Owensboro Church of Christ (Church of Christ)

I’m up-dating these periodically when I get a chance during the weekend to sneak off to a church of my choosing, so for future reference, there won't be any rhyme or reason to these postings.  I'll just get to them whenever I can.  

This weekend, I was able to go to the Owensboro Church of Christ in Owensboro, Ky.  Those familiar with Owensboro would recognize it as one of the three or four churches alongside highway 60 next to the jail.  It’s fairly indistinguishable, but I selected it because I have a small familiarity with the Church of Christ, as a denomination, and it peaked my curiosity.

So, the Church of Christ denomination, for all intents and purposes, is a version of conservative Christianity that’s not unlike the Southern Baptist tradition I grew up with.  In reality, there’s only about three differences worth mentioning between Southern Baptist beliefs and the Church of Christ.  First, they reject the doctrine of “once saved; always saved”.  I had this explained to me by a deacon who made the casual remark:  “oh, we don’t believe that once saved is always saved – we believe that you can willingly choose to fall away from God.  But, honestly, who would do that kind of thing?”  Obviously, I had to play my tact in response:  “you would be surprised”.  Secondly, they believe that Baptism is a necessary component for salvation.  Whereas many Christian denominations believe Baptism to be the outward symbolic representation of your choice to be “saved”, Church of Christ folks believe that it’s a necessary step.  The deacon I spoke with explained it by using an analogy:  “it’s like saying you’re going to Atlanta, but you stop just short of the city limits, turn back around, but still mention to people you went to Atlanta – you didn’t because you didn’t follow the path all the way.”  Of course, I had no real contention there.  Baptism is really just an interpretative piece of dogma that all faiths can banter between themselves.  Lastly, Church of Christ congregations normally eschew the use of organs and pianos, hence all the hymnals we sang were acapella.

It’s been so long since I’ve written a “traditional” entry I’ve forgotten almost how to begin.  I pulled up to the parking lot about fifteen minutes before the service was to begin.  This church was surprisingly big on the outside, and quite roomy on the inside as well.  As soon as I walked in, I approached the first two people I saw (they were behind a counter – they seemed important).  They introduced me to another gentlemen who gave me a kiss.  A Hershey’s kiss.  I have to say – it was the first time I was offered chocolate in church.  That’s always a plus. 

During a conversation with one of the deacons, I was asked a little about my spirituality and my background.  This is actually a question I get asked by readers as well:  “what do you say when they start asking questions about you?”  Well, I respond with the truth:  I’m visiting your church.  I was raised Southern Baptist.  I am very interested in different churches and what they teach.  That’s usually a satisfactory response.  Never once have I been asked if I was saved.  I almost thought I was going to be asked that here, though.  If I had been, I would’ve responded ‘yes’ because I technically was ‘saved’ – good old Southern Baptist doctrine teaches I still have a nice, cushy spot in Heaven (once saved; always saved).  At least I don’t have to lie, huh?

Once inside the church, I took a seat and looked around.  The church sanctuary was quite big.  The inside was an inverted V-shaped with the point of the V being the roof.  It probably seated about 200 people and it would be safe to say that nearly 175 were there, so we were bumping shoulders.  There were dark pink and white stained glass windows that projected a light pink hue onto the crowd.  The front altar had a podium, a few chairs for those leading the worship to sit in, and a baptismal that was closed off.  One thing that was really out of place:  the PowerPoint presentation.  They don’t eschew all technology, but it was interesting to be in a church service that used no musical instruments, yet they happily embraced PowerPoint.  The congregants themselves were from all walks of life.  I saw people there in suits and ties, I saw folks who dressed in tropical shirts.  It was a mix of Sunday best and casual.  Older folks, younger folks, teens, middle aged adults – everyone was pretty much equally represented.  You can tell that, looking at their congregation, they’re a growing church with a future, especially with the number of younger folks they had.  They were all spread out, but there seemed to be a good number of teens and young adults.

