26 :: Uptown Church

 

Today I worshiped at Uptown Church on the edge of downtown Charlotte. This is a PCA congregation that meets in the Great Aunt Stella Center, an older building that served as a church until the late 1980's and now has multiple uses - one of them being a home for Uptown Church.

I heard about this church after my friend Scott invited me to have dinner this week at his parents home on Lake Wylie, along with his girlfriend Shivani. During that meal, I came to learn that Scott's parents are members at Uptown Church. I thought if the two people that raised Scott, a brilliant thinker and theologian in his own right, thought that it was worthwhile to go all the way from Lake Wylie to Uptown Church, it must be a pretty special place.

It is.

The above picture is of the Great Aunt Stella Center on a day that had beautiful weather. Since today is not like that in Charlotte, I didn't lead with the picture of the building on this dreary October day. 

Here is that picture, taken as I drove in this morning:

I took a wrong turn (my personal motto!) upon entering the church and ended up in the child care center. One of the women there was kind enough to walk me to the sanctuary of the church, where I encountered an outstanding historical setting that was lightly filled with a congregation of families wearing masks and sitting in a distributed fashion. Here are some pictures of this stained glass-filled sanctuary:

The post-Victorian aesthetic contrasted nicely with a congregation of mostly young families. I thought of the people that worked to build this structure more than a century ago and I celebrated the fact that toddlers are still being brought to this church in 2020 . In 1900, when the building had its first pastor, things were very different in Charlotte and in the Southeast. Things were certainly very different in the US, too. 

But the resilience of the Body of Christ is a very strong thing. I felt happy to be in the company of so many people who had made the effort to bring their children to this church this morning.

As I sat there, the Pastor walked up and greeted me. I didn't know Dave Kulp as one of the Pastors at Uptown when he first struck up conversation with me, but he eventually introduced himself as such. It is a sign of a welcoming church when that kind of thing happens. I was glad for the conversation and enjoyed meeting Dave.

The music at PCA churches is a nice middle ground between the now-largely-moribund musical format of hymns and the Christian rock that I hear at places like Freedom House. Just as I had seen at Hope Community Church and Christ Covenant, both PCA churches, the music at Uptown Church was upbeat, meaningful and fun.

Here's a video that shows a glimpse of the musical style:

Then the Pastor spoke, although it was not Dave. Instead, the Pastor who gave the sermon was named Jose. Jose was born in Costa Rica, moved to El Salvador for part of his young life, then spent a number of years in Houston as a young adult, and finally felt the call to plant a church in Charlotte.

Seeing Jose preach was great and hearing his story made me ponder things. 

The US is changing demographically. This is a true statement in terms of the ethnic and racial makeup of our country, but also in the overall religious sensibilities of the nation. The one group that promises to grow by leaps and bounds in the US are Hispanics. On the whole, they are more faith-filled than the other segments of the US. 

More and more Hispanics in the US are leaving Catholicism to become evangelicals, fire-filled Pentecostals, or Reformed Protestants, as was the case with Jose and his family.

And the church that Jose will plant will be Spanish-speaking, while remaining affiliated with the PCA. This church planting is a joint effort between Uptown Church and Christ Covenant.

What an amazing thing to see! It was very gratifying to see this as I pondered how our country is increasingly divided, especially along racial lines. And here were a group of people helping the planting of a new congregation so that the Body of Christ can flourish as the country evolves and changes in the 21st century. 

This made me immeasurably happy to see.

Jose's sermon was on Genesis 29, where the root of Israel's heritage were being established. It's an interesting story that includes confusion around who is involved with whom (in a Biblical sense) and the birth of some of the great patriarchs of the Jewish nation, including Judah, Levi and Reuben.

Jose pointed out that there can be a never ending obsession in the Hispanic community with getting the "next papers." At first, it can be the papers related to immigration. Once those papers are acquired, there is a desire to have more "green paper in your wallet." Even once there is some level of prosperity with more money, there can be the all-consuming focus on the next piece of paper, which might be a college degree that is framed and hung on the wall.

Paper. Forward motion. Societal pressures. The American Dream. 

The sermon touched on so many germane themes of American life, but really the themes related to all of humanity. Life can have the characteristic of a living on a treadmill while chasing the next thing that you think will make you happy. But the only thing that can satisfy us is the Bread of Life that fills you up and the Living Water that quenches your thirst once and for all.

Communion with God through Yeshua. Jose said this is the true identity for humanity that makes an impact for both time and for eternity.

Yes, Jose. Right on.

