In A Nutshell: A seemingly Bible belt church with a small, older congregation with a passionate preacher.
Church Overview
Affiliation - Southern Baptist Convention (wiki, official site)
Attendance - Less than 75 people
Demographics - Around 90% white, with half of the congregation around 60 years of age or older
The Environment
From the outside, the church building looked modest and simple, and because the church has its Sunday School before the worship service, I walked into the church practically alone (there was only one other person walking into the church, which was an old man walking slowly to the door). It was a weird feeling, because it felt like I had arrived late because no one else was outside, when I really hadn't. But once I stepped through the doors, it felt like church again. People were talking, there were ushers outside who said hi to me, shook my hand, and gave me a bulletin. Stepping into the sanctuary, I realized how empty the church was. Each pew, which could probably sit 8-10 people, was only occupied by 2 or 3 people. There was so much empty space that I'm sure that less than half of the sanctuary was filled. I felt a little awkward because it didn't feel like the congregation wasn't really into singing but the speakers seemed to be turned up pretty loud, but given the older demographics, it didn't really bother me too much. Thinking about it, it was a very loud service overall (the pastor shouted a lot and his mic was turned way up too), and I wonder if the audio was turned up so loud because the older members could hear it better. Hmm...
 |
| Calvary Baptist Church building |
Sunday Service
The service was traditional, but with a few more "modern evangelical" tweaks to it. For example, the drama team did a skit about prayer before the worship started. It was a little bit cheesy, but fairly well done, and the congregation seemed to enjoy it. The church also did the thing where the kids were there during worship and then went to the front for a short kids message by the pastor before heading off to their own worship service, something that I'm not sure is a staple in "traditional" churches.
The Worship
It was traditional in the sense that there was only one worship leader who sang in the front with only a piano being played. There was a small choir singing behind the worship leader, but it seemed kind of informal because they weren't wearing robes or anything. The songs we sang were all straight out of the Baptist Hymnal, with the only song I knew being "There's Something About That Name." Even though I wasn't familiar with most of the songs, the upbeatness of the music made it still quite enjoyable.
The Sermon
I don't know how many of you have watched Bee Movie with Jerry Seinfeld, but it's strangely one of my favorite animated movies. Anyways, the preacher really reminded me of the lawyer for the humans - a large, loud, charismatic, and expressive speaker. I had wanted to put a Youtube video of the lawyer from Bee Movie here, but unfortunately I don't think it was popular enough of a movie for people to post videos of it onto Youtube. Well anyways, Pastor Mike was seemed like one of the stereotypical Bible belt preachers - speaking with simple language and relatable stories with a lot of fire and passion. [A random sidenote about the pastor: after listening to one of his online sermons and the live sermon, it seems to me like he might be in the habit of crying during his talks. Something that's not good or bad, just interesting.] The sermon itself was on abortion and the sanctity of life (because it was sanctity of life Sunday), so it was a little bit harder to gauge what a "normal" sermon would be like. Pastor Mike brought up a lot of simple and understandable arguments against abortion that I haven't heard before. I hope to talk about abortion and the stuff that he brought up in a future post dedicated to abortion, but in general, I enjoyed his sermon, even though I wish that it was a normal exposition. Pastor Mike did touch on the gospel, but he self-admittedly didn't talk about it as much as he had wanted to. Even though I think there were definitely prime locations and spots that he could have stuck in a remark or two about Jesus in talking about abortion, I think that it was still an alright sermon, nowhere near as bad as the sermon from the previous week.
Wednesday Night Bible Study
Because I wanted to check out the church more (and because I am bored out of my mind in my apartment), I decided to check out their Wednesday night Bible study, which was on Romans. Including the pastor, there were around 10 people there, all of which were white, and most of whom were 50 or older. That said, Pastor Mike definitely knows his stuff, as we spent a bunch of our time discussing the main reasons for the Reformation (and why the Catholic church does some bogus stuff) and the origins of different denominations. To put it bluntly, Pastor Mike is blunt. He does NOT care about political correctness, which made the talk about other denominations very interesting. We didn't get to spend that much time on Romans itself, but he promised that next week it would be more straight Scripture study, as I had caught them at the beginning of their series on Romans, and he had just wanted to lay some background and some reasons why Romans is so important. The main difference between that Bible study and a Knox Sunday school was the involvement of the other members. I might be just judging a little too much, but many of those at the study seemed more quick to speak than to listen, wanting to share their own stories and experiences rather than just take in and process all the information the pastor was giving. Again, stereotyping, maybe this it's just an age thing, or maybe it's an education-level thing, where Knox is a highly-educated church and Fort Wayne is a blue-collar manufacturing town. [One guy in the Sunday school was wearing an Ohio State jacket, so you know what I'm dealing with here. Hehe.]
Reflection
What I liked
Preaching - The preaching wasn't as sensational and amazing as Pastor Chuck's preaching, but I don't think that the preaching is in any way a weakness of the church.
Nice People, Homey Feeling - The people in the church were extremely welcoming, with many coming up to me after the service to talk to me and get to know me better. Multiple people invited me to a future dinner that they were having (that sadly I won't be able to attend), and multiple people invited me to come next week and to stay at the church.
Biblical focus - The church, and the pastor especially, seem to be committed to preaching and teaching the Word. The church seems really strongly grounded and won't be easily swayed by the latest evangelical fad or liberal trend.
What I didn't like as much
Demographics - The biggest issue for me is really the lack of people around me that I can relate to. Frankly, I felt out of place when I walked into that church Sunday morning and I felt out of place when I walked into the Bible study Wednesday night. I may be the only young person in that church, and that would definitely be hard for me.
Extreme Conservatism - As I had said before, this church felt like a real Bible belt church, and to me, in this age of postmodernism and secularism, the church really isn't well-suited for evangelism to the next generation. The church can probably end up being perceived as an anti-gay, anti-choice, and anti-science kind of church, which would prove problematic for me to reach out to people that have more of a background like me.
The Verdict
Calvary Baptist Church is a nice little church with a solid foundation, and even though it doesn't really fit many of the preferences that I had wanted, if no other church seems like a viable solution, I wouldn't mind attending the church. One of the concerns for me is that I had wanted to be spiritually brought up in more of a Reformed tradition to follow in the footsteps of Bijan and Pastor Bob and Pastor Chuck, not just because they're smart people, but because everything they say about it seems right. The church holds to predestination and more Calvanist beliefs in regards to salvation, but with regards to child baptism and the end times, I've liked much of the Presbyterian position.
Next up: Providence Presbyterian Church (2/5/2012)
No comments:
Post a Comment