This Sunday, your Wandering Reverend ended up at Emmanuel Christian Assembly, located in the city that tastes chicken, Barberton. I ended up here for one reason: my old friend who I ain't seen in a minute, Mandi, asked me. She sent me a message and said she loved my blog (I mostly thought people just tolerated it) and that I should come to her church.
Let me digress for a moment. Mandi, as far as I know, has no degree from seminary. I don't think she's ever worked for Billy Graham. Nor is she in line to be Pope. However, she had the
audacity to simply invite me to her church. I've heard time and again from pollsters and the like that a lot of people are never even asked by their friends to go to church. Not even asked. What would happen if more people simply asked their friends and family to church on Sunday? And what if they came? And what conversations would take place over lunch? Maybe, just maybe, there might be some souls saved because of one little thing: they were invited to church. (Rev now steps down from pulpit).
Alright, back to business. ECA is a small church and I have to be honest, I needed a break from the biggies. A man can only take so much impersonal worship. People here were very nice and spoke to me during break (yes, they had a break after worship. Different, yes. But kind of a cool way to have fellowship). While they didn't have a cool prize for the new guy (Lighthouse is still in the lead), a couple of the people spoke to me for a little bit and even invited me back. I have to tell you, that goes a long way in showing that your church actually cares for the lost.
One critique out of love: the worship was little discombobulated. It seemed as though not everyone was on the same page and that it was just a little, well, off. However, my wandering ears (yes, the wandering reverend has wandering ears as well) heard one of the singers note that it was a little off and was talking about what they could do to fix it. Individually, the singers had great voices, the band was good, and they had a good selection of hymns. The Lord was worshipped.
Another interesting tid bit was the asking for volunteers. My experience has been that you make the announcement and then sit back down, praying that someone will come up and take you up on it after service. But not these guys. He asked for volunteers to clean the building, and then asked for a show of hands of people that would do it. Yeah, it kind of puts people on the spot but I'm a firm believer in the fact that sometimes people need to be put on that spot. And yes, several people rose their hands. Job done.
The resident holy man's sermon was from Phillipians 1, talking about things that we struggle with and how we need to give them to God. He also spoke about how Christ should be exalted through our bodies, that is, in what we do and say to others. He was no Knute Larson but his message was sound and his challenge sincere. Good stuff.
All in all, a good experience. My friend Mandi wasn't there (according to her husband she's 900 weeks pregnant with triplets!). If you're like me, and maybe not sure you want to hit up the big impersonal churches, ECA is a good place to start looking.
Short and sweet but hey, it's BBQ time and my belly is growling!
Revvin' it up,
Rev.
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