As I was seated, a gentleman introduced himself as one of the deacons of the church.  He and spoke for about ten minutes where I picked up most of the doctrinal differences, and he gave me a bit of history on the church as well, and gave me a bulletin as well.  Historically, the Owensboro Church of Christ was opened in the 1950s and was a split group.  Apparently, there’s a “liberal” branch of the Church of Christ and a “conservative” branch.  I chose the liberal branch that day.  Now, we use the term “liberal” in very loose terms.  They’re still Bible-believing literalists.  They aren’t, however, what they themselves call “anti’s”.  Anti’s, according to the gentleman I spoke with, are the Church of Christ folks who are hardcore anti-everything in their approach.  They’re the outspoken fundamentalists that one would associated with the Church of Christ denomination.  These guys, while they proselytize, prefer to keep to themselves relative to their counter-parts.  Again, I’m speaking in terms of relative activism.

So, the church service began and I took my seat.  They began with their announcements.  Apparently they had a “friend day” coming up where they challenged everyone to bring a friend to church.  They get points for activism on that front.  They also had some youth meetings to announce, as well as a few long-term issues they discussed.  Normally I touch on the outreach at the end of the blog, but I’ll go ahead and say that this church, for its size, has a decent amount of outreach programs.  It’s not the highest member to outreach opportunity ratio I’ve seen, but it was adequate enough.

We sang quite a few of the old-time hymns, most of which I knew and, for shits and giggles, joined in with (mostly out of nostalgia).  Some of the hymns:  “Come, Now is the Time to Worship, To God Be the Glory, The Old Rugged Cross, Jesus Loves the Little Children, and Amazing Grace.”  That’s about as down-home and southern as you can get.  A point to recognize on the singing and the acoustics:  one notices this quite often when one visits numerous churches, but usually when there’s a piano or organ playing, it’s more likely individuals are more restrained in their singing because the instruments can drowned it out.  Not here, though.  The lack of instruments actually provided an incentive to sing.  If you didn’t sing, it appeared to be quite awkward, and while not everyone belted out the lyrics as hard as they could, there was a forcefulness that has been absent in a lot of my other church visits.

On the topic of music, the high point of the service was their rendition of The Greatest Commandments.  If I’ve ever heard this song, it’s been ages.  What they did, though, was absolutely beautiful.  As a kid, I’m sure we all remember singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” in a manner where one person starts, sings a verse, then begins again, only to have another person pick up a little after, creating a melody.  Imagine this song having four different, yet repeatable verses – one for altos, one for sopranos, one for tenors, and one for bass.  One would sing…then another would pick their respective verse and join in with the original verse…then another would join in…and we would all build on that until you had four different verses being sung at the same time, all different, but all working together beautifully and harmoniously.  I was impressed and I really wish I had recorded it.  One may be able to find a similar version on YouTube, but this song really made my day.  If I was spiritual, it would have been the perfect song to worship to if I had been seeking serenity.

We had a Lord’s Supper consisting of the little crackers and grape juice.  I refrained out of respect, but one difference between how I was raised and how these guys do things:  they pray first, then distribute the goods and eat them as receive them.  A minor detail, but one I found interesting.

We come now to the actual message.  The actual message was one that I would call a combination of good old fashioned southern preaching with a modern twist.  It reminded me more of the message I heard in Newburg at Crossroads – it was a secular subject approached from a Biblical standpoint.  These guys, though, aren’t afraid to mention the devil.  This is the second church out of about five or six that actually mention Satan, so they’re old school in that particular belief.  The preacher also spoke of Adam and Eve, King David, and Peter as real and literal people, and didn’t pretend to use any type of allegory in his words.  Again, they’re old school.

Anyway, what makes this review quite easy is the accessibility of the sermon notes.  This church, to their credit, prints the sermon notes on the back of the bulletin, so all I have to do is copy it.  The title is called:  Relationship Lessons:  Cleaning Out the Attic of the Past

Your Attic – Everyone has an attic in which the pats is stored.  It’s a place where emotionally charged relics live under sheets and in boxes, tucked away in the corners of our minds.  Those memories of when we failed other and when others failed us still haunt and accuse.  The problems we encountered as children and still confront us as adults.  Today, many people are imprisoned by the attics of their past and need to break free.  Your spouse, your best friend, one of your children, or someone else significant in your life needs help in cleaning out the attic of their past and live positive, productive lives.  Too many have allowed the pain of the past to damage the way they see themselves, the way they handle life today, and the way in which they allow God to use their lives for His glory.  I have learned that we cannot change the past, but we can lessen the influence and negative control it has on our lives.

