QT & I accompanied some friends to their "kooky" community church back home once, but we'd never seen anything like it before so it kinda freaked us out. Fast forward a few years, and this time out, I had a much more relaxing experience. For starters, it turns out that the pastor guy is not just some dude that walked in off the street and started "preaching" just b/c he woke up one day and felt like it. Apparently, according to my friend anyway, the pastor has had extensive training in religious studies, probably via some divinity college or something. (In other words, he's better trained for this job than GW Bush was for his when he became Guvner of our great state. ;) Knowing this did actually help me feel better about the whole thing.
Add to that the fact that everyone we met was uber-friendly and accommodating, AND that the church itself is so family-oriented that they have a bunch of volunteers to keep the little ones entertained while the parents attend the service. Wow! In all the Catholic churches we've ever been, the best we could ever hope for was a clean baby-room where our kid could cry without disturbing the others...no matter that the sermon can't always be heard from within these special sound-proof rooms.
Then, there's the service itself. Though I disagreed with the guy's message, I have to admit it was still thought-provoking...unlike, sorry to say, most Catholic services are these days. Can you say boring? Ugh. This pastor dude talked about how much debt we acquire in our lives and how Jesus wants us to spend wisely and not rely on government handouts. Huh? (Ok, I admit that one did baffle me. Whatever my opinion is of welfare, I seriously doubt that God is worrying about it one way or the other. But whatever.)
This, I suppose, is the fundamental difference between this type of church service and "ours." Their goal is apparently to make religion/faith more palatable to the modern masses. Thus, they take passages from the Bible and attempt to relate them to our modern, everyday lives using modern, everyday lingo and situational examples, IMO, with mixed results. Mixed to me anyway because although I enjoyed the entire experience, I must admit that it felt a bit freakish to me to sit in a church and listen to a discussion about debt and capitalism. That just didn't feel right. I'm more used to praying, listening to discussions on Peter or Matthew or whoever, and chanting the Our Father (incidentally, I hate singing it; I much preferred the old fashioned way of just reciting it).
In fact, what I experienced on Saturday didn't even feel like a real church service at all! It was actually fun! YES, that's right, F-U-N. Believe it or not, I enjoyed myself at a church, and even though the topic of discussion was a bit out there, I wasn't plotting my escape throughout the entire service either, which can only be a plus as far as God is concerned. ;)
I'd like to return, but I dunno. In my experience, Catholics are not best known for their understanding and forgiveness. We are the masters of sin and guilt, after all. I can only imagine what my family will say when they find out what I've been doing. ;)
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