66 :: The Net at PUMC

This morning we worshipped at The Net, the contemporary worship service at Providence United Methodist Church. This is a bit of a different approach that we took, in that this was the contemporary service of a church that we have already visited (link to post). We decided that this qualified as a different church visit even though we had been to this church before. 

Seeing a church that is making an effort to accommodate two different worship styles simultaneously is an interesting thing to observe. For this reason, we decided to attend The Net this morning.

Of note is that my story in the last year has been the story of integrating into contemporary worship. I have now spent so much time in the contemporary formats that there is something both nostalgic and perhaps somewhat antiquated about the traditional formats. There is richness in the music and beauty in the liturgical language and intellectual depth in the sermons.

Times, customs and tastes inevitably evolve and change... and contemporary worship is definitively on the rise. Candidly, it must increase. 

The amount of information that people consume is at an all-time high. There are vast options of things to distraction us due to the rapid evolution of technology. Additionally, our societies are increasingly a complex marketplace of ideas and worldviews. Multi-culturalism is on the ascent globally. 

In the face of all that is changing around us, a format that remains extant from the late Victorian era simply does not compel people in the same way that it would have even fifty years ago.

PUMC has responded to the imperative for change by putting together a place where they have a contemporary worship, named The Net.

We entered a large gymnasium that had a band on the stage. They were playing songs that we knew. The performance was actually quite good! The effects on the screen were engaging and interesting. They delivered announcements. They led the assembled in prayer.

In short, PUMC has put together a viable contemporary worship service.

One thing that we noted was that the service was lightly attended. A total of seven people in attendance, including the two of us.

We discussed why the numbers may have been so low. While we don't have all of the answers, we could piece together a few items. 

First, due to Covid, the church still does not offer childcare during their contemporary service. This means that young families by definition stay away. There are few forms of worship less moving than disciplining your kids while you try to focus on the service.

Second, people who have not been in church for the last year may be having a hard time getting back into the swing of worshipping on Sunday morning. In short, when you start to build routines on Sunday that do not include church, it can be hard to regenerate the routines that do include church.

Finally, there may be a larger phenomenon at work. Where there is massive growth in church attendance, it is generally outside of denominational constructs. Which gets to the question of the decline of mainline Protestant denominations. The United Methodist Church, still the second largest Protestant denomination in the US, has lost members every year since 1964. It is estimated that the total loss is in excess of 4.5 million Methodists.

The sermon was excellent. It was "Life on the Mobius Strip" - a summary of the ways in which our inner lives and outer lives can intersect with one another. A Mobius Strip is a shape discovered by a German mathematician that has interplay between outer and inner dimensions while maintaining a continuum of surface.

Absolutely fantastic sermon, to be candid. It was delivered by the Reverend Doctor Randy Harry (link), who made a concerted effort to introduce himself to us at the end of the service.

During the sermon, Isaiah 6:1-4 came up. In it, Isaiah has a vision with seraphim in it.

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried unto another, and said,

Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts:

the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

This is a depiction of a seraphim (I think they're amazing).

As we left, the attendees were arriving for the traditional service. They were coming in in much larger numbers than The Net, for sure. The crowd may have been skewed to a slightly older demographic. 

The people were chatting in small groups that were filled with conversation and laughter. I got the sense that many of these people have known each other for decades. This is one thing I recall from my childhood - a continuity of church attendance such that many families literally grew up together. There were families that knew each other for decades and when their children went off to grow their own lives, intact couples grew old with their friends of many decades. 

This is a meaningful aspect of the mainline churches that will be missed as our society undergoes so many changes.

We went to Freedom House after our time at The Net. It was a whole different feeling. As is the case on most Sundays, Freedom House was filled with hundreds of young people, most of whom are in their late twenties or early thirties. A place of great vitality, for sure!

