Explosive Worship
last night i accepted a friend's invitation to attend fellowship church's emergent service, which is held the first wednesday of every month. she told me that they play some great music and thought i would enjoy it. i myself don't have any reservations about going to a mega church. i have never had an experience to make me feel that way. my first experience with church was at a rather large church just outside of my home town, and the church i attended back home was quite large in relation to the size of the town. so i would venture to that i'm comfortable in a large church just as much as i am in a small church like the one i am now a member of.
fellowship church's website describes the monthly event as an explosive worship experience, and i would have to agree. the young pastor who spoke last night did a very good job of delivering his message. the music was just as the website describes. it was explosive. i found it very refreshing, mostly comprised of upbeat rock, and all songs that i have never heard. we also took part in communion. i really enjoy communion, but i must say that as they past around the trays of crackers and juice i couldn't help but think of a traditional baptist church and how i like my church's way of taken part in communion more. still, i was thankful for the reminder of what Christ sacrificed for me.
on a side note...while i was sitting up in the balcony i noticed two things. one was how many old people where there. i would have never guessed that so many people in there 60's and 70's would have come to a "rock show". i wonder if that was their first time and they didn't know what to expect, or if they attend the emergent service on a regular basis?
another thing i couldn't help but notice was the young twenty something guy sitting one row in front of me just off to my right. he kept looking over his left shoulder at one of the three attractive girls sitting next to me in my row. i know not everyone in the worship service was there to worship God. you have to expect that some people go just for the "meat market" atmosphere, but i would think that he would have made it a bit less obvious. or, maybe he wanted it to be obvious? if he did he should have smiled at least once while looking over his shoulder. possibly he wasn't smiling because the girl he was scoping out never looked at him. every time he looked back i just wanted to tell the guy that he needed go find his balls and walk up to the girl after the service and introduce himself. sadly, like most guys, even like me, he didn't.
posted by j-lay @ 8:17 AM
3 Comments:
you cheated on journey? i am shocked.
I think I'm suffering from cultural diffrences of understanding...I've only been to one 'Emergent church' and there are quite a few people over 50 who go. Here emergent is more like it's own denomination, it is very diffrent than other churches. It would be like saying 'the baptist church is having a penticostal service' (though that may happen where you are, I'm not sure). Sometimes they had liturgy, sometimes would just sing for the whole service, once they sat in silence for an hour, it was so powerful. Sometimes there was a format, sometimes not, they usually make a meal for the local people before the service, and the service is usually 3-4hrs. They always speak from the bible, the music is upbeat, and there is always a time for discusson.
I went to what is often called a seeker sensitve service for about 7 years here. They also called the music time a 'concert'. Mostly showed movies and talked about them or had sessions on bands like Metalica, Lenny kravitz, lots of others. The only thing they didn't do was have communion (too 'churchy'). But otherwise the format was always the same and looked the same as a regular service (singing time, speaking time, offering time etc.), but the music was really upbeat and they didn't teach from the bible, and the sessions were over in about an hour. This form of church happens here alot!
How do you discribe the Emergent church where you are?
well - this isn't so much an "emergent church" as a service that they call - "emergent". it is just a name instead of "wednesday night" they call it "Emergent". if that makes sense. it is not a description it is a name... hope that helps.
best quote of the whole thing.
"i just wanted to tell the guy that he needed to go find his balls and walk up to the girl."
hahahahahahaha
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