Although it is a self-evident truth, we can often lose sight of the fact that humans are essentially all the same. Culture, language, nationality... these are really only layers that sit on top of the human heart. The thing that all people want is community, love, acceptance and, ultimately, a relationship with God. 

White, black, brown. These things unify us.

After the sermon, there was another song.

As we finished up, I was greeted by a young guy that had sat farther down my pew with his toddler son. His name was Bill and he just moved with his family to Charlotte after spending some time as a mathematics professor at Denison University. 

He and I both enjoyed this small world moment!

I chatted with Dave again, telling him how much I had enjoyed my time at Uptown Church. Then I headed out to the parking lot where there was a large rooster. I don't know how or why it was there, but texted my girlfriend Beth to get some thoughts.

I was laughing.

Beth pointed out Matthew 26:34, where Yeshua told Peter - "Truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "this very night, before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times."

Impressed!

A reminder not to be like Peter.

Additionally, she pulled out Job 38:36 - "Who gives the ibis wisdom or gives the rooster understanding?"

Doubly impressed! 

Her mind is as beautiful as the rest of her.

I greatly enjoyed my visit to Uptown Church. It is a place that is friendly, contemporary, relevant and embracing more and more people to broaden their identity in the Body of Christ. These are all the things you can look for in a healthy church.

Great time and sincere thanks to Uptown Church for a great experience.

25 :: First Church Charlotte

 

Today I worshiped at First Church Charlotte, a Pentecostal church on the east side of Charlotte. Despite having lived in Charlotte for more than twenty-six years, I looked up the church on the internet and didn't have any idea where it was or how to get there. But I did find it eventually and in time for the 9:15 service. I had a great time and I encountered some big themes about myself.

Pentecostalism is as much a style of engaging with the Holy Spirit directly as it is a unique denominational and theological branch of Christianity. Because of this vague categorization, I am unclear on how to state the number of Pentecostal churches where I have attended worship. I think it makes sense to say that this was my  fifth time participating in a Pentecostal service.

This was one of those places where the congregation ecstatically pleads with Holy Spirit to be in their presence. And, of note, the pastor referred to that key part of the Triune Godhead as "The Holy Ghost," a less-used term these days.

I got to First Church at 9:00, before the service started. 

Here is a picture of the exterior of First Church:

As I entered, I noted a few things. This is a congregation that is extremely diverse across racial lines. Black, white and Asian members were mixed together, which is a very common part of Pentecostalism. This mode of worship appeals to people from all walks of life and from all of America's communities. 

This observation allows me to assert a finding that I can now say definitely based on this spiritual pivot - denominations are very often a form of segregation. 

The highest degree of segregation is evident in the Orthodox lines. There are Orthodox churches for Egyptians (Copts), Russians, Greeks, Serbians and so on down the line. One church for one nation of people.

Then there is Catholicism, which has deep historical ties to certain nationalities - Spanish (and therefore Latin American), Irish, Italian, Slovenian, Filipino, Polish and Austrian are the largest nationalities that contribute to the global Catholic community. 

Then there are the mainline Protestant denominations of Presbyterians, Methodists, Baptists and Episcopalians. While they are each somewhat diverse, these groups almost always divide into congregations that are internally segregated by social class and race.

Not so with Pentecostals.

My experience is that these particular Christians are very diverse in a natural way and have achieved that level of diversity without any votes on amendments at some national synod or something like that. 

Pentecostalism is that place where all people are gathered together as one. 

And can I get an Amen for that? :)

The music started. It was fantastic. I have developed a deeper affection for church music that gets one out of the seat and swaying, dancing, lifting one's hands. Hymns are elegant, complex and beautiful. With that said, they hold less appeal over time in a world of rapidly evolving and increasingly global musical styles.

I did get caught up in the music. The place felt alive. 

Most people were dancing, or at least swaying. There were some ecstatic shouts. It clearly was a Pentecostal event, so very different from the settings in which I have spent most of my life. It is something that is increasingly familiar and enjoyable to me.

As I swayed and prayed, did I feel that familiar touch in my heart and mind that always reduces me to a divine mess? Actually, I did not. Nor did I witness the things I saw at places like Fire Church and Morningstar, where people spoke in tongues and were knocked over in their seats, slain in the Spirit.

Despite this difference, I definitely felt engaged. I enjoyed myself as the music spun the congregation forward while they cried out to bring The Holy Ghost into the sanctuary.

Pictures and video of the music.