It is essential that the mainline churches like PUMC make the move into the more contemporary format of worship. While some churches may make this change successfully, there are clearly some that will not be able to make the evolutionary leap. Where that may leave many churches fifty years in the future is anyone's guess, but in some cases the verdict may not be entirely encouraging.

We thank The Net for hosting us this morning. PUMC, keep going!

65 :: Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church

Today I worshiped at Saint Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Charlotte's University Area. 

By virtue of that sentences words, some questions do arise - since I don't know what to do during a Catholic Mass, and I am not permitted to take communion in a Catholic Church... in what way did I worship? Additionally, why do I even bother attending a Catholic Mass when I don't know the steps involved in one? They are admittedly fair and great questions.

I went to this Mass because the church's website said that this would be a Latin Mass. I thought that a Latin Mass would be an interesting thing to add into this spiritual journey. 

Alas, not a word of Latin was spoken. 

I don't know why, either. It reinforces the idea that many church websites are not an accurate depiction of what happens in that church.

When I got to the church, I parked near the back of their property. There is a school there.

I made my way into Saint Thomas Aquinas and was struck by the beauty of what I saw. This is an expansive church with an elaborately carved wood altar in the front of the church.

Here are some of the pictures that capture the beauty in the place:

Again, since there was no Latin at this Latin Mass, I considered that it may have been the case that the term "Latin Mass" may refer to a format or style these days. As I did further research, I discovered that it is indeed supposed to mean that Latin is spoken.

Most of the women in this church were wearing a mantilla, the headcover that traditional Catholic women wear.

As is always the case with a Catholic Mass, the Priest and the congregants are following known steps in an invisible script that they have all memorized. It's not a script that I know.

I did take note of the fact that the Scripture section was read by a woman from the congregation. The second was done by the Priest.

I did notice that there was a nun afoot in the church. I believe she was from Viet Nam, one of the countries in South East Asia with a meaningful percentage of Catholics, due to its history as a French colony. 

Catholics actually comprise 7% of the Vietnamese population. 

She took several roles during and after the Mass, including doing some level of clean up where she took items into a back room that was bathed in purple light.

Then Communion was served.

A funeral then entered the sanctuary and the Mass attendees were all gone. Mass was dismissed.

If I get a chance to have a verified Latin Mass before the end of this spiritual journey, I will.

I very much enjoyed the visit to this interesting, beautiful and conservative Catholic Church. 

64 :: Saint Sarkis Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church

NOTE - this blog post contains pretty harsh stories and images, proceed with that knowledge

Today we worshipped at Saint Sarkis Armenian Church on Park Road in Charlotte. This congregation was established in 2005, adding to the growing ranks of Orthodox Christians in the Queen City. This was a bit of a different experience, as Beth, David and Mariel Charlotte and I attended the Armenian Festival on the grounds of the church, grabbing a quick bite of Armenian food and listening to some Armenian music. At one point, we entered the church and I prayed with and for the three of them. As such, this experience made it onto the blog.

First, who are these Armenians? 

Armenia is a small country in what is now called Central Asia. It is widely reputed to be the first country to declare itself to be a Christian nation. Armenians have fought to keep that identity intact against the spread of Islam, waves of genocidal attacks during their diaspora experience in the Ottoman Empire, as well as the deprivations of socialism when they were one of the client states of the USSR. 

While these are a beleaguered people to whom history has not always been kind (understatement), they are also a very resilient people. The mood at the Armenian Festival was upbeat and happy.

Two items that must be mentioned about these Armenians are the genocidal attacks they experienced during the end of the Ottoman Empire, as well as the current difficulties in Armenia in recent years.

Between 1914 and 1918, the declining Ottoman Empire lashed out at Armenians living in their midst with a genocidal bloodlust. As many as 1.5 million Armenians living in Ottoman territory were killed. Perhaps 200,000 others were forcibly converted to Islam and made to live in Turkish homes. Many Armenian women were visibly crucified (below) as a warning to anyone not submitting to Turkish dominance and Islam in general.

