I’ve been thinking about my faith a lot lately. I’ve never really doubted my faith in salvation through Jesus Christ, but I know it could be stronger. Sometimes I’ve wondered how much certain aspects of my life have been held back because of the weaknesses in my faith and the sin in my life. So I’ve decided to do a more in-depth personal study of the Bible.
Additionally, I think I need to start attending a local church on a more regular basis. I’ve only gone once in the two plus years since I moved to Dallas. Even the twice-a-year Christians have me beat on that account.
So this morning, I attended service at a nearby Baptist church in the area. The last service I attended was in this church, so this time I wasn’t completely unfamiliar with it. This church advertises two Sunday morning services: the “Classic” service at 9:30am and the “Contemporary” service at 11am. The difference being the former one is “choir-led” while the latter is “band-led”. Call me old-fashioned, but I’m still not terribly impressed with the almost concert-like atmosphere many Christian churches try to adopt when conducting “band-led” services. I usually don’t find anything technically wrong with them, but it feels more like an entertainment venue than a house of God.
The service was fairly typical of a Baptist service. The choir sings a couple of hymns, various other congregants join in the singing or else mutter, hum, or simply read along. The service director makes a few announcements and the offering plates are passed around. Then its time for the sermon to start and everyone leaves the dais/stage while a third projection screen unrolls from the rafters (the other two were already hanging to either side displaying various information like local mission announcements and the words to the hymns).
?!?
The local preacher (whose picture was in the church bulletin) did not take the stage. In fact, I didn’t see him anywhere. Instead, all three projection screens tune to a man on a sound stage at a different location (I later found out this church is one of six other churches in a network) who proceeds to give the sermon. The message he gave was actually pretty good. He began with Psalms 23 and discussed fear and death and how faith in Christ renders those first two things irrelevant. He also read from Romans, Ephesians, and (I think) Galatians, but I forget which specific verses. I wish the bulletin said more about the sermon other than “Sermon – Psalms 23”.
But I still couldn’t understand why a local preacher wasn’t giving the sermon. I don’t know if the regular preacher was out sick, or on vacation, or what. Or, if the service director was a preacher, why wasn’t he giving the sermon today? If I’m going to motivate myself to get dressed and drive somewhere for a Sunday morning service, the least I would expect is a preacher to be there in person too. I can watch videos at home. Or anywhere, really, thanks to my cell phone.
So, with the sermon concluded, it was time for the Lord’s Supper. A squadron of elderly deacons descended on the table with the serving dishes in front of the dais/stage and started making their rounds passing out the shards of unsalted crackers to everyone. I was sitting at the end of the pew, and when the closest deacon approached me, he kinda held the plate away from me and said something to me. He was so soft-spoken, I couldn’t make out what he said over the music the keyboard player was playing up on the stage. I reach across him to take my piece of ‘bread’ and he moved on.
I noticed a few people, including the service director, immediately popped the piece of ‘bread’ in their mouths while most people quietly held on to theirs. I, apparently like the others, were waiting for someone to stand up and read from scripture of the Last Supper where Jesus blessed the bread, broke it, and served it to the disciples as a token His pending suffering by taking on all our sin at the cross.
Instead, the deacons returned their bread trays and started passing out the tiny thimbles of grape juice (no wine for us, we’re Baptists after all). This time I took my minuscule glass of juice without comment from the deacon. Again I noticed some immediately drank their glasses of juice while most of the rest of us held on to both our ‘bread’ and ‘wine’. When the plates of unclaimed juice cups were returned to the table, the service director stood up and made a few more announcements and started the benediction. I quickly consumed my ‘bread’ and ‘wine’ without any of the expected recitation of Christ’s Last Supper from scripture. No “Do This In Remembrance of Me” for us.
And like just about every other church service I’ve attended in my life, upon conclusion of the benediction, everyone practically raced for the exits like greyhounds on the track. The service director/maybe preacher was no where in sight.
Overall, it was an okay service. Only memorable for the tele-sermon and the utterly lackluster affair of the Lord’s Supper. I’m not sure if or when I’ll return to this church again, but this “Classic” service didn’t really inspire me to attend next week. I’m interested in checking out other churches in the area, including the grandfather of mega-churches, First Baptist Dallas. I’m not really comfortable with the mega-church scene, but I do like the preacher there (I even listen to his sermons via podcast while I’m at work).
We’ll see how it goes. I don’t know, maybe I’m just being too picky.