was bothering him. One thing I noticed in his speeches is that even thou he was sitting in front of a very conservative crowd that he was at least fair and balanced in presentation and opinion.

 I mentioned this to one of the other you people there and mentioned that even for being a right wing church at least they were not “scary”. Then the girls eye’s open wide  and said “ there has been moments where it actually gets pretty scary.” ………..i  did not know how to respond to that. This girl also asked me what I thought of their church. I summed that up in one word “Conservative”. She is also one of the ones that got seriously pissed at me when I said that I was going to more than just churches. She even got upset and almost yelled at me at one point. Whatever. I will find a better place next Sunday.

Church #17. Knox Evangelical Free Church

So this would be my  2nd Knox church that I have gone to, the first one was pretty impressive and the second one did not disappoint!

 This was probably one of the most round churches I have been in it was almost theater like, if one could imagine the globe theater that Shakespeare’s works preformed in. I took many Photos. So this one had a balcony. 

and this really cool domed roof.

I also snuck up to the front and got a view from the alter.

I had a feeling this would be a good service right from the get go, epically when i was given the information pan-flit for the service and this was on the front cover.

( apparently some famous piece of graffiti art  done by Banksy Fan) 




So I did my count and there was about 50 people in the mostly of the 50+ age range however I did notice a trend of  allot of parent and child groups. Ex. 50 year old lady there with her 70 year old mother etc. It was a very “spring” themed service and we were told at the start of the service that we “hope that you have come here to grow!”
 The service started out with singing and then prayer requests. Most of them do them a bit latter in the service, but guess this place runs on a different schedule. I actually took up the microphone along with 5 other people that morning that knew someone in their lives that needs "lifting up" as they say. Let’s just say I have a friend that real needed praying for that day.  And then after everyone publicly stood up and made their requests then they sat down as the pastor ( who must have been taking notes) led the prayer and addressed all the individuals mentioned and prayed for their specific needs. 
I also noted a young east-Indian fellow just a s few pews over from me with his head down reading his bible and chowing-down a sandwich at the same time.  Gotta get your breakfast :P

This pastor that we had to day was quite well written. He had some good quotes such as "as Iron sharpens Iron"-Proverbs and things like "god is my judge" which is  the meaning of the name Daniel. That made a lot of sense because the daily bible story was from the book of Daniel. He also threw in "Gods not Dead" PS. good movie! I totally recommend it! 

So as i mentioned today's lesson was from the book of Daniel. So when most of you think of the book of Daniel you probably think of this. 

Let’s just say the story we got today was a bit less “kid friendly" . The part of Daniel we read had to do with a king who had conquered the Holly city of Israel, taken all the goods out of the Jewish god’s temple and brought them to the palace. He was throwing big dinner party to celebrate his victory of the holly city and decided he wanted to impress his guests so he brings out this vessel of some sort that were form the holly Jewish temple, fills it full of wine and passes it down the table for people to make a toast to their pagan gods. You just know by the sound of this that it can't end well, So after this happens suddenly a disembodied hand (and yes there is a reason why it was a disembodied hand) magically appears and writes a elaborate and cryptic message on the wall. So the dinner guests are all in shock and the king turns white and almost passes out. 

But first I have to explain why god would use a disembodied limb to help get his message across. This King had a way of counting how many enemy soldiers he killed, and that process involved sending people out with a sword and a bag to collect one hand off of each enemy solider so they could get an accurate count. So when god decided to this visual to send his message he wanted this king to know that it was directly from the god of the enemy that he just killed. 

So the writing on the wall and a bunch of the men try to run over and read it but it has been written in some cryptic form and none of them are sure how to figure it out. Then the kings mother comes out and suggest they summon a man that used to be a very famous intellectual and at one time worked for the king. Daniel. So they find this man and bring him in and the king tells him that if he can read the inscription he will give him power and gold and a purple robe etc. Dan makes it clear that he has no interest in talking payment for his helping the king. He takes a moment and then reads off the inscription when basically says that the king has committed a great sin by worshiping foreign gods with the use of his holy objects and as punishment he will lose his kingdom. Despite the harsh news the king orders David to be loaded with his rewards and then sets off to ponder his situation. But it was too little too late. The king got assassinated that night.

Then there was a prayer for god to remove the pride from our hearts so it does not lead us astray. 

After that i encountered something very different. The Church lead went on to suddenly start talking about WWII battlefield strategy and the French army. But even this had meaning! LOL
I just have to say, there was some amazing old art in this church. One piece that of which I have seen a few times before but never bothered to ask about. It looks something like this. 

Apparently it is based off a quote in revelations which says “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.”. Referring to gods sprit entering into a persons heart.
That glass panel was replaced, but there were some older ones up to that were not, and frankly, despite the damage, they look amazing.

Over all, a good Sunday. Ps. found another Church in my neighborhood that i didn't even know was there! It's amazing what happens when you take a slightly different path home from the grocery store! I might hit that one next. Until next time, Peace be with you!