We Go to Afternoon Church (or was it evening?)

Grace Clovis Presbyterian Church, Clovis

We don’t hear enough about Amos, one of the minor prophets of the Old Testament. Back in high school, my youth pastor did a few Bible studies with me. First we work through the book of Hebrews, and then we went through the Book of Amos. I remember studying that book with a map.

Amos addresses Israel and tells them of the judgment coming to other nations. My youth pastor Barry pointed out that Amos starts with judgment on Israel’s neighbors -- which must have made the Israelites exclaim, “Preach it! Those heathens deserve your wrath!” Eventually, though, the warnings get a little closer to home, and Amos tells the Israelites that God’s wrath is coming to them because of their sin, wrath like a lion attacking its prey.

As I said, Amos doesn’t seem to get preached often, but when we visited Grace Clovis Presbyterian Church, the congregation was working their way through the prophecy. The sermon focussed on chapter 3, verses 9 -15 the afternoon of our visit.

We went to the 4:00 pm Sunday service, which the bulletin described as the “evening service.” (During the sermon, the pastor said both, “this morning” and “this evening.” The latter was more accurate, but neither seemed quite appropriate for the time of day. It’s an afternoon service in my book.)

We were greeted by Pastor Brad Mills and his wife Carrie. We told them about our project of visiting churches, but mentioned that we had adopted The Bridge in Fresno as our home church for now. They told us they had met at the Bridge (back when it was called Fresno Evangelical Free Church; Carrie referred to it as “EVFree”). They told us Grace Clovis is a PCA (Presbyterian Church of America) church plant, a daughter church of Sierra View Presbyterian Church in Fresno. Grace started as a home Bible study in 2013 and had their first worship service in 2014.  They now have Sunday School at 8:00 am, morning worship at 9:00 am (where they’re working through Peter’s first letter to the Church), and the 4:00 pm service we attended.

Brad and Carrie have been pleased with the growth of the church. We learned that we were visiting on a low attendance day. Carrie mentioned that the night before they’d had a church game night, and a number of people had let her know they wouldn’t make it to the service.

The service began with a call to worship from Psalm 134. Singing led into a prayer time with an opportunity for people to share prayer requests (sometime that doesn’t happen in the morning service because the group tends to be larger).  One prayer request was for a house sale (“Many of you helped with the clean-up, and we are thankful”).  A young man, Chandler, hopes to go on a mission trip in the summer and is looking for wisdom (Japan or Cambodia?). One request was for the new widow who has been a missionary in France with her husband. He passed away suddenly two hours after preaching a sermon, and now she is trying to decide whether to continue to serve in France or to return to the States.

The responsive reading was questions 16,  17, and 18 from the Westminster Shorter Catechism along with their answers.  (I mentioned I don’t hear enough from Amos, but I also don’t hear enough from the Westminster Shorter Catechism. It opens with one of the most profound things ever written outside of Scripture, “What is the chief end of Man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” I love the use of the word “enjoy.”) Brad said, “There is some important doctrine in the confession, but you should look up the Scriptural proofs that go with it.”

Brad’s sermon was titled “A Powerless People.” As a background for the passage, he mentioned some things from earlier chapters that I remember Barry bringing up way back when. The people of Israel were “Amening” the condemnation of their neighbors, but were not pleased when the judgment came to them. The Israelites were called out for what might today be called social justice failings. They were oppressing the poor, seeking their own hedonistic pleasures.

Amos uses the lion as an important symbol for justice. Since he was probably a shepherd, with the attendant worries of lions attacking his sheep, Amos may speak from his own experience when, in chapter 3, he uses rather grisly imagery of “when lions attack.” Because of the predominance of this symbol, Brad used a lion graphic for the sermon series. (Perhaps another reason I appreciate this book is because my brother works with big cats, including lions, through an organization he founded called Project Survival.)

In the sermon, Brad mentioned something he didn’t think we see enough of in the church -- church discipline. “We must be committed to practicing church discipline, but it is practically absent in the evangelical church today. We should be willing to submit to leadership. We need a distinct morality.”

I found this interesting, because one of the more common things we hear when we talk about churches to people in bars to people is that they don’t want to be judged. And we’ve heard horrible stories about people rejected in churches because of the way they dress or the way they look or their life circumstances -- but does that mean there’s no place for discipline or judgment in the Church?

It might be a silly example, but I was thinking of athletes. What if, say, a figure skater said, “I don’t want to be judged. Let me just go out on the ice and do my thing, but no judgments. Still, a medal would be nice.”

That would be absurd.

But perhaps it’s just as absurd for those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ to expect to never be called out for our bad behavior. The people Amos was calling out were really hurting other people, and God wasn’t about to let such injustice slide. I don’t think the people we talk to in the bars would say, “Oh yes, if people are committing acts of violence and stealing from other people, it’s all cool. Don’t make it into a thing.”

It’s a quite different thing for a person to willingly submit to a church for accountability than for people to take it upon themselves to judge others.

Church discipline is not an easy or fun topic, but it’s important, and I was glad to hear Brad addressing it.

After church we talked to Justin and Jenny (whose son Chandler asked for prayer during the worship service). I asked what brought them to the church.

Justin said that they had moved from Mississippi last summer, and they came to the church because he already knew Brad -- they’d been in seminary together. Still, Justin said, “If I didn’t agree with the direction that Brad was taking the church, we would still be friends, but I’d go somewhere else.”

Jenny expressed her gratitude for people in the church who had helped them when they moved to the community.  “They are the nicest group of folks. They helped us set up our home. That’s the hands of Christ.”  

“It’s a community,” Justin added.

We were happy to be a part of the community, if only for one afternoon. Or evening. The time of day really doesn’t matter, I guess. What matters is that this church seems to be a place where God is at work.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 5 minutes

Sermon Length: 33 minutes

Visitor Treatment: We were the first to arrive, so we stood out a bit. A number of people greeted us as they came in.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