A Few Foundational Principles:  Let’s establish the following ideas:

1. No one is perfect – Romans 3:23
2. Some have unrealistic expectations.
3. Insecurity is real.

Cleaning Out the Past and Moving Forward – Think for a moment of an important relationship in which past sins and failures sometimes get in the way.  You want this relationship to be healty and joyful.  You don’t want past problems to rob your present joy and happiness.  What do you think God would tell you to do in order to help someone clean out their attack (sic) and start anew again”?

1.  Allow the individual to start writing a new chapter in life – Philippians 3:13

2.  Remember that God is not finished with them regardless of their past – Philippians 1:6

3.  Stop counting and start forgiving – Matthew 18:21-22

4:  Don’t forget that God forgets – Hebrews 8:12

This sermon was so easy to follow that, even the few real questions I had, this preacher addressed.  For example:  the fourth point which states that “God forgets”, I made a note that it was an obvious argument against his omniscience.  He responded as I was writing it down (rather eerily) that “some would say that this is an argument against God being omniscient.  That’s not true.  God does not forget in that he has a human capacity to forget – he just does not hold your sin against you.”  Scratch that criticism.  The only other criticism I had was his insistence that we keep “watch” over our thoughts.  He clearly hinted in a way that we unbelievers would hear differently from believers:  “guarding your thoughts so they may not lead you astray”.  For theists, this equates to mental purity; for atheists, we hear mental restriction.  Aside from those criticisms, even I as an atheist can appreciate the general gist behind this sermon.  The importance of practicing forgiveness and letting go of the past is a general nugget of virtue that’s applicable to anyone, believer or not.

I have to admit, there were grammar mistakes in those sermon notes, but they made it easy to follow.  The preacher also had the notes posted up on the PowerPoint as well.  This was probably one of the better messages I heard because, well…it’s what I was used to growing up.  I have a soft spot for similarities to Southern Baptist methods of worship, as annoying as I’ve found it at times.  As for the preacher himself, he was passionate, entertaining, and he spoke well.  He’s obviously been doing this quite a long time.  He was a bit older – probably in his 50s or 60s, but he spoke like a younger man excited by what he’s been “called” to do.

After the sermon, we sang our last song (Amazing Grace), and I darted out as fast as I could because I had another place I had to be.  I had the opportunity to shake hands with the preacher before I left; he struck me as a nice, warm, friendly guy.  I congratulated him on a job well done (out of respect), and he automatically pinned me as new.  He hoped I would come back and thanked me for my visit. 

Overall, this was a fun church and unlike most of my visits, this was not quite what I expected it to be.  I expected a smaller, empty church with loads of spaces in the pews because the congregation is old and dying.  Not so.  My criticisms are few.  I wish there was more of a welcoming committee.  I did look a little out of place, but I get the impression that all of these folks are regulars and they know each other, hence it was easy for the deacon to spot me as newcomer.  Not everyone was as friendly as the other churches I went to as well.  They weren’t cold and indifferent like the Catholic Church, but neither did they go out of their way like the United Church of Christ or the Unitarian Universalist guys did.  Information-wise, they have EVERYTHING printed out on the bulletin, so there's no confusion on what they don't have.  Here’s the breakdown of the final score:

1. Congregation
1. Friendliness (.5/1)
2. Message
1. Topic Interest (.6/1)
2. Inspirational/Educational Value (.6/1)
3. Clarity (1/1)
4. Applicability (1/1)
3. Worship
1. Content (.6/1)
2. Audience Participation (.8/1)
4. Outreach
1. Community Involvement (.9/1)
2. Variety of Activities (.9/1)
5. Information
1. Accessibility (.7/1)

Total = 7.6

1st Annual Kentucky Freethought Convention (Atheist/Secular/Humanist/Freethinker)

I haven’t been able to put forward an entry in this blog for quite a while due to my involvement with the UU church, as well as making special trips to try and promote the Owensboro Freethinkers.  However, this week, I decided to place my experiences at the Kentucky Freethought Convention within this blog, though of course I do it with scrutinity.  No, this wasn’t a church per se, but we were a gathering of folks who take a position on certain philosophical and theological questions, so, to me, a gathering of non-believers – that being the strongest thread that binds us (there were deists there as well) – I find it fit to place the experiences in here.  If that justification doesn’t fly with some folks, as I completely understand that it may not, then we will settle on the fact that it’s my blog, and I’ll do what I damn well please.  That’s good enough for me, my friends.

