33 :: Freedom Christian Center

I attended Wednesday night worship at Freedom Christian Center on Freedom Drive in Charlotte. In the South, Wednesday night church is historically a pretty standard thing. In recent years, it has become less common to find it. But this Wednesday evening, I found a strong church community and enjoyed their company a great deal.

As I entered, there was a group of people milling around inside this location. I hesitate to call it a church, as it was more of a definitive building. The turn out was light on a Covid-era Wednesday, as one might expect.

Here are some pictures:

As I walked in, Senior Pastor Dean Melton looked right at me with a serious look on his face and said, "Well, who are you and what are you doing here?"

I paused for a moment. We locked eyes. Then we started laughing.

Jovial.

Pastor Melton and I are cut from a similar cloth in that we can engage in a brief conversation and within perhaps four minutes learn a great deal about each other.

What I learned about him - A big highlight of his time in preaching was when he preached in Ghana, in West Africa. He spoke to crowds on sixteen consecutive nights and in sixteen different places across that country. He founded Freedom Christian Center in 1981. The church has not closed during Covid-19. FCC's Sunday night services have now been canceled due to low attendance, and there is only a Sunday morning and Wednesday night. And FCC has multiple locations around the Charlotte area, plus it supports 1,300 students at FCC schools in other countries. Nicaragua is a special focus of FCC. Finally, Pastor Melton is 75 and feels that a time will come soon when he may not have the energy to continue. He's looking to pass on the mantle.

What he learned about me - I am originally from up north, I am visiting one hundred churches and I went to a church in Myers Park for twenty-five years. 

When he heard this last point, his eyes lit up and he said, "Well, this will be a little different for you tonight, I'm going to guess."

We laughed.

For most of the service, Pastor Melton sat in the back, giving affirmations to the things being said from the pulpit.

I sat down and a big band was up front jamming out Christmas tunes. Hands in the air, clapping, a joyous feel pervaded the place.

Loads of people kept making their way to me and greeting me warmly . Everyone was so hospitable and kind. I will give this affirmation to FCC - I have never been greeted with that kind of warmth in any place that I have been thus far. It was really nice!

Emanni, the Youth Pastor, spent a little time talking to me and then gave me a bag that they give all visitors to FCC. I opened it later, when I got home. Jolly Rancher, a mug and a pamphlet about God:

All the while, Christmas music was filling the place. Here's that:

After the music, it was announcements. What was interesting was the degree of intimacy in that part of the service. The man at the front of the church was giving a series of announcements, asking people in the congregation for more details. People were providing clarifications and even a few corrections and updates to the announcements. 

In short, the congregation and the pulpit were having a free-flowing conversation. While I've seen a few things similar to this, this was truly a first.

Then the Bible lesson started. It was on living in the day and not letting your past or future intrude on the present moment. A refrain that people in multiple churches seem to be reiterating these days, to my delight.

As the man led the Bible Study, people in the congregation were responsively saying, "That's right!" "Amen." "C'mon now." and even "Wow!"

Back and forth they went, with verse and response, verse and response, round and round. And the cadence around this exchange really draws everyone in.

Worship as participatory event.

Yes!

Here are some pictures:

At the end of the Bible Study, the entire place broke out in conversation. People were standing up and raising points about things that required their collective prayer. One woman stood up and said that her friend's mother had cancer in her jaw area and that an intercession was needed. She walked up front and a group of people laid hands on her.

Intense and fervent prayer followed.

Here's that:

Eventually, everyone started walking around and talking to each other. Small clusters of people also stood together and prayed. Pastor Melton also walked me around kept introducing me to more people. Everyone was so warm. Simply incredible.

I talked with a bunch of these folks for a while after the study. I noticed that they were all smiling. Just a friendly and engaging set of smiles based on having just participated in worship. Shared with each other, shared with me.

And you know what smiles do... they travel. I smiled.

And then I had a realization.

As is often said in the South, there is a phenomenon known as "having a church family."

These people were family. 

It kept echoing through my head - this is what it feels like to be in a church family.

A group of people living out their faith in a peaceful unity in an increasingly fractured world.

At Pastor Melton's urging, Emanni gave me an FCC tee shirt as an additional gift. Then I made my way out of FCC and headed home. It had been about an hour of engagement around this close-knit form of worship.

As I drove home, I realized that I had encountered a level of Southern hospitality that I had not experienced in twenty-six years in the Southeast. 

And it made me happy.

Family church. 

Sincere thanks to Freedom Christian Center for their warmth during this mid-week worship.