19 :: Central Church of God

 

Today I worshiped at Central Church of God in South Charlotte. It gave me significant food for thought. More below.

As always, I write about the impression that the physical structure made on me as I arrived. This is an immense church, a place that can literally hold thousands of people. It is massive and no number of pictures will suffice in imparting the scale of the place. I took pictures of multiple buildings and realized that there really is no way to depict the scale. 

Here are some of those:

Once my temperature was taken, I was cleared to go into the church. There was a reduced congregation, the place was about one-third full. 

And the music was incredible. Years ago, I stopped by this church to see their Christmas extravaganza (it's a thing here) and was struck by the music. A full choir that sings gospel music. A unique and upbeat blend of music that has the best of white and black gospel music, blended into one. This made sense, since the congregation is also very integrated.

On all counts, I was really digging this place in many ways.

Here is some of the music, as well as glimpses inside the sanctuary, seen during the video announcements part of the service, an increasingly common format for getting news out to the people:

What I enjoyed most about the music was the fact that it borrowed from the two formats that would have dominated Southern music during the last several centuries - bluegrass style gospel music that white people would sing, and the more spirited and free-form black gospel music. While the two formats were distinct from one another, the interchange between the black and white communities in this region cannot be overstated in any category - and this is certainly true in music.

Now that the old rules of separation are withering and changing (it appears to be too early to declare them dead utterly), I witnessed a choir of black and white people singing music that blended their erstwhile traditional church music. And it was fantastic!

The head Pastor at Central is Loran Livingston, a preacher whose conviction and strength in the pulpit can't be mistaken. Filled with strong body language, a booming voice and animated themes, this would rightly be described as a fiery preacher. His message was on the need to fight the darkness of sin and compromise in one's life. 

There is a preaching style among some Southern preachers where in their fiery oratory, they often punctuate sentences with a sharp "ah!" sound. Pastor Livingston was one of those.

His sermon was from the Book of Jonah, leveraging that story into an admonition about the perils of sin.

Drinking alcohol, using drugs, domestic violence, lusts of the flesh were among the themes that he focused on as he delivered his sermon that would rightly be described as "fire and brimstone." 

Clearly, not a delivery style that I am accustomed to. Hitting all of the ways that a person can destroy their life was also a rather sobering thing to hear from this pulpit. 

I believe most churches provide their congregants content that would rightly be described as admonitions of one sort or another. This sermon did all of that in a fashion that I can only describe as... well, very athletic. That is the term that comes to mind.

At one point, the pastor went down the list of possible things that people say when compromising on a straight and narrow life:

"My upbringing was really tough. So many problems back then..."

"I'm from a rough neighborhood. I saw alot of stuff."

"My dad used to hit my mom, I was raised around that kind of violence."

"I just do it a little, I have so much pressure in my job, it helps me relax."

Then he held his hands up in an animated fashion and spoke in a slightly effeminate voice, saying: "Oh, I was born this way."

Some laughter in the audience.

That stopped me for a moment. 

Unless I was mistaken, he was mocking gay people. I concede that I could have been reading things out of context, but I don't think I was. In the litany of sinful things that he was exhorting his congregation on, he made a point of saying something about inborn characteristics, and I believed by his tone that he was referring to a gay person.

He continued.

Then he said how important it was to ensure that we didn't compromise on our faith by "making excuses" for the people in our lives. 

Paraphrasing the kinds of things people say to him, he said, "Oh, but Pastor, we love our child as they are. We believe they were born this way."

Again.

I was right, I hadn't imagined it.

Here's my take on this - I have people in my life who are gay. People in my family. And I believe they were, in point of fact, born that way. I also believe there are valid theological questions that can and should be explored about this. Additionally, I believe people can follow Yeshua and come to different conclusions on this very question. I don't believe churches should be forced to perform gay marriages, and when Beto O'Rourke said he would remove the tax exempt status of churches that didn't perform those ceremonies, I was alarmed to see the Federal Government get into the business of interpreting Scriptures.

I believe strongly that all people are free to say what they believe, and I am free to agree or disagree. Hate speech laws, online censoring, mob mentalities on social media and endless political rancor are all ridiculous. Say your peace and then let's talk about it.

But what seems beyond contention is that no one should be mocked or made fun of from a pulpit. 

And this served to distract me from a message that was my first-ever sermon of this delivery style. 

After a time, I focused back on the themes of the sermon. It reminded me not to be lukewarm in my faith and always to strive to dig deeper into the dark corners of my life, moving ever upward to greater alignment with God's will.

A theme that has characterized my life as never before, to be honest.

But I didn't benefit from hearing barely hidden and mean-spirited swipes at "the gays" during this sermon.

As the service wrapped up, I departed into a glorious day and with a deeper understanding of this church that I have driven past for decades. The Pastor had finished up by saying, "I'll see all of you next week, unless the Lord returns."

Indeed.

As I walked out, I saw people lining up out front to pray together, which is always a beautiful thing to see (it looks like they are doing some concrete repair on the front of the church, as well):

I had attended the early service at Central Church, as I wanted to go to Freedom House later that morning. During his sermon at Freedom House, Pastor Troy spoke about not having "Christianity plus something." During the sermon, he said that he believed that marriage was between one man and one woman. He said he believed that strongly and always would believe it, as his belief was rooted in his understanding of the Scriptures. 

Pastor Troy (seen below mid-sermon) didn't mock anyone, didn't do any hand gestures, didn't change his voice to imitate a gay man's voice. None of that. 

Right then, I realized why I have such an appreciation for Freedom House. It can state definitively what it stands for without resorting to mockery or maligning. Simple, straight forward, energized and uplifting.

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

At Central Church of God, I got a glimpse of conservative, Southern religiosity that has embraced both the white and black communities of this region, bringing together that which has suffered from painful division for far too long. That coalescence of worship formats, musical genres, preaching styles and theologies is fascinating. It was important for me to see. 

Thanks, Central Church of God for your hospitality and fantastic music. I benefited from our time together.