So, a little about the convention for those who do not know.  The 1^st Annual Kentucky Freethought Convention (KFC) was a state-wide gathering of atheists, humanists, rationalists and, to use the all-inclusive term:  freethinkers.  We gathered for a day that was originally dedicated to include a virgin sacrifice and a baby-eating contest.  Since we couldn’t find a virgin (good luck finding a virgin on the U.K. campus) and those with babies had hid them away in the child-care that was provided, we simply settled for a schedule of highly educated and entertaining speakers that carried us throughout the day.  (That was a joke – most of my readers get it, but I put this disclaimer because I have some who really think we eat babies…)

In formulating how I wanted to put this together, I thought I would reflect on all the speakers, but I’ll only go into detail on a few.  I do this for one basic reason.  I was personally frustrated that more folks didn’t get up off their asses and make the effort to attend this rally.  I was the only one from the Owensboro Freethinkers that went, and the two other folks from the Evansville Freethinkers didn’t even live in Evansville.  That’s kind of pitiful.  Our freethought groups, of which I have readers from both the Evansville and Owensboro branches, can only survive and thrive by the interest of its people, their dedication to our shared principles, and their willingness to do something aside from just bitch about religion on a Facebook page.  I understand for some folks just couldn’t get away – the conference was made known in my circle like a week before it actually happened, so I had to shift some things around.  But there are some folks in my group, as well as in others that could have attended.  They wouldn’t have even had to pay for gas – one tank got me up there and back.  Hotel rooms divided between 2-4 people are cheap; I think I spent about $40 on this trip, including food (I stayed with a friend and her roommates).  So my job isn’t to report back to folks every detail that they missed.  The position of not knowing is the consequence of not going.  This doesn’t apply to everyone, but if you were in the position to go, you really, really missed out. 

But, on the positive side, there will be another next year (and I’ll probably go). 

The KFC, though, was one of the best, most enlightening, most entertaining, and most educational conferences I have been to.  Knowing that I could walk in and meet my fellow unbelievers – those who from all across the state have stories like mine, experiences like mine, groups like the one I started – it was uplifting, exhilarating, and thrilling!  I was reminded of a lot that I did know, but what I seek to gain from any type of conference – I was educated on what I didn’t know.  Here’s what I didn’t know that I do know now.  We are not alone.  We have representation all over the state.  There were about 125-150 people that attended this conference (it was hard to gauge because folks came and went as they pleased).  I met folks from Paducah and Madisonville – that’s on our side of the state, guys!  There were Louisville folks, Lexington folks; people from northern, eastern, western, and southern Kentucky attended.  This was encouraging.  While I was there, I was able to network with other groups, as well as put the word out about the Owensboro Freethinkers.  The only regret that I have concerns the fact that I was asked to be on a panel of local group leaders (can anyone say CV material?) but time ran out, so it fell through.  I did pimp our group out to those in the conference, and in doing so, met a couple of folks from our side of the state.

But, let’s go through what the actual conference looked like.  To do that, I have to take a step backwards to Friday.

I left Friday, drove up to Lexington (which I had never done before), and once there, attended a leadership meeting.  The conference was held at the ballroom in the Kentucky Center on the U.K. campus.  On Friday, there was a group of folks who went to the Creation Museum, but I declined to do so on two principles:  1) I can’t justify giving them my money to perpetuate ignorance, as small as my $20 would be; 2) as I was recommended to do, I would like to take a trip of Evansville/Owensboro people to see just how bad it really is.  I’ve heard horror stories on the internet, but to have people describe it in person is just as…disturbing.  We were shown pictures during one of the presentations, and you see them online, but you don’t get the commentary like we received at the convention.  I bowed out on the museum.