Note the woman translating sign language rocking out

First Church band in a gentle warm up before service

 The singers
(of note, every woman at this church wore a skirt)

Little flourishes of special effect, very effective

Praise music

The music died down and a woman came on stage and greeted the congregation. By this time, everyone was nicely warmed up. The exchange between this woman and the assembled faithful had the characteristics of a familiar conversartion. As I pieced things together, I learned that she was Charla Elms, wife of Nathan Elms, the Head Pastor of First Church. After she greeted everyone, there was a short video that described some recent activities and events that the church was offering. 

After that, Nathan Elms himself came on stage and gave a great sermon. It helped me and was thought-provoking. 

Before he gave the sermon, he emphasized two things. 

First, that he had been sick this week (not Covid) and if anyone heard him cough, not to run out of the sanctuary (laughs). 

Secondly, he said that the church was having a meeting later in the day during which there would be an exploration of The Holy Ghost "for people who had never had it come upon them."

This was a glimpse of Pentecostalism's core message - The Holy Ghost is alive and present in the world and It can touch you directly, bringing you into direct union with God. 

If I had stayed for that meeting on The Holy Ghost, this might have been a different kind of essay. 

Alas, I did not.

His sermon covered two stories, one Old Testament and one New Testament. 

The first was of a time that David seemed to divest himself of his position as King of Israel, instead submitting to God as more of a Priest for a period of time. David wife told him that he was making a grave error by leaving the role that God had appeared to have for him. 

David had departed his ordinary and expected course in life to experience the uncertainty and exhilaration of following God directly.

The second story dealt with John 4, when Yeshua encountered the Samaritan woman at the well. Israelites and Samaritans shared the land that is now known as Israel, but they were alienated from one and other in many ways. Their beliefs on the nature of Judaism differed. Their ethnic categories had drifted over time, with the Samaritans being of "impure blood" after they mixed with neighboring people. This, combined with the fact that men did not interact with women outside their families in a public setting, meant that Yeshua was breaking with convention in a radical way.

Talking to a woman in public outside of one's family. Not supposed to.

Talking to a Samaritan as an Israelite. Not supposed to.

An Isrealite talking to a Samaritan woman! Not supposed to twice over.

Scandal!

Revelation.

Yeshua had departed His ordinary and expected course in life to experience the uncertainty and exhilaration of following God... and in His case, being Emmanuel, God With Us.

Some excerpts of the sermon:

The main point? Leave your lane. Depart the ordinary. Leap into the unknown and the uncertain. Break with convention. Live outside of your current role. And do all of this relentlessly and consistently if these are the barriers that must be broken so you can come into alignment with God. 

This resonated with me in a very deep way. It might be said that I have had a naturally rebellious disposition for much of my life. Conformance to a norm while being stationary has sometimes felt like a form of soul death to me. While that rebellious disposition has been the source of some of my greatest accomplishments, it has also been the source of great heartache, as well.

My mother (with a smile) says that if I had been her first, I would have been her last. I hear these words in the spirit they are intended. I was an extremely willful child and it must have been extremely challenging to parent me at different points in my young life. The fact she says it with a smile shows that the difficulty of raising me has been tempered and softened with the passage of time.

The young, serious man who enjoyed wearing sport coats to high school ended up shaggy, disheveled and living in a commune on the edge of the forest in Ohio by 1990. I lived many of those years in pursuit of what I thought of as cognitive expansion. 

The safe and familiar bubble of the Fairfield County where I was raised could have held next-level opportunities as I considered building my life around the hustle and bustle of New York City. Instead, I lobbied to move and start life anew, with a newborn baby, in North Carolina. A place where we had no job prospects, as well as no friends or family. Or even acquaintances.

Working hard for years in a beautiful and growing Charlotte culminated in acquiring a nice home in Montibello. It all looked absolutely great. And it was! A few years later, I moved the family to India for two years.

It's a pattern. If there is a conventional path that I am supposed to adhere to, I put it to the test. I devolve mandates. I break things down to see what I can build back up on my own terms. I refuse to be told what to do.

Life on my own terms.

Autonomy.

And it has been fantastic, at time!

This tendency has been the source of my greatest strength. It has also been a source of great difficulty, even calamity. Many people in my life who have experienced me in the act of devolving something, of challenging a set of expectations, of deconstructing a facet of existence... well, some of them have found it very difficult.

Including me, eventually.

Lately, I have started to look back at my life and see things in a more varied way than I used to. 

There are some great edifices of accomplishment in my past. There is also a bit of smoldering carnage. To be kind to myself, I need to remember that this is the vista that everyone has of their own life. 

We live the best of times, we live the worst of times.

And I trust that I have finally learned what I needed to learn. 

It is this - everyone is seeking meaning and hope in the midst of a world that seems to offer, at times, precious little of either. 