Millions of Armenians fled the Ottoman Empire and set up a life in other countries. For example, my current client at a major US bank is an Armenian man raised in Iraq. He is younger than I am and speaks Armenian, as well as practices an Orthodox faith. Despite his very Armenian identity, he grew up in Sadaam Hussein's Iraq because his grandparents fled there after the Armenian genocide in modern day Turkey. Other Armenians I have spoken to fled to Lebanon, others to parts of Europe and many also fled to the United States and Canada.

Armenians today have a global diaspora. Most people of Armenian ancestry do not live in Armenia itself.

In recent decades, Armenia has been in conflict with its neighbors while trying to determine where its borders begin and end. Ingushetia, Azerbaijan, Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh are the names of the small republics in Central Asia that have been fighting with each other to determine where their respective borders are. 

It's messy.

These are not new conflicts. These clashes are rooted in deep, ancestral antipathies that map back to the spread of Islam. In addition to that variable, Joseph Stalin forcibly moved people between these tiny republics to ensure if there was ever an effort to break the USSR apart, ethnic war would result. 

His plan has worked masterfully, there has been intermittent war in this region for decades.

The root of the current conflict is multi-layered, but a primary consideration is that Nagorno-Karabakh is majority Armenian and seeks reunification with Armenia-proper. Despite being filled with Armenian people, this region has been part of Azerbaijan for decades. The ultimate alignment of Nagorno-Karabakh has been an open question since the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.

Armenians as a people are almost uniformly Orthodox Christians. Their Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church is as much as a part of their ethnic identity as their language. Put simply, to be Armenian is to be Orthodox.

With all of this as a back drop, a good bit of which we knew going into the festival, we showed up and performed the mundane act of ordering kababs and cole slaw. 

The food was excellent. 

Then the four of us went into the church's sanctuary. It had a unique appearance, it was almost a hybrid style that looked like a blend of a Protestant and an Orthodox church. Note the liturgy book in Armenian script. In both Armenian and English, the words "God is Love" adorned the front of the church. 

Here are the pictures of the church's interior:

This interesting mixture of appearance includes Orthodox icons in the same sanctuary as red velvet seat cushions on pews (I've not seen this in other Orthodox churches). There were also stained-glass windows that could have been in an Episcopal church in the same sanctuary as an Orthodox Mary-with-Yeshua representation that sat prominently in the front of this church. The dome at the top of the church did not contain the expected Pantocrator, instead of had white space and clean lines that a Presbyterian or Methodist church might.

Fascinating.

We were alone in the sanctuary and I asked if I could pray for the four of us. We joined hands and I did that.

As we headed out, we passed through a narthex that had the images of past Priests who have served the church in the past. Currently, Saint Sarkis does not have a Priest.

Those pictures reiterated that we were indeed seeing a different expression of our common Christian faith. These pictures showed Priests wearing black clothes that covered most of their persons. One Priest had an icon, the double-headed Romanoff eagle, as well as an Armenian stylized Cross across his chest.

We were once again seeing something that illustrates the breadth and variety of the expressions that history has wrought in the name of the Risen One. This one was very cool!

As we departed, I felt that we had had a glimpse of one of the most resilient branches of Christianity that has ever existed. The things that Armenians have had to endure are a tableau of misery and trial... yet these people have been able to maintain their identity such that they can set up a congregation in North Carolina at the beginning of the 21st century.

In some ways, this church visit also made me feel that the faith that I have followed could be understood as a toddler against the seasoned and elderly Armenian Church. It was an interesting thing to see the great history of this part of the Body of Christ.

Thanks to Saint Sarkis for an inspiring and engrossing visit.

63 :: Antioch International Church

This evening, we worshipped at Antioch International Church in Fort Mill, South Carolina. Beth and I had set out to attend an entirely different worship event in South Carolina, only to find out that there was a wedding in that church. We walked away from that church disappointed and wondering what to do. I made the case that we would drive around and see what might happen.

