Light of the World

My first stop was definitely interesting. And uncomfortable. Both things I was looking for when I decided to do this.

The first thing that struck me about this church was how much of an effort the greeter at the front door made to make me feel welcome. I saw him when I was a good 50 yards away from the door and he was already smiling at me and waving. I'm sure his intentions were good, but it made it a little awkward. Once we shook hands and completed the long greeting, I made it into the sanctuary. I was struck by how dark it was (there were no windows?) and the absence of a cross. In every church I remember going to, there has been a cross prominently displayed at the front of the sanctuary, but not here. Strange.

Anyway, I was a little early, so I sat down and watched people trickle in. It was a weird thing to not have my usual group of people with whom I could sit and chat to before the service. I observed the groups of people: the families, the young married couples, the few righteous young men, the misfits. I was impressed with the amount of black people. It's a sad thing that Sunday mornings are the most segregated time of the week, but it's true. The church I've attended for the past 8 years has a very small handful of black people, which is sad to me. This congregation was about 1/5 or 1/6 black. The fact that that ration impressed me is sad, because it's still small, but it was more than I expected to see.

So, the service began with singing. Even though I don't know if I believe right now that there is a God who hears our praises, I sang the songs anyway. I've always loved to sing, plus I don't want to stick out too much. After each song, the worship band and some of the congregation would break out into what I think was maybe supposed to be speaking in tongues. To me, it just sounded like mumbling. It would only last for about 5 or 10 seconds at the end of each song and would be interspersed with "Alleluia" and "Praise you Jesus" and "Amen" and such. I just observed, trying not to look too wide-eyed. I noticed the people who weren't "speaking in tongues." They looked sort of uncomfortable, embarrassed, and maybe guilty. I can imagine that if I was attending a church where that was considered normal, and if I wasn't feeling the Holy Spirit prompting me to do that, I would feel bad and weird. I guess when I was a solid Christian, I was pretty open to the idea of pentecostal practices of faith: healing, speaking in tongues, worshipping in whatever way you needed to (falling to your knees, lifting your hands, whatever it took to make you feel closer to God), so I wasn't too taken aback with anything. It's just that now, from a kind of agnostic point of view, the speaking in tongues seemed to be phony, the lifting of hands was compulsory (the preacher even at one point told everyone to lift their hands... more on that.) and it all seemed to be part of a competition to look the holiest, or to fit into the definition of what constituted a good, holy person at this church.



Onto the sermon. The preacher was a little bit televangelist-y with his light gray suit and southern accent. I wouldn't have counted that against him, I just thought it was amusingly stereotypical. His preaching was ALL over the place. I couldn't follow his line of thought at all. After a long rampage on the evils of living wordly (smoking cigars, drinking alcohol, playing poker were actual examples used), he apologized for how chopped up his sermon had been, but not really: "I don't mean to get off on some of these things, but I'm following the Holy Ghost." Wow, blaming bad speaking skills on the Holy Spirit moving inside of him... I wouldn't be so cynical, but from my time as a Christian, I felt pretty positively sure that God isn't fighting against alcohol or poker or cigars the way that this guy seemed to think He was, so I couldn't trust that his message had any validation, so it was not from the Holy Spirit.

I was shocked and upset about the number of times that televangelist preacher put down other churches. I believe he made about 6 comments that implied that Light of the World was the best church around and that churches that didn't support speaking in tongues, healing, and other offbeat charismatic practices were heretical. The closed mindedness and certainty that their interpretation of the Bible was the only right interpretation was very bad.

Some quotes from the service that I jotted down:

"God doesn't want us to have long faces"- um, I thought that God delighted in a contrite heart and broken spirit? There's a lot to be honestly sad about, a lot to be broken about...

During the worship: "Make your arms like a funnel and draw in the presence of the Lord... if you need healing, let Him in. If you need financial miracles, ask Him for that." So if I don't put my hands in the air, God can't move into me? And financial miracles? Now you're sounding like Joel Osteen with his name it and claim it crap.

"A lot of churches don't know about the power of God and stuff." Well put.

"There are churches that have the spirit of the world in them more than the spirit of faith in them, and you have to be careful if you get too close to those churches."

"If you're wondering 'Can I look like the world, talk like the world, be like the world, and still be tight with Jesus?' the answer's 'No'." The Christian aversion to worldly things makes many of the hardcore, out in left field, true Bible-believing Christians bad politicians, bad teachers, bad writers... bad at giving back to the world in tangible ways because they're too caught up in another world. I'm seeing this from another side now.

"I don't want to go to a cool church- I want one that's on fire!"

"I've found that if a 6 year old can't do it, then it's not good for adults either." Um, what about sex?

My favorite (on the evils of drinking): "You're looking for a buzz and you're supposed to get your buzz from the Holy Ghost!" So, God's going to make me feel intoxicated and incoherent? Why would a God of wisdom and discernment do that?

So, that was Light of the World. A bit cooky, a bit intolerant of different walks of even Christian faith, often made me squirm in my seat. Definitely a kick-start to this journey.

(I didn't ask the preacher those questions I originally talked about because the service was about 2 hours long and I had to run... I may send an email.)