And the only thing that has never failed to carry me through and animate my heart are the Cross and the Empty Grave. Nothing else has, and I assure you I have sought far and wide.

What does all of this mean? It means so very much. But it's often useful to simplify, so I will make an effort to do that.

The Cross and the Empty Grave all boil down to four simple themes.

1) This all exists for a reason. Everything. The entire Cosmos have an intent.

2) Divinity is the foundational reality of everything, of reality itself.

3) We each have a chance to achieve union with that Divinity through a preposterous gesture from a God that loves us so much as to become the Slain Lamb on which the whole Cosmos pivoted forever.

4) In short, God loves me. And He loves you. And God is Love.

And that reality allows me to fully integrate an idea which I have declared with my words, if not always with my deeds, since I was a boy of eleven - Jesus is Lord of All.

What must I do in the face of this reality?

Yield.

My strength, my ambition, my hungers, my wants, my presence, my sense of power, my pain, my venom, my hopes, my possessions, my safety, my identity, my relationships, my yearnings, my fears, my money, my aspirations, my guilt, my pride, my shame, my gladness, my goals, and even my very life itself. Until my last breath. And then beyond.

Yield.

I trust God to fashion my tendency to "leave my lane" toward new and higher things that serve His Kingdom. Time and providence alone will tell where it is all going. 

But I yield it all now. 

How do I feel?

It is well with my soul.

Amen.

24 :: Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church

Today I worshiped at Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church in South Charlotte. This was my third Orthodox liturgy service and my first time in the company of Coptic Christians. These Christians come from Egypt and their faith links back to a time when the city of Alexandria was an important part of Ancient Greece. This liturgy service proved to be a great experience. 

I attended this liturgy with my friend Scott Murray, a South Carolinian by birth and a follower of Orthodox Christianity by conversion. He's an overall great and smart guy to spend time with.

On this rainy Sunday, I arrived at the church while the liturgy was already ongoing. There are both English and Arabic services in this church. The ancient liturgical language of the Copts is (intuitively) named Coptic, a language that is derived from Greek. The Coptic alphabet has seven additional characters compared to Greek, which accounts for additional phonemes that aren't part of the Greek language. As someone who can read Greek in a basic way, I could make out some of the words in Coptic script. 

For example, below are the word kyrie elaison in Coptic script, which in Greek read as Κύριε ἐλέησον:

Pretty similar, right?

Here are some pictures of Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Church:

When I entered, I stood in the back of the church and noticed a haze of brunt frankincense across the congregation. There was chanting in Arabic, English and Coptic. The screens at the front of the church had writing of all three languages. The front of the church was covered in a unique iconography, different than what I had seen in the Greek Churches. It was beautiful and exotic to me right away. 

Here are some pictures:

After Scott arrived, we watched the liturgy for an extended period of time. I took note of the fact that the people were not wearing shoes and the women had their head covered. that made me recall something from my past. In 2006, I attended an Assyrian Orthodox service when I was traveling alone in the Indian state of Kerala. The attendees at that liturgy in India were barefoot with the extra dimension of men standing on one side of the church and men on the other. It was later confirmed for me that separation of men and women within the church is also practiced at Saint Mark, but Covid-19 has caused them to temporarily change their practices. They now ask that families sit together.

Here are a couple of videos from the liturgy. Note the cymbals that are used during the chanting in the first video. Also note in the second video that when a Bible verse is read out loud, it is sung instead of being read in quotidian speech.

Overall, this was a fascinating exposure to the extant first-century form of the Christian church.

What happened next was interesting. The congregation participated in eucharist (communion) which was the end of liturgy. Most of the congregation then departed into the rainy Charlotte day.

And that was when the sermon was ready to be given. 

If that surprises you, it did the same to me. But this was the order of service. Liturgy - most people depart and then the sermon. And the sermon proved to be the real highlight of the experience for me.

The sermon referred to Luke 5:17-26, which is the story of Yeshua healing a paralytic man. The sermon did some interesting things with this story. 

To read the story, click here.

The sermon was given by Father Arsanios, a brilliant and bright soul. Here is a picture of him, taken from the church website:

Father Arsanios explored the themes in these Bible verses by pointing out that the paralytic man can be understood as a representation of humanity. He is the example of those of us who carry the burden of alienation from God (sin) and who are living in a condition short of our fullness. In short, every human.

That made sense to me.

Then he said that the four men who carried the paralytic could be understood to represent as the four Gospels, God's Word to those of us struggling with some form of divine alienation. He also offered that these four men could also perhaps be understood to represent the four dimensions of the Orthodox Church - Bishops, Priests, Deacons and the laity.

