Church-Hopping

I'm visiting a new church every week. And then I'm writing about it here. That is all.

Unfinished

I tend not to finish the things that I start.

Some may call that a character flaw.

I, however... well, I pretty much agree with those people.

Church #12: Kenmore United Methodist

Date Visited: 12/12/10

Affiliation: Methodist

Why We Picked This One: I was going to the Bills game, and they had a fairly early service

Sermon: The Reason for the Season

First Church With: "Happy Birthday"

Rundown: This church, like several of the others we've visited, had a contemporary service and a traditional one. Given the choice, I'd take the contemporary service (me being the hip guy that I am), but the traditional service fit nicely into our schedule, so that's the one we attended.

As you might expect, this decision to attend the traditional service led to our being surrounded by a somewhat elderly crowd.

And I tried to imagine a world where religion faded away with the older generations. Religion has been around for millenia, so it's hard to imagine that happening, but we all know about the difficulty the Catholic church has had keeping it's younger members interested. Isn't it possible that religions will eventually just blink out like old stars as their elderly parishioners fade away and aren't replaced by a disinterested generation?

What good is a church without parishioners?

I've been to churches that were packed - and churches that catered to a younger generation. But how much should a church cater to a younger generation with modern music, groovy new youth groups, and informal services? Is it worth compromising its values to keep a church open? Television shows don't last without adapting. Musical styles don't last. Stores and cars and clothes don't last unless they adapt. Should churches follow their lead? Or should they stick to their guns until they're preaching to an empty house?

Are those who do adapt sellouts? Are they blasphemous? Or are the ones who don't change just old and crotchety and ridiculous for being so stubborn? Shouldn't values be held no matter the cost? Can you adapt and still old onto your values?

The two pastors were married. We sang happy birthday to one of them. That was nice.

Address: 32 Landers Rd, Kenmore, NY

Website: www.kenmoreumc.org

Attendees: ~100

Church #11: True Bethel Baptist Church

Date Visited: 12/5/10

Affiliation: Baptist

Why We Picked This One: Rumor has it, they have the best preacher around

Sermon: Peace This Holiday Season

First Church With: A Subway Restaurant

Rundown: We had heard all sorts of wonderful things about True Bethel. We had heard about how charismatic the pastor was. We had heard about all the great things the church was doing for the community. We had heard about how enthusiastic its members were. We had heard nothing but good about this church. And, so, we added it to the list.

And so we went.

And so we weren't disappointed.

This is a church where church matters to the people who are there. This is a church where the congregation is involved. This is a church where passivity isn't an option. This is a church where people shout out because the spirit moves them and people cry because the spirit touches them and people pray because they need to. None of these things happens simply because they're supposed to.

This is a church where a healthy portion of the congregation has dealt with (or is dealing with) serious issues. I did an image search of True Bethel Buffalo on Google to grab a picture of the church for this post, and so many of the images that came up were of police cars and obituary pictures and blood stains and guns and press conferences from the news. The people who go to this church have been through a lot of crap. And they are looking to God to help them turn their situations around.

You get the feeling, sitting in True Bethel, that you are surrounded by people fighting uphill battles, and are truly looking for help getting up that hill. You get the feeling that these folks are using church to answers life's questions and not because mom's making them go.

If you're ever feeling jaded about what church offers, spend a Sunday here.

A beautiful True Bethel moment: A woman - twentyish years old - gave her testimony via a video played on the big screen. Her daughter had died as an infant. She got cancer. Because of the time she'd taken off to deal with the death of her daughter and her cancer treatments, she got laid off of work. She was having all sorts of difficulty getting a new job. Throughout this whole ordeal, God kept her moving. It was a very touching story.

After the video was shown, the woman was brought up by the pastor to the front of the church.

They hugged.

Everyone cheered.

The pastor gave a short speech about how, even though she was dealing with all sorts of rough times, she was still worth something in the eyes of God. As he did this, he pulled out a checkbook. He wrote her a check for a thousand dollars and passed her a business card for a job interview.

She cried.
I cried.

Everyone cried.

The pastor looked up at his congregation. "If anyone has a problem with this," he declared, "go find another church."

