Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron

Well this morning was . . . interesting. Yeah, it was a little weird but in all honesty it was good. Why, you may ask? Because I was at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Akron.

Let's set the ground rules for this one off the jump. First, I don't agree with the UU's on theology at all. I mean, I could write on and on about theology and doctrinal differences but that's not really getting me anywhere. We know that your Reverend is a devout Christian and isn't looking to change his stripes. So what I'm going to do is to relate the experience and how it came off to a new guy. And really, what can the Church learn from them?

This morning I was joined by my good friend, Tricia, who actually recommended the place to me. I picked her up and we were off.

We arrived just in time for the service (which is good for K-Towners, we're perpetually late) and found a seat near the back. My first impression was the place looks church-ish, although I'm not quite sure what I thought it would be like (big posters of Obama and Marx?), I guess I didn't expect it to look like "church". It was a pretty modern looking place with several classrooms for children's classes.

They started off with some announcements and then sang a song, Enter, Rejoice and Come In (a Christian hymn washed of the word "Lord"). What was funny was that before the song started, the leader said that they wanted to sing and shout but when the song started, a somber piano played and the congregation barely spoke up. Um, party on?

Unfortunately for this Sunday, they did not have a regular preacher. I knew from their website that they didn't have one yet but that the new guy was starting. However, I got the date wrong and we didn't get to see the new guy. Doh! He starts next week.

However, some of the leaders had went to a UU conference recently so each of them stood up and spoke about what they learned and how it went. They spoke about things like social justice, adults and teens working together and leadership. It was pretty okay but I did have a little trouble choking down the uber-liberal theol. . . Wait! I said I wasn't going to talk about that!

Afterwards, we sang another song, which included some off rhythm clapping and tamborines. What are you gonna do with a place full of whitey's? And then it was done.

But this is where they really shined (churches, take note). These were some of the friendliest and most inviting people I have ever met. Several people came up to us, introduced themselves, asked our names, and told us a little about their church. All of them talked a little about themselves and asked about us (everyone thought we were a couple. Gross! Tricia's like my sister! Ew!).

Apparently, after each service, they meet for fellowship over some coffee and snacks. This is a great way to get people together and keep the congregation together. Normally I'd skip this part of the service but they were so friendly, and Tricia was up for it, that we stuck around for it.

The service was a little weak, with a sub par worship service, but they really tore it up on the inviting factor. And really, that's one of the most important factors at a church. You can have right doctrine and a fancy building, but without some friendly people, forget it. You fail.

Would I ever go back? Heck no. The Rev believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God who died for our sins, not in this "We're all one with the stars and trees and tigers and rivers and all the stuff of life" (a direct quote from their bulletin). However, if I was on the fence with my beliefs, and was looking for a place to belong, this would be a very tempting place. In fact, I think that Tricia is going to go back again to check out their new preacher.

Churches of Christ, you have been warned.

With love and peace for the trees and goats,

Rev.

Praise Chapel Assembly of God

I'm one of those weird people who likes to walk. If I could live, work, and shop all within walking distance, I'd be the happiest dude ever. There's just something nice about having to take the time to get somewhere, instead of always rushing there and worrying about traffic. When you're walking, you just sort of saunter along ("mosey along" for you out west), lost in your own thoughts.

Today I got to walk to church and it was everything I'd hoped. . . yeah.

Praise Chapel Assembly of God is right up the road from me. I probably drive past it about once a day. It's a small, corner lot church that really doesn't stick out. It's an old brick building with an old weathering sign out front. Yes, it did have a corny quip on the sign.

I got there right on time (sign says it starts at 10:30am) and was greeted by some very friendly people. I'd say there were about 30 people in attendance total. As we were chatting away, I noticed that the music equipment was still sort of scattered about. Apparetly, set up time is 10:30, not start time. Hrm. . . oh well, I'm in no rush.

Once worship got started, I really had to stop myself from laughing. They had the usual: drums, piano, guitar, and casio keyboard with 8-bit music backing. Whaaaa? For those of you who don't know, 8 bit music is what was playing in the background of Super Mario Bros. the whole time you played (for an example 8-bit music, click here). I couldn't help it, I know I had a goofy smile on my face the whole time. Overall, it was a good worship experience but I think I could have lived without the 8 bit version of my favorite worship songs (although now that I think about it, I wonder if there are some 8 bit Christian artists? That'd be awesome!).

