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.
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
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