Assemblies of God

As Lori said, I've driven by this church several times when I was little. Brien, you might remember this church as well. My parents took me here one Easter when they heard that they put on an excellent Easter play. It was great until they tried to baptize everyone at the end of the service.

Lori was actually looking for a big southern "Baptist" church, which I thought this was. It turns out its something called "Assemblies of God". I agree with Lori that I was totally unimpressed except for the music, which was amazing.

This church reminded me of our Church of Christ experience. It was great to come in and sit and hear the orchestra and choir warming up. That is a perfect backdrop to a religious service. Like our Church of Christ service, I thought it started off strong and went downhill from there.

"Crossroads" is the name of the local mall, less than a mile away from this Church. Lori and I had a lengthy discussion after this service about the differences between praying for help and giving help. We were both disgusted at the mall-like variety of prayer groups offering whatever help you are browsing for that day: fianances, family, relationships, etc.

Crossroads Church

Crossroads Church
8901 S. Shields Blvd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73149
Phone: (405) 634 - 1495

Religion: Assembly of God
Service Attended: 10:30am
Service Length: 1 hour 35 minutes

Bible Verses: Genesis 12:1-3, Exodus 12:12-13, Exodus 13:14-16, Exodus 23: 14-19, 1 Peter 1: 18-19, Galatians 3:29, Proverbs 3:9-10, Psalm 122, Romans 5:8

Jake's driven by this church multiple times throughout his time living in OKC. So, when I said I wanted to visit a big "southern"-type church, he said he wanted to go here. So, I wore my purple dress and was pretty much on par for this church. There was a guy that wore overalls and a guy that was wearing a suit and tie. So, I was basically exactly in the middle.

Walking in we were greeted rather unceremoniously and walked in. The room, well, it was huge. HUGE. Not incredibly packed, and not a lot of young people. There's another service at 6pm on Sundays, so I bet that's when the young peoples go. People were talking in the pews, enjoying themselves, waiting for the service to start. The choir and orchestra and band (all three) were warming up. Sounded good just for warming up. Hot.

The service started with lots of singing. Lots of enthusiastic singing at that. Then, the pastor/leader got up and told everyone that was having troubles in their lives to walk out to the aisle and talk with an elder or an elder's wife. Apparently the elders are there to pray with the people and help them trough troubled times. Nice, community feel, I do agree. But, why? During this, there was a light song being sung in the background.

Songs ended, prayers ended, and a seriously rock song began. Awesome awesome music. I loved the music at this church. Loved. The slow songs were gorgeous, the rock songs were fun and just plain awesome.

The sermon was was about "The Blessed Life: First Fruits. " The preacher talked about how the bible says we should give all the first fruits of our harvests to the church. In the past, this was meant literally for the Israelites who had just fleed Egypt. Now, this means we should give what we can and give joyfully. We should be excited for what we are able to give. He also mentioned that there's a difference between giving our frist fruits and the tithing that were obligated to give. He said he would explain that further in the month.

Overall, I was not impressed by this church. The people were very into the service, very into the music, and personally, I was even very into the service. But, the end just made me mad. The preacher was talking about how we should give joyfully, but if we cannot find joy in giving what we have then we shouldn't give it. If we cannot give because we don't have the money and this is causing a concern for us, then we should also pray to god to help us find what god's purpose is for us. We should pray to learn what god wants us to do about our money problems. What? He even asked everyone that was having particular problems with money or finances to come to the center of the church after the service to pray with the elders. Again, with the praying with the elders. Pray about your problems. No info given about how to control your finances, how to balance a checkbook, how to balance a life, where to take classes or find out more how to help yourself. I'm a strict believer in "God helps those that help themselves," but this church is all about telling people that praying will do it all. Prayers will fix your problems. Perhaps prayers will help, help give you direction in your life, help guide you morally, but jeez, it won't make you money.

Blah. All in all, I was unimpressed. After the service (well, while those that needed money help were praying with the elders and pastor), I went to the guest reception area and talked with someone there. We were given a gift of a small notebook that had more info about the church and a blank notepad, but when I started asking questions, I didn't get clear responses. The guy told me that Crossroads was a "full gospel" church. Looking on wikipedia, full gospel is apparently another type of protestantism. "As such, special emphasis is placed on the gifts of the Holy Spirit and in that God wills for his children to be prosperous in all areas of their lives." This includes speaking in tounges (which I think it was one of the guys that spoke was either doing or imitating)....and:

(from 1 Corinthians 12:1-14, 1 Corinthians 12:27-30, Romans 12:6-8, Ephesians 4:11)
Wisdom, Knowledge, Discerning of spirits (human, angelic, and demonic), Prophecy, Speaking in tongues, Interpretation of tongues, Faith, Working of miracles, Healing, Apostleship, Prophecy, Teaching, Administration, Ministry, Exhortation, Giving, Leading, Showing mercy (compassion), Pastoring.