Next up was the sermon and I have to say, not too shabby. He spoke about how we need to rely on God and His mercy and that when we don't, that's when things go wrong. He actually used a bit of Scripture (unlike last week) to make the point. Stlye-wise he was very good, he had a good speaking voice and he made all of his points in a timely fashion.

Uh oh - altar call time again. And this one was a little more creepy than the last one. He called up people who needed prayer or whatever, cool. Then he called up people to pray for them, cool. But wait, now there are only two people left in the pews! Me and some lady who I think had a bum leg. Great.

Here's where it gets interesting. First, before he came down to pray, he grabbed a little bottle of oil and was putting it on the sick people's forehead. Okay, that's not too crazy. I mean, it does say to anoint the sick with oil, so I'm with it.

But then came the coup de grace, the moment I'd been waiting for. Yes, he snuck in some speaking in tounges! Oh yeah! I had never seen this in person before and this was the exact reason I wanted to go here! And it was kind of funny - he just snuck it in there a few times, I think only twice. It was like he was just seasoning the blessing with some random mumblings, er, "being filled with the spirit". Note the sarcasm.

What a great Sunday. I got to hear my favorite hymns played in 8-bit music and I got to get my first taste in seeing someone speak in tounges. And honestly, besides those two things, it wasn't a bad place. The people were friendly (as I was walking home one of them drove by and yelled "God bless you, Steve!") and the preacher was good (even though your Wandering Reverend thinks that speaking in tounges is highly questionable theology).

I'm going to stick to another small one next Sunday, I think. There is a small, store front church down on Kenmore Blvd that I'd like to check out and another one near me called Pavilion of Praise, which wins a prize for incorporating alliteration into their name.

Oh, oh! Before I go - what did the pentecostal preacher say after he bought Chevy? . . . shouldaboughtahonda! Ha!

Rev.

Apostolic Church of Barberton

Really, I shouldn't be typing this. My grass is oh-so very tall right now and my bushes are in need of a serious trim. But hey, who am I to put off the Lord's work for yard work? (this is the Lord's work, right?).

This Sunday I found myself at the Apostolic Church of Barberton, located in, as the name might suggest, Barberton. They meet in a large new building that I think is only 5 or 10 years old. It's big and spacious but not The Chapel big and crazy.

Most of us know the Apostolics by their women: they're the ones you always see with the really long hair and the jean skirts or dresses. The men, just your regular dude in a suit. But as I've heard and seen, the more conservative dress they wear, the crazier they are in worship.

Worship started off great, then they kept going, until they smashed great into the ground and kicked it. The band was awesome and singers on stage had great voices. They sang about 4 or 5 songs (long versions, might I add) and then a guy came up and did announcements. Okay, not bad. But wait! Now more people went up and formed a choir and sang probably about 3 or 4 more songs. Oh snap. (Side note: Your Rev has a bum knee right now and it was starting to ache because, yes, we were standing the whole time!).

However, most of the people there were very into it (though I saw a few take a seat and a couple even wander around!). People were raising their hands, jumping, and shouting, really getting into it. It was just on the line of creepy "getting into it" but they held it in.

In the middle of this worship time, they had an altar call, that is, if you were sick or struggling, you could come down front and have the leaders pray over you. While this can be a little weird (and sometimes, it can be very very weird) they did it pretty well. I'd say about 15 or so people made their way down and they prayed.

The preacher, from what they said, was a guest speaker. And really, he wasn't really a preacher in the sense of what I think of as one but more a rally leader. A church cheer leader, if you will. I say that because he didn't really teach anythinig new, no bible lesson, no new insights. He spoke very loudly and fervently about God's mercy and how great it is. He read from 1 Timothy 1:14-16, but he didn't really go too much from there.

His delivery was something that I had heard mocked on TV and the like but had never actually seen done in person. An example: AND WHEN JESUS-UH, COMES BACK-UH, I HOPE YOU'RE ALL READY-UH, FOR THE LORD-UH! . . . yeah, just like that. A lot of style and not much content.

