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:
- No one is perfect – Romans 3:23
- Some have unrealistic expectations.
- 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:
- Congregation
- Friendliness (.5/1)
- Message
- Topic Interest (.6/1)
- Inspirational/Educational Value (.6/1)
- Clarity (1/1)
- Applicability (1/1)
- Worship
- Content (.6/1)
- Audience Participation (.8/1)
- Outreach
- Community Involvement (.9/1)
- Variety of Activities (.9/1)
- Information
- Accessibility (.7/1)
Total = 7.6
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