That's enough for me.

Last Sunday

Well, we had a big party and were subsequently exhausted. The Church-hop (or church-shop as a friend hilariously mis-spoke) was put on hiatus for a weekend. But, never fear. We'll visit another church this Sunday...

The rewards of going to Church

So, I promised Lori I would catch up with my Church of Christ (COC) post today, after all I did select it. First thing, its not "United Church of Christ", that is something different. This was what I would consider a non-denominational Christian service.

I actually really like the beginning. We were greeted as Lori said when we first entered the Church. They were very accepting and had us visit the visitors center in the back of Church. The minister even tracked us down at the end and said hello and asked if we had any questions.

My favorite part of the service would have to be the beginning. One of the first things we did was a greeting to all the neighbors around us. Pretty simple, but it gets people talking and in a good mood to start the service off.

From their it went downhill. In the orthodox service, I may have felt like an outsider, but at least I respected the chanting that was going on around me. The COC quickly deteriorated into a cheesy Sunday televangelism show without the individual believer being miraculously healed by the Holy Spirit. Ugh!

Not much else really stood out. I wasn't a big fan of overhead slides with song verses and NIV bible quotes shown. The service felt like one big homily with small breaks for communion and offering collection. Communion was only a little more formal than the collection. They passed a plate with a little bread crumb (I'm talking SMALL rice sized piece of bread). I decided to pass. Then there was the thimble sized cups of grapejuice. Again I decided to pass. I understand that this was merely a symbolic/open communion, but if its going to be that informal, why even have it at all?

That isn't even my biggest beef with this Church...

During the service, Lori filled out a info letter and gave them our address (we've been getting a ton of junk mail, but its all addressed to Lori, so whatever). Anyways, the Wednesday after we went, someone stopped by our house and dropped off a package. The package contained some info papers and stuff, along with a dozen cookies. It also contained a small letter saying if we bring it back next week, we could get a free gift! Not a big fan or bribery, but the cookies were good.

A backwards look at Orthodox

So it's actually been awhile since I attended this Church. On July 6 we visited an Eastern Orthodox church. I really had no idea what to expect, as this was the first Church that Lori and I have visited without actually having a representative of that faith to keep us from accidentally offending anyone.

Luckily, we were able to get out without incident. It felt during the service that I was witnessing some sort of Amish service or something. As the members of the congregation entered, they approached a stand containing some sort of icon. They leaned over to kiss the icon and crossed themselves what seemed like a random number of times (they also crossed themselves slightly different from what I was used to. Catholic - N,S,E,W : Orthodox - N,S,W,E). This random number of making the sign of the cross would be a recurring element to the ceremony.

The other major element of the service would have to be the chanting. I've actually gone to a catholic seminary before and heard chanting, but I wasn't prepared to chant for the entire length of the service!

I guess I need to explain my Amish comment a bit more. Its not like the congregation was dressed in black and all the men had full beards. It was more that I was ignorant to the customs and felt like an observer to the service, attempting to fit in where I could, but always feeling like I was doing something wrong.

First, in a normal Orthodox church, you are expected to stand throughout the entire service. Luckily, this church had chairs available for those of us not used to such things. I mostly saw children sitting through parts of the service, though some adults also made use of the chairs. I never felt quite sure that I could take a seat during the chanting without looking disrespectful of the person leading.

Second, every time I attempted to emulate their sign of the cross, I felt like I was either doing it the wrong number of times or that it was at an inappriate time.

I guess I'm used to the stand-sit-stand-sit-stand-kneel-sit-kneel structure that the catholic church provides. There is always an appropriate crossing, response, or sit/stand that the congregation does that gives me the sense that I'm at least fitting in.

Overall, I consider myself a pretty big fan of tradition. I can see how the simplicity and traditions of Orthodox are appealing. However, usually with tradition comes a stiff view and unacceptance of change. In a world of constant communication, it is often necessary to be flexible and embrace change. This is one of the main reasons why Lori and I are visiting new churches to begin with!!!

