Sunday, November 9, 2008

I Went to Church Today.....

It was a Baptist service at First Bible Baptist Church. I went not because I am Baptist, but because a good friend asked me to come to church. I rarely think about, or discuss religion. In fact I would only self identify as a Humanist if I thought anyone I dealt with on a daily basis would understand. Truth be told I'm not even sure that's the proper label so, for convenience, I stick with Unitarian Universalism.

But, back to church.

The service was made up of two sections, the first part was made up of singing, prayer and music. While the presentation at First Bible Baptist was incredible, a large orchestra, choir, and stage accompanied by several large projector screens make for an awe inspiring spectacle. They definitely get a 10/10 for presentation but it's not the presentation that I took offense to. Almost without exception the message contained in the music and prayer was one of subservience to Christ, and subservience to God. There was a common thread running throughout that we, the congregation, were not good enough, faithful enough, could not love enough to truly be worthy of God yet he loved us anyway. This just seemed wrong to me. Why would I pray to someone while fervently believing I was not good enough? Would not I, who is made in God's image, be worthy to pray to the force that ostensibly created me? In my mind it was akin to saying a child was not worthy to ask a parent for a favor. It just seemed wrong. Yet I behaved myself and made it through to the sermon.

Now, the pastor of First Bible Baptist is a fantastic speaker. I've always said that a Minister/Pastor's principle job is to put on a show Sunday morning. All else is window dressing. Well, he put on one hell of a show. He spoke on what qualities made a good leader and interspersed his talk with short quotes from the Bible, Solomon to be specific. I did not find these quotes to be offensive or to interrupt the flow of his sermon. He used the stage well, moved well, spoke clearly and enunciated well. In short he was a fantastic speaker and gave a really good sermon.

Would I go back to First Bible Baptist? Probably not, however I would love to see their Pastor speak in a different setting. His sermon made the trip worth it for me.

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