Church Attendance - 090913 - Christ United Methodist Church

Today I attended Christ United Methodist Church in Jackson, MS. I'll call it CUMCJ now, as a shorthand.

This is the second time I've attended this church recently, and it reinforces my feelings from my first attendance there.

First, some background. I have been a member of and participant in Methodist churces most of my life, so coming back to a Methodist church is somewhat comfortable for me, like coming home, even in a new Methodist church.

That said, let me chat a bit about my experience there today.

It's a large church. The attendance today was about 2,000, according to the associate pastor (Ricky James) who mentioned this had been their regular attendance recently.

There are wonderful things to be said for being part of a large church. Besides the immense resources available as a conequence of having a large budget, there's a certain level of energy that can come from a large congregation that is much more difficult to achieve with a smaller group.

The service began with an orchestral call to woship. The CUMC orchestra is quite good, and sizeable enough to get a good and balanced sound. They played a quite good arrangement of "Just A Little Talk With Jesus."

In the large sanctuary, with no amplification for the orchestra, and many of the orchestral instrumentation blocked behind the fairly large altar, it was difficult to hear them well. It didn't help that they played this as many of the congregation were still arriving, and most of the people were talking to each other and ignoring the orchestra. It was almost as though the orchestral prelude was intended as background music.

If I were a member of this orchestra, I might feel a bit unappreciated to be treated this way. But it' not about being appreciated, is it. Even so, orchestra members are people, too, and if they put in the kind of effort they do to present such a good performance, it seems people ought to pay more attention.

It was perhaps the way it was presented, the timing, and the fact that perhaps they were already playing as most people arrived?

Whatever the reason, I felt the orchestra did a much better job than they were recognized for.

And yes, I know it's not about the recognition, but still.

Then the 3-5 grade children's choir sang "I Will Praise You, O Lord," and did a nice job of it. They got some applause from the congregation.

Following that were two songs of praise, two wonderful old favorites, "Come, Christians Join To Sing," and "Sweet, Sweet Spirit."

I love these old hymns, and joined in singing with full voice.

It wasn't long before I noticed I was the only one I could hear. I stopped singing and looked around, and then I could hear Jan singing beside me, and I could hear the music minister, Chuck Weatherford, singing with his microphone. I could see other people mouthing the words, but I couldn't hear them, and I couldn't hear the choir at all.

Then it dawned on me: These "hymns of praise" were really an ORGAN concert with a very faint music minister accompaniment.

That's all I could really hear.

I began to examine the faces of the others in the congregation, and I could see them singing, but I could also see that for most of them, their minds were elsewhere. One of them was actually reading his Worship Bulletin while he sang.

Hmm.

There weren't very many (any?) people that I could see who were truly involved in the praise experience. Isn't that what "songs of praise" (so titled in the bulletin) are supposed to be about?

I won't go into detail in this posting about my feelings on this area (congregational involvement in the worship experience), but I'll be posting a more extensive meditation on that subject in the near future.

The following sections of the service, the opening prayer the psalter, two baptisms, the children's departure, and another prayer, went by ritualistically. I felt some involvement of the people during the baptisms, but I had to wonder, how many of the people in the congregation, most of whom said they would protect and nurture these newly baptized children, will actually follow through on what they said? It would be wonderful if many of them would.

Then there was the offertory, with the choir singing a very subdued arrangement of "As The Deer." It was a beautiful arrangement, but the orchestra did not play at all. I have no doubts it could have been much more poignant if they had used an arrangement that made use of the orchestra.

Then they had a scripture reading, and the message.

The message was good, "A Riotous Faith," about not making idols out of anything, including money or romance or family or any worldly concern.

The echo of the sound system in the sanctuary made it difficult to understand all the words, and so a bit frustrating at times to listen. But overall it was a good message, and I feel some of the congregation might have taken something valuable away with them.

Overall, it was a good service, but I'm not going to hurry back to this church.

Why?

It felt to me like too much ritual and too little involvement. It might be me, it might be that I just haven't gotten close enough to what's going on there, but I have been other places where I felt closer to the Holy Spirit, where I felt more involved in the worship experience, where I felt the music truly uplifted the people into worship.

While CUMC was comfortable, it just didn't feel to me like the place where I need to go to release the spirit of worship in me.

So I'll keep checking out other churches in the area.

I know God has a place for me; and I am confident He will show me where it is.

In His time.

It's so difficult, sometimes, to be patient. To wait on God's timing.

But He knows His plans for us. Plans to prosper us and not to harm us. So I'm not going to force my impatience onto His plans.

I'll continue to look around.