Overland Park Church of Christ

Overland Park Church of Christ
13400 West 119th Street
Overland Park, KS 66213
Phone: (913) 696-1516

Religion: Church of Christ
Service Attended: 8:15am Worship Service
Service Length: 1 hour and 9 minutes

Reading: Luke 5:1-11

In planning on going to this church, I knew it would be more casual than the Orthodox Church from last week. Nonetheless, I kept with the control dress (I'll post a picture sometime) in an effort to be comparative. I might have been a bit overdressed for this church. The men wore mostly polos and khakis, the women slacks and a nice shirt. I wore a dress, but it wasn't bad.

As we walked in, we were greeted by a very joyous man who was absolutely ecstatic that it was a sunny day. "oh happy day!" was the greeting I believe. As we walked in, there was a lady that greeted us and we told her we were visiting. She told us a bit about the church, the open communion and said we were welcome anytime. She also said there was a visitor's desk where we could find out more. So we went and visited the lady there. She was very nice and told us that the Church of Christ primarily follows the Bible. To what degree, she didn't say. Does it mean literally the Bible? or just the symbolisms in the Bible? And, in fact, she gave me a copy of the New International Version of the bible to keep for myself. Awesome!

We headed in, were given a copy of the Crosswalk newsletter, and sat toward the middle of the room. In a rather interesting setup, almost like an auditorium (it was actually called an auditorium), there were people in seats that went up the sides of the room. There were people everywhere and as most american churches go, people were arriving up to ten/fifteen minutes late. We sat in a rather sparse area, and by twenty minutes into the service, it was definitely fuller.

The service started with singing and again I found myself at an a capella church. Cool in my opinion, for those that can sing really well. Me, myself and I cannot sing very well, but that's okay. There was a large projection screen at the front of the church and the songs were always posted there. Sometimes there were just words and sometimes there were words and music.

After the first reading, Luke 5:1-11 (which was posted on the screen verse by verse), there was a sermon from the senior minister Curt Sparks. Quite the energetic guy, very relational in quite a few ways. He talked about how Jesus calls ordinary, flawed people to do great things.

The sermon was followed by singing a song. Then another sermon (or maybe just a continuation of the first). On the same reading. Definitely thought that was awkward. He did have a bit of a different focus with the second, but it was strange to me. Then more singing. and then part 3 (or number 3) of the sermon(s).

After this sermon ended there was communion where little pieces of bread (seriously, little, like 1cm x 2cm maybe) and little plastic cups of grape juice were passed around. Similar to the collection plate, the bread and juice were passed along the pews from person to person and coordinated by the ushers. Not weird, but I'm so used to the procession that it was another difference for me. Kinda threw me off a bit. The communion was an open communion, so anyone could partake, but if you didn't want to, you could just pass the plate along.

After communion there was a small prayer and two more songs (one was a repeat from earlier, perhaps to reinforce the idea). Then, the minister pointed out a pile of little yellow cards at the end of the pews. On them were things like, "Because I want to join God in His redemptive work in this world, I commit to praying for the following people to start a journey with God:....." and "Because I believe God wants to do the extraordinary through the ordinary, I commit to prayerfully seeking how God wants to use me in ministry." and finally, "Because OP does not exist just for herself, I commit to praying for God to give us at OP a God-sized mission." Supposedly no one else was going to see these, so we were given time (but no pencils or pens) to write and sign the cards. No, the cards weren't collected, but it was something I don't think I would have done if I had a pen. Writing a prayer doesn't really make it better. Writing a commitment might remind us, but it doesn't reinforce the idea, in my opinion.

After the service, we were headed out into the entryway and met up with Minister Curt. He talked to us for a few minutes and told us we were very brave for branching out and visiting other churches. That we must be very nervous about visiting a strange building with new people. In some ways, I agree, but I think I've committed myself enough to this, that I'm not nervous about visiting christian anythings. Now, non-christian services, I think I might get a little nervous.

A church hop beginning

When Lori first asked me to join her in this church hop blog, I admit I was very apathetic. I consider myself Roman Catholic, mostly because I was raised Catholic and went to a Catholic school. I've actually gone to two new churches with Lori now, an Eastern Orthodox and a Church of Christ. I think my view is changing somewhat in that I feel there is a lot of benefit from seeing how others worship. Anyways, while I still identify most closely with my Catholic origins, I do feel that all Christians have a responsibility to learn about other faiths.

With that being said, Lori and I each will be posting with our thoughts each week as we visit new denominations. Lori's approach is to compare and contrast different faiths based on a general list of shared characteristics and then give her opinions on the service. I will be taking a strictly opinion based approach. Unfortunately, both our opinions will be influenced by our heavy Catholic background. We'll try to minimize any opinions based from that background and try to ensure they are balanced according to all of the services we visit.