Also, while he was preaching, there were these guys who I think were elders, sitting in these large throne-like chairs behind him. If the speaker was the cheerleader, then these guys were the coaches and/or moms and dads in the stands. They would yell out encouragement to him as he spoke (Preach it! Sing it! We want a pitcher not a belly itcher!. . . maybe not that last one). Other than that, I'm not quite sure what their purpose was. Maybe if you're the biggest giver from the week before you get to sit there, I don't know.

After his pep talk, he made yet another alter call. Now this one was slightly awkward. He said that if you were a Christian or were someone who had a problem, then you should come on down. Um, who doesn't that apply to? Yes, I am a Christian and trust me, I have plenty of problems, but I sure as heck didn't go down. Talk about standing out - it was me and about 12 other people that didn't go down out of a crowd of 300 or so.

This part of the ceremonies went on for about 20 minutes. Some people were singing but most were down front praying and waving their hands, while others were just milling about. I felt compelled to leave but I stuck it out for the sake of the experience.

After this, the leader guy prayed and, done. Yeah, kind of an anti-climatic end. However, I was ready to split.

I did get to make some small talk with a couple of friendly people but really, I wasn't too impressed. At the beginning, I thought this was going to another House of the Lord, with all the excitement and enthusiam. But it just ended up seeming weird and pointless. The sermon that had no point and the never-ending worship just kind of killed it.

Oh well.

So in the next couple of weeks, I think I want to hit up a really small church. You know, that church you see tucked in a neighborhood and you think, who the heck goes there? What happens in there? Yeah, I want to find out. It might be creepy but what the heck, it'll be fun.

Until next week! Same Rev time-UH! Same Rev channel-UH!

The Movement Church

Go ahead and scroll down to start the music, I'll wait. . . geez! That took forever, slow poke!

So to be a cool new church plant these days, you need to a) meet in a movie theatre, b) have a cool, young, hip, preacher, and c) have a name that involves some sort of motion and/or action. I present to you, The Movement Church.

I found this place just driving down Wooster Road in Barberton. The marquee in front of the old theatre had their website (instead of the usual midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, which

sadly, I have seen once and only once because an ex girlfriend made me watch it) so I went to their site, it twas cool, so I bounced on in.

The theatre they meet in is the old West Theatre in Barberton. How old is The West? Let's just say that my mom, aunts, and uncles used to walk there when they were kids to see movies like The Ten Commandments and Lawrence of Arabia. Yeah, that old. But the place has tons of character, from the old box office out front to the concession stand inside. The seats were showing their age, though, and it was a little tight for a tall dude (6' 4" suckas!).

Once inside, I was greeted by a couple of very friendly people (sorry, don't remember their names, I was up late last night celebrating a certain countries independence). As with most good churches, the people were friendly but not pushy. There were about 30 or so people in attendence.

Worship was pretty good for being a new church plant (they just started in October of last year). They don't have a worship team or lead singer, but instead show worship videos on the big screen. No, not the best of ways to do it but definitely not the worst. But hey, they're not even a year old, so I give them a pass and honestly, it wasn't that bad.

I'm not sure what it is about church plants but they have the best speakers! This guy was great. Great message with just a hint of funny in there to keep you interested and a passion for spreading the Good News. He was a little long in the tooth (he admitted this himself) but really I didn't mind because it was that good.

His message was about how men should be fathers to their children (Ephesians 6:1-4). It ranged fro

m not-so-common sense of the fact that fathers need to spend time with their kids, guiding them and being an influence in their lives, to the spiritual of raising your kids to know God's love.

Communion and offering followed this, which was a unique experience. They had a table up front with the juice and bread on it, and one simply made their way up and took as they felt compelled. They had music playing while this was going on, so it didn't feel awkward. In reality, it was very cool. You don't feel rushed or compelled to take, but have some time to really think things through and pray about it. Same with the offering - there was just a bucket up front that people put their money in. Anyone looking for a way to change up their communion/offering time for the better, it's right here ($100 comission for me, thanks).

After this it was done and done.

What a great little church in Barberton! I have a feeling that this place won't be obscure for too long if they keep it up. Great people and the 2nd best preacher in Barberton (yes, 2nd, if I don't say 2nd, my old preacher, who lives in Barberton, might cry. You know I love you, Naterob!). If you're headed to Barberton, pass up the chicken (if you value your life, pass up the chicken) and check this place out. You won't be dissapointed.

Hugs and Kisses,

Revarina