That also made sense to me. And I enjoy when the symbolic meaning of a Gospel story is searched.

Then the Father pointed out that the men who carried the paralytic man to Yeshua did not say anything. They made no verbal request of him. They were instead silent. This, he said, was an example of the profound power of silent prayer. He said, "You don't need to be speaking to God about binding up the Broken Person, which is you... He already knows what you need. Simply bring your need to Him."

Such a simple and beautiful message. 

We are broken. 

We have the Gospels and the Church as avenues for healing and wholeness. 

We can acquire that fullness through no volition of our own, but through an obedience that is expressed in the silent pleading of our hearts.

Boom.

Below is a picture of the Father giving this sermon, as well as a picture of where he, Scott (foreground) and I spent some time together after the sermon.

At the end of the sermon, Scott and I were each given a communion loaf - "the host" - which was provided to us as a personal relic of our time at Saint Mark. It had Coptic script around its perimeter, zoom in and have a look.

This gift was one of many ways that this place touched my heart and mind.

As the sermon finished, the church emptied and Scott and I got to spend time with the Father, a Deacon named Roland, as well as a young man who is an active participant in the liturgy in that he played the cymbals. It was during this conversation that I asked what word Copts use for "God." I was told that they say Allah, the Arabic word for "The God." But I also learned that centuries ago they used the word "Ephnuti," the Coptic word for "The God."

This launched a quick discussion on the role that Islam has had on the development of Coptic Christianity. Since these Christians have lived in an Egypt dominated by Islam for more than a millennium now, the way in which Islam has influenced their evolution as a Church is a theme that must be explored.

Which brings us to the relics in Saint Mark.

As is the case with all Orthodox churches, this one had divine relics within their building. At Saint Mark, those relics were held in a glass case, seen below.

What appeared to be the main relic was something wrapped in a maroon velvet cloth, with Arabic script on it. I am not sure what was in the cloth, but I think it may have been something from the body of a particular Coptic Saint named Simon the Shoemaker, who lived in the 10th century. 

The story of why Simon the Shoemaker became a Coptic Saint is as follows:

The Islamic Caliphate leader Caliph al-Muizz brought together a Jew, a Muslim and the Coptic Pope to have a religious debate. In it, Ibn Killis, the Jewish representative, quoted Matthew 17:20 - "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Ibn Killis declared it an insane proposition, this idea of mountains moving.

The Caliph al-Muizz demanded that the Coptic Christians prove this Biblical verse to be a valid promise of their faith, or they would be shown to be a deception after which the Caliphate would wipe all Copts out - "...you will be killed by the sword."

Simon and a group of Coptic monks, priests and elders then retreated into their church, focused on prayer and fasting for days. After that time was over, the Coptic Pope emerged from the church and cried out to God. Mokattam Mountain outside of Cairo lifted up off the earth, to the amazement of the assembled interfaith crowd.

As a result, al-Muizz told the Coptic Pope, Abraham, "O, Patriarch, I have recognized the correctness of your faith."

And the Copts escaped mass beheading.

Such is the story. 

Additionally, I have come to learn that Simon the Shoemaker also plucked his own eye out due to the admonition of Matthew 5:29-30 - "If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell."

Tall tales, metaphorical characters, a storied history of the survival of a faith under oppression, an incense-drenched church interior, stories of a man whose very body was altered to accommodate his pursuit of purity. I felt the profundity of it all while in the presence of these unique Christians who follows Issa (Yeshua) as the Son of Allah (the One True God)... 

The whole experience provided a clear example that the root of my faith is extant today in the form of Coptic Orthodoxy. I also determined that all of it feels very foreign to a Western Protestant whose ancestors hailed from northwestern Europe.

While feeling that difference, I also felt deeply at home! 

I had been greeted warmly and given a guiding hand by a Coptic congregation that has a different service, theology and historical experience than mine. But what joined us together is our common Lord, the Slain Lamb of our collective redemption.

And experiencing that feeling while sharing space with these Copts made all the difference.

The myriad of ways that we seek His face is sinking in on me as I approach one quarter completion of this 100-church experience. There are so many ways up this one mountain that we Christians hike - the summit of which contains an empty cross and grave, as well as a shimmering light off in the distance which beckons each of us into an eternal Presence. That Presence will wipe away all tears and remove suffering from the cosmos once and for all.

May that time come soon!

And for that newness and rebirth to happen within me, mountains in my interior life must be moved. In fact, they already have.

Thanks be to this true Allah, who is our Adonai and the Holy Father of Issa.

Amen.