I did attend, though, a meeting that I would have loved to have seen some of the other leadership attend.  The leadership meeting was very educational.  I’m a very honest, blunt kind of guy, and I’ll go ahead and say that, speaking for my group, we’re running at about 30% capacity of what we could be doing.  We’ve done quite a few things right, but there’s quite a bit we’ve done that doesn’t work.  A few examples:  one person cannot lead the entire group, we don’t have any activities that engage the interests of people there, we’re not as personable as we can be, we don’t volunteer as often as we can be, and sometimes we seem like a bunch of folks just sitting around a table bitching about issues.  That has to stop if we want to grow and, as we all know, we evolve or go extinct.  I’m addressing it in my group (which will soon be “we” will address it – hearkening back to the first point I made) but there’s something to be learned here on everyone’s part.  The gentleman leading, Michael Werner (some of you guys may know him), gave us a PowerPoint presentation that, hopefully, I can pass along to the group leaders of all our organizations so we can start moving forward as freethinkers.  It was helpful to hear stories of both success and failure, because it places matters into perspective.  Our Owensboro Group, for example, is actually moderate size for a freethinking group, so that’s encouraging to know…and we’re growing.

After the meeting, I adjourned for some reflection over my notes, group reorganization, and hookah smoking with my friend’s roommates.  I conked out around 3:30 a.m. and woke up at 7:00 a.m. or so.

Back at the convention, I was given a nametag and met with my other guys I had arranged to get together with (out of decorum and habit, I won’t mention names).  I was amazed at how many people were there, how different walks of life were represented, and…as a side note…how many good looking freethinking women there were.  There’s hope for us to continue propagating our species with rationalists yet!

We sat through a general welcome, and the first speaker was probably one of the best.  Dr. James Krupa gave a presentation entitled “Evolution, Education, and Why Good Teaching Matters”.  Here, we received a plethora of information on the subject; not so much the science, but how the science relates to issues here in Kentucky.  We were educated on the Creation Museum, and we were told, through quite a few of Dr. Krupa’s anecdotes, the state of science education on the U.K. campus.  He was, like any of us freethinkers would be, dismayed at the hostility towards the established science.  He was gracious enough to display some of his teacher evaluations, which showcased a whole variety of opinions, with a huge emphasis on the negative ones.  What was so dismaying about the presentation concerned Dr. Krupa himself.  He goes out of his way to teach a basic course on biological evolution, and even after meticulously going over each and every matter that can accessible to freshman undergraduates, they still just don’t get it.  The disconnect is astoundingly frustrating, and while the world accepts evolution as fact, we’re the only nation with a huge problem concerning pushback from Christian fundamentalism, though he did allude to problems in other nations resulting from the same type of pushback.  Overall, I rather enjoyed his presentation, and as much anti-religious rhetoric as we heard (a moderate amount), I was there to be educated more on other issues that are peripheries to the nonreligious element of freethinking.  That mattered to me.

The next speaker, Edwin Kagan, was also excellent as well.  He discussed his experiences with Camp Quest and…that’s all I’m going to say about it specifically.  It was an inspiring story with its high and low points, but it also inspired me to seriously look into volunteering my time and efforts at a Camp Quest this summer.  I do have experience as a counselor…so it’s something to consider.  We have to invest in our young people.  Those who oppose freethinking ideas know it; we should be active in not indoctrinating our children, but to foster their curiosity, and to teach them to think critically.  We should teach them, as the old saying goes, not what to think, but how to think.

We then took a break, and came back to listen to Seth Andrews, the founder of The Thinking Atheist.  I’m not going to go into too much detail here as well, but his topic and story was much more personal.  He was quite entertaining (as it’s what he does), and this particular presentation seemed to be the turning point towards the discussion pertaining to religion and how it as affected all of us.  Seth Andrews does have a personal “testimony” (if I may borrow the language), as many of us do, but I believe it was him that asked “how many of you came from religious backgrounds?”  About 95% of the hands went up in the room.  In that moment of silence, that action spoke volumes.

We took our lunch break at an Ethiopian restaurant.  The food was good, I’ll plug it, though I completely forgot what it was called.  If you’re in Lexington, just look for it.  It’s right next to the U.K. campus.  At lunch, though, I was approached by one of the leaders of the convention who earlier noticed that I stood when all the leaders of groups were asked to do so for recognition.  She asked if I would be willing to serve on a panel, to which I essentially said “I don’t have much to contribute, but sure”.  We met with another gentleman from Louisville (I believe – it was central/eastern Kentucky), ate, “fellowshipped”, and returned back to the conference.

