6 :: Pineville Church of the Nazarene

This morning I went to Pineville Church of the Nazarene. I've driven past this place for years. It's in a shopping center. I have always been struck by the name as I drove by. I knew that "Nazarene" is a term used for Yeshua. He was from Nazareth, of course. 

After attending the service this morning, I had to do a little digging into what this Nazarene denomination is, to help me understand what I had seen. Interestingly, the Nazarene denomination is an offshoot of American Methodism that arose in something called the Holiness Movement in the 19th century. Its intellectual founder is John Wesley, just like the larger United Methodist Church.

That's all I know, but it was important to understand and I am glad I did this research. I definitely left with a "Who the heck are these folks?" feeling after this enthusiastic service.

The service I attended was "drive-in church" style, as the congregation has all ages, but definitively caters to some senior citizens in their community. Although I don't believe we have seen the last of drive-in church, it definitely is declining as more churches in Charlotte open up.

Pineville is a part of Charlotte, but in the ongoing gobbling up of outlying areas that characterizes Charlotte's growth, the middle-class town has become part of the city.

A guy from the church named Mike walked up to my car and greeted me. We chatted for a while and when I mentioned that I grew up in New England, he mentioned that he used to live in Nashua, NH. 

He said that his years in New Hampshire felt like he was a bit of a missionary, referring to the more secular nature of life in the Northeast.

The service was outside and being live-streamed. Here are some pictures:

The sermon was about the pastor's childhood which was split between Florida and Texas. He invoked references to barbecue, apparently a large part of his youth. He described the craving that he would feel at the idea of barbecue. 

Until this day.

He linked it to the theological idea of "fruits of the spirit," a set of nine characteristics that are represented in Galatians 5:22-23.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

The sermon was about self-control. The analog of barbecue was used as a way to describe something deeply desired. In short, this was a deeply Southern message to the gathered faithful. Having lived here for half my life, most of it as a vegetarian, I could relate... but also had some trouble personally relating to the theme of childhood barbecue obsessions.

Here are some pictures from the sermon, which had a level of enthusiasm that bordered on athleticism. Alot of energy!

We had communion with only some grape juice as the representation of wine and without bread. I am unclear if this is a denominational thing, or if it was due to COVID-19.

Then the band performed a song that was old school - Great is Thy Faithfulness. This was a nod to the dying musical format of hymns, which are rapidly being replaced with songs by a band.

And then we were done. It was a nice service with a good message about barbecue and self-restraint against the things we crave.

Nice people, nice place and definitely one filled with high energy. I'm grateful for this power hour of Southern hospitality.