No one did.

Address: 907 E. Ferry, Buffalo, NY

Website: www.truebethel.org

Attendees: ~600

Church #10: Hellenic Orthodox Church of the Annunciation

Date Visited: 11/28/10

Affiliation: Greek Orthodox

Why We Picked This One: Diversity

Sermon: Kind of a Conglomeration of a Lot of Christian Principles

First Church With: Half the Service in a Language that Wasn't English

Rundown: This was the first church I visited where I really felt out of place: Half of the service was in Greek (I don't know very much Greek outside of "pita," "feta," and "gyro"); while many of the traditions followed familiar Christian protocol, there were a lot of little things that I wasn't totally in tune with (their sign of the cross was somewhat asymmetrical); I felt like it was very obvious that we were visitors.

And, sure, no one asked us to leave. No one glared at us as we quietly watched and tried to keep up ("does it matter which hand we kiss?"). In fact, no one even looked at us all that funny; but I still felt a little like I didn't belong there.

Some churches, it seems, are always looking to gain new members - some churches make it their goal to bring in as many new members as possible, and are ecstatic whenever visitors show up. But some, I'd imagine, are happy with their small congregations, only growing when their members have children or when a new identically religion-matching, practicing family moves into the neighborhood.

Churches are sacred places. Should the only people to walk in there on Sunday morning be practicing members that can share their beliefs and customs and full trust with everyone else in there? I remember elementary school - our swimming teacher was a female. It was tough to bare myself in the locker room in front of her.

Is it just as uncomfortable for people in church to bare their souls in front of non-believers? Is this Catholic-raised, not-an-ounce-of-Greek-in-his-body kid from the 'burbs wanted 'round these parts? Or was I a voyeur that they've got no legal grounds to shoo away?

As I've been visiting these churches, I've explained my trek to dozens of folks - both in the churches I've visited, and outside of them. As I move forward into this, though, I've come across a surprising number of people who have expressed something like... unease at my visits.

Most folks seem to think it's great to learn about different cultures by reading about them on Wikipedia. But many, it turns out, stop short of praising you when you try to see them in action in their natural habitat. Should I feel guilty taking a tour of a war- and disease-ravaged area? Should I feel guilty about visiting a Muslim nation just because I want to see Muslim traditions in action? Is it okay to go to a Greek Orthodox service if I know I have no interest in ever becoming a member of the church? Where is the line drawn between academic curiosity and watching animals in a zoo?

Strange thing (to me) about this church: There were only about 25 people at the start of the service. It was a long service - about two hours - and a steady stream of parishioners kept flowing in throughout the entire service. Up to an hour and forty minutes into the service, people were still coming in. By the time it was time to leave, there were at least a hundred folks in the pews.

Also, the Communion wine is served with a spoon out of the chalice.

Address: 146 W. Utica St. Buffalo, NY

Website: www.greekorthodoxchurchbuffalo.org

Attendees: Start of Service: ~25 / End of Service: ~100

Church #9: St. Timothy

Date Visited: 11/21/10

Affiliation: Usually: Evangelical Lutheran; This day: Ecumenical

Why We Picked This One: 6 Pastors - One Low Price!

Sermon: We Have Enough

First Church With: Tag-Team Preaching

Rundown: "Ecumenical" essentially means "a bunch of churches being friendly and working together." I didn't know that - so I'll fill you in, in case you didn't either.

I admit not knowing the answer to the following question, and I also admit that I should go find the answer instead of simply admitting I don't know it, but: Do Christians think other Christians are "wrong"? I touched on this a little bit in the last post, but do Presbyterians think Lutherans have some fundamental flaw that keeps them from properly following the Lord? Do Methodists think Catholics are incorrect in their assumptions? Or is everyone just going down the correct path a little differently? Even though I don't like pickle and sauerkraut sandwiches, I wouldn't necessarily think you're totally messing up the entire dining experience if you had one. If, however, you insisted that restaurants were money-hungry machines and didn't deserve your money and you always left without paying, I would think you were flat out wrong, though. Where do different Christians fall on this spectrum?

