Last Sunday was a blast! Before the service when I was getting ready, I was getting a little nervous. You see, Antioch is a black church. Of course, it's not like the bulletin or the website says anything to indicate that, and obviously anyone who wants to come can come, but Antioch is one of the many, many churches that reflect the nature of Sunday morning segregation, just not from a side I'm not as used to...
In spite of my nerves, I drove my white self wearing my white dress in my little white car (haha- unintentional) to the north-eastern lower income neighborhood in my city that houses Antioch. From the minute I walked in, I was heartily greeted by several people. A woman who worked for the church set me up with a bag of church goodies and had my filling out a card (which I don't like to do, but she really didn't give me a choice!) and asked about me. She was very friendly.
Oh man! At the beginning of the service, the pastor welcomed visitors and asked us all to stand up. I thought "Oh noooo! Really? Really?" and reluctantly stood, but was so happily surprised by what came next. Suddenly, after a piano's 5 note cue, the entire congregation burst out in a gospel-style welcome song. It was perfect. There was so much rhythm in that song that I felt like dancing, but I thought that would make me feel even more white.
Last summer, I worked at a Children's Defense Fund Freedom School , which is pretty Afro-Centric. At the national training all the employees went to before the freedom school began, I was one of about 40 white people in a group of 2,000 trainees. Being a minority is not new to me. Anyway, I worked with a lot of adults and children who attended Antioch, so I expected to see some at the service. I did recognize a few, but not as many as I hoped I would see.
A little bit more about working with black Christians at Freedom School... I observed that the black church (as a generalization) puts more of an emphasis on social justice, poverty alleviation, universal health care than individual purity and piety. It seemed to me that my church focused more on saving people's souls than their earthly selves, while the black churches focused more on the opposite (but still both). Ooooh Wikipedia confirms: "When compared to American churches as a whole, black churches tend to focus more on social issues such as poverty, gang violence, drug use, prison ministries and racism. A study found that black Christians were more likely to have heard about health care reform from their pastors than were white Christians." I didn't hear much about needing to have quiet times daily or maintain a personal relationship with Jesus, but I had no doubt that my coworkers believed in God. They sprinkled his name in conversation unashamedly, but sometimes their lives didn't reflect what I had been taught about good Christians. Like I said, that is just my experience with black Christians and of course every individual is different. There are so many things both groups need to learn from each other. By the way, I love people of every ethnicity! Hope you can tell. Geez, why does discussing race make people so nervous?
Onto the service... praise and worship + greetings + communion= an hour! I'm used to an hour and 15 minute long church services, so I got a little worried when I realized an hour had gone by and we hadn't even started the sermon. But, I'm happy to say, the singing was super fun! Very stereotypical black church- choir dressed in nice black and white clothes (in fact, let me take this opportunity to say that, yes, everyone was dressed up- moreso than in other churches I've been to! I did see a few great hats!), amazing 6 part harmonies, clapping, swaying, lots of hallelujahs and amens. I would return to this church for the singing and the people.
The taking of the offering was, uh, different. First of all, I was handed collection envelopes before the service by two different people (I don't like the idea of visitors having to tithe... ). Secondly, there were really overt things about giving stated before the offering was taken, such as "I don't know why we think it's okay to put so much money into our flat screens and cars, but not give to church" and the choir singing a spirited song called "Blessings Running Over" containing the lyric: If you give to the Lord, He will give you more. Now I've seen this pastor outside of church. He drives a NICE,new car. He wears plenty of bling. Nice clothes. The way he pushes giving, I just don't know where his motives lie.
Once it was time for the offering to be collected, ushers didn't come to us; we came to them! When suit-laden ushers stood by a row, the people in that row had to procession on out of their pew and up to the front of the church where the offerings were being collected. I couldn't believe how much pressure this put on members (and visitors!) to give!! Everyone watching. Everyone having to go up to that collection plate. Wow! When it came my row's turn to give, I had no choice but to quickly grab one of my empty envelopes, walk to the front, shake 5 guys' hands (I forgot to mention that part), then put my $0 contribution in the plate. I didn't feel good about the sneakiness, but I was not about to go up there empty-handed.
Communion was also noteworthy, just because of the fact that these crazy all-in-one communion cups were used. The top layer of pink celophaney paper read: And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, "This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me." - Luke 22:19. Once you peeled that off, there was a thin wafer. Under the wafer, another piece of wrap paper, then the grape juice. Though these fun-size eucharist samplers seemed blatantly cheesy to me, the pastor took them very seriously; blessing them before they were passed out behind the cover of a held-up white sheet. I think a Catholic would have had a coronary.
The sermon was on Isaiah 53:5, or "the suffering servant" and it was actually given by a guest preacher. "If we're going to be like Him, we must be willing to suffer." "He was bruised for our iniquities. He didn't have non of his own." The material wasn't new, but I did think about the nature of suffering in a Christian perspective- or maybe outside a Christian perspective. I like, right now, not feeling like I need to suffer. I remember reading passages on suffering and feeling guilty for being too liked by my non-Christian friends, guilty for being too wealthy in comparison to people in poorer parts of the world, guilty for not being persecuted. It is comforting to believe in a savior who suffered, especially for people who are going through suffering and can give him their burdens. But to feel like you need to suffer? Especially if it's for nothing? But Christians feel it's worth what Jesus did for us, and if it's true that he did save us and whatnot, then, yes, it would be worth it. "He took our whooping- the whooping we deserved. He took it for us."Lastly, the thing that I HAVE to report on! This guest pastor, on a couple of occasions, went from talking (preaching) to singing... seamlessly. It so reminded me of the recurring SNL skit "What Up With That?" when the host of this show tries to talk and carry on with the show, but just can't help but break out into improvised song... Seriously, seriously made me laugh to myself because it was so much like that!
Two hours after arriving, I was exiting the aisle, saying goodbye to the nice people I met when the guest pastor came quickly towards me, embraced me in a full on hug, and said, "Hi sweetie!! So glad you could join us! See you next week?" Haha! I would, just for the music and the good atmosphere. But "next week" - or tomorrow- I'm going Episcopalian. Tune in for the next installment.
Good Antioch quote to end on: "With this material, I could be very lengthy... but you can help me along with your Amens!"
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