Something happened.

As we drove around South Carolina, we passed a sign that said "WORSHIP HERE, TONIGHT!" I did a u-turn and we entered Antioch International Church a few minutes later. We sat near the front. 

For Beth, such a quick pivot from driving to being in a church was, in her words, "intense." 

For me, this was just the kind of thing that I love. Quick, unexpected, fun. 

As we walked in, I turned to Beth and smiled, saying, "These are your Ethiopians!" 

She laughed. 

(For context on what this meant, see blog post #40).

We entered a massive sanctuary that had a huge sound stage at the front. Flags from around the world adorned the ceiling. A nine person band played on the stage. Most of the music was from Bethel Church. A woman waved a flag with a Star of David and the Lion of Judah. At the front of the church were banners with the names of Jacob's twelve sons, who are also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel. I glanced backward and noticed that both the US and Israeli flags were draped together in the back of the church. Between songs, one of the band members lifted up a prayer for Israel, which is currently in a state of war.

This was clearly a church that esteems the Holy Land and its people in a very direct and tangible way.

A peruse of the church's website shows that this is a church that holds Israel in a very special regard. It also shows a great deal about the church's founder, Dr. Peter Wyns. Since Dr. Wyns was not at the church on this Friday night, I can't say anything about him. 

The band was solid and got better throughout the two hours that we worshipped. Some of the music that they played was known to us, other songs were new to us. The style that they conveyed for their music could be best described as weighty and, at times, ominous. That's not to say it was not enjoyable, it was.

There were brief pauses between the songs, we could hear people praying in their prayer languages. This idea is akin to the idea of speaking in tongues but is different. A prayer language enables the speaker to communicate a perfect prayer to God in a way that is incomprehensible to demonic forces. And there was a good bit of it happening at Antioch International Church. 

At one point, the woman standing in front of us turned to us and said she had been given a word for us. The point she conveyed was actually quite salient to something happening in our lives right now.

Being "given a word" for someone is a spiritual gift in which the Holy Spirit conveys something to a person through another individual. It is the kind of thing that you would see at a church where people are praying in their prayer languages. 

This had proved to be a very cool turn of events.

At one point, a young boy walked to the front of the church and said that he had been given a vision earlier in the week. He referenced John 9:1-12, in which Jesus healed a man who had been blind since birth.

"As he went along, He saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” He told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

His neighbors and those who had formerly seen him begging asked, “Isn’t this the same man who used to sit and beg?” Some claimed that he was.

Others said, “No, he only looks like him.”

But he himself insisted, “I am the man.”

“How then were your eyes opened?” they asked.

He replied, “The man they call Jesus made some mud and put it on my eyes. He told me to go to Siloam and wash. So I went and washed, and then I could see.”

“Where is this man?” they asked him.

“I don’t know,” he said.

The boy said that God had given him a vision in which the world would soon have its spiritual blindness corrected through Yeshua washing the mud and dirt off of our eyes.

So, yes... things were turning out to be rather fascinating at Antioch International Church. 

At the end, people came up to the front of the church offering "prophetic ministering and prayer." Beth and I sat there and watched people walk up front. Ecstatic words started to flow from the small clusters of people that had assembled together. 

We didn't feel called to join them at the front and decided to leave. 

As we walked out, a man named Luke walked up to us and said he had not seen us before. He said that he was glad that we had joined them that night and that he hoped we had enjoyed ourselves. We exchanged pleasantries for a few minutes and then proceeded to make our way out.

Beth and I both have observed how nice it feels to be greeted and acknowledged.

This encounter at Antioch International Church was unexpected, intense and very interesting. I sense there are so many more things to know about the place, but that we found this place by happenstance (really, providence) and encountered a place awash with the spiritual gifts was really fortuitous. We were grateful for such an opportunity.

Sincere thanks to Antioch International Church for the great experience.