If there are only minor differences, and all Christians are getting into heaven, is it really worth it to split off into a billion different division of Christianity? And if my religion is right, and yours is wrong, what value does one get from holding an ecumenical service, with different religions represented? Should you share your "correct" teachings while subjecting some of your congregation to something that is "wrong"?

Either way, it was kind of neat to see a service run by some six different pastors from six different churches. As you'd expect, some were very good, and some were not.

The real story here, though, was how I was hit by the sermon. When a girl breaks up with you, you know how every song on the radio for the next six months seems to relate directly to you? You know how when your mom's in the hospital, suddenly every cloud formation and movie quote and new person you meet somehow reminds you of time that you'd spent together?

This sermon was (sort of) like that.

I'd been feeling very selfish lately. I don't really know how I'd been projecting to others, but I'd been feeling grumpy and withdrawn and un-Brian. And the pastor's sermon told a touching story of some refugees who'd come over from a country where this family had four walls and a roof - but not much else. The family kept insisting, "We didn't have much. But we had enough."

It was a sermon that this pastor would have given even if I wasn't sitting in that Church that evening. He still would have said those same words - even if I couldn't've heard them. But, because of the situation I was in in my life at that time - and it wasn't, by any means, a terribly difficult time in my life or anything - the sermon spoke to me. I was able to listen to the pastor preach, pull some words of wisdom from him, and make some minor tweaks in my life to make me a better person.

I think that people who look forward to church are probably looking forward to moments like this.

Oh. And they had a wicked awesome dessert platter after the service.

Address: 1453 Staley Rd., Grand Island, NY

Website: sttimothygrandisland.org

Attendees: ~50

Church #8: First Trinity Lutheran

Date Visited: 11/14/10

Affiliation: Lutheran

Why We Picked This One: It was a safety net.

Sermon: Beware Idols

First Church With: Role-playing

Rundown: I don't really get the differences between Christian religions. I don't understand - and, honestly, have never really tried to understand - the difference between the Catholic, Protestant, Presbyterian, and Lutheran religions (other than Catholicism seems to be a bit more conservative than the others).

This week, Val suggested to me, "Let's go to the Greek Orthodox Church." I was all about it, until I started having second thoughts about that word - Orthodox. I did some poking around online, and discovered that some of those Greek Orthodoxers take things pretty seriously - what you should wear, what you're allowed to do in the church (no crossing your legs!), etc. Before I was ready to jump into a situation like that, I felt I needed to do a little research, so as to not make an ass of myself.

So, last minute, I called an audible and decided on a Lutheran Church for no other reason than we hadn't done Lutheran yet and I was pretty sure they'd be pretty cool with us crossing our legs.

Sure enough, the Lutheran church was very similar to the Protestant(ish) church I'd attended for a couple years - it was like sliding into a comfy pair of shoes.

There's something to be said for comfortability. On one level, it's nice to know what's coming, and that there are no surprises in store. It's nice to feel confident in what's coming next, and have a firm grasp of the rituals.

But, I think, we need to be wary of this comfort - which leads to the ever-dangerous complacency. Many of us have been in relationships where we've taken things for granted, and suddenly we realize she doesn't feel appreciated anymore. We get too comfortable in our jobs and start making stupid mistakes because we don't take the time to do things thoroughly. We start drifting off the road because we're so cocky, we figure we can answer our phone and program our GPS while driving.

What happens when you become too comfortable with your religion? Do you start slacking on the commandments and figure it's okay to miss a week here or there? Does your mind start drifting off in the middle of the service? Do you start mailing it in? Last week, we learned that we should attach ourselves to one church. But this week, I wonder if that's always the best option.

Things that were different: There was something of a script for a decent chunk of the service. The lector or pastor would recite a prayer or passage, and the response - sometimes a full paragraph - would appear on the screen for all of us to recite back like a class full of third-graders reading a comprehension paragraph. Also, the kids had a brief in-service demonstration. The entire congregation met in the middle of the church, and the Sunday School teacher parted us like the Red Sea. Then we all re-converged on the "soldiers" that were chasing them. Pretty cool.

Address: 1570 Niagara Falls Boulevard, Tonawanda, NY

Website: firsttrinity.com

Attendees: ~150