The next speaker, Gretchen Mann, gave us probably the most inspiring story of the afternoon.  She related her legal battles with “Gideon Proselytizing at Military Induction Centers”.  Very much a descriptive and narrative form of presentation, the end resulted with Gideons no longer given privileged access to new recruits.  I’m all for proselytizing in certain regards, but from all the stories and personal experiences I’ve had with the Gideons, they are trolls.  Sorry, for all Gideons reading.  You know your Bibles end up in the trash, on the floor, in lockers, toilets – you guys waste a ton of money for what can be done for free.  Trust me, the Bible is the easiest book in this country to obtain, and if I, as an atheist, were to shove secular literature in your face with your persistence, you wouldn’t be too pleased.  Empathy and understanding would allow you guys to relate and perceive where we unbelievers are coming from on this issue.  Gideons were real-life trolls long before internet trolling became popular.  Over all, a fine presentation, and it did elicit a reaction from me (as seen in my rant).

Annalise Fonza led the “What Difference Does a Story Make?: Why Ex-Pastors Should Speak Up for Atheism”.  Honestly, I thought this was one of the weaker presentations.  The story was interesting, but it’s one I’ve heard a lot.  She was an African American ex-Methodist minister (think about that one for a bit – first time I heard it, my response was: “does not compute”).  This is just my experience, and I’m sure those who aren’t familiar with the Clergy Project, or haven’t read stories on websites such as ExChristian.net would have received something from it more so than I did.

This sat up, though, a panel of former ministers.  While the names I don’t have (nor would you be particularly interested in), the panel included a Southern Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist (Annalise Fonza), a Church of Christ (kind of), and…I can’t remember the other one.  It terms of specifics, it does not matter, but the key point of this panel was to give a representation of all different types of faiths we are likely to find in Kentucky.  All of their stories (save the Catholic who was a bit long-winded in my opinion) were quite interesting.  One of the gentlemen was kicked out of Seminary the day before his finals when he was found out as an atheist; one gentlemen just didn’t tell anyone; another was estranged from his family to a degree.  The panel represented a good cross-section of personal stories.

The last speaker, Dr. Will Gervaise, was another highlight of the convention.  His presentation, “The Varieties of Nonreligious Experience: What Psychological Science Can Teach Us About Religious Disbelief” was very informative.  His presentation delved into the different factors – psychologically and culturally – that can determine what faculties one uses in their decision-making processes.  He compared the two lines of thought to the “Colbert Response” (modeled after Stephen Colbert who, as quoted, said he goes with his gut-feeling) and the “Descartes Response (modeled after Descartes, as one who acts on rational thought).  He cited experiments that showed the effects of such lines of though on society and he used his personal research as one who has studied religion from a cognitive and psychological perspective.  I’d love to go into great detail about his research, but there was quite a bit to it.  I touched on the high points, but the individual studies that he himself had conducted or had referenced were fascinating.  There were some classics (atheists are the least-trusted minority in the United States), but there were others as well, such as what types of situations elicit a “Colbert” or “Descartes” response.

At this point, instead of having our Group Leaders panel, we ran out of time, and were allowed to plug our groups.  Most of the leaders had left, so it was I and some of the central Kentucky leadership.  I hung around about ten minutes, then buggered off.  We finished around 5:00 p.m. Lexington time, and I was back in Owensboro around 9:00.

So, my overall reflections:  it was awesome!  I’m not going to rank this experience using the rubric that I constructed to measure other churches.  I understand the double standard I’m using here:  I wrote about the experience here using logic suggesting it fits the mold of other religious institutions, yet I don’t hold it to the same standard.  Well, I don’t feel I can.  The other churches I review, they have services every Sunday, they have members, and they have activities.  The comparisons are mostly superficial to me, as this group was just a once-a-year matter.

That being said, this was an excellent event.  It reminded me a bit of the old Promise Keepers meetings I used to attend as a kid – an inspirational type of gathering intended to join folks together with common values.  Granted, we didn’t worship anything, nor did we sing or dance (we were all sober), we did get a chance to meet and fellowship with other like-minded individuals. 

As an atheist, I spent so much of my time alone.  Now I know that Kentucky has other freethinkers.  We’re gathering, we’re growing, and we’re here to stay.  This conference is hopefully one of many that we’ll be attending, and it’s been a pleasure to be one of the many individuals at the forefront of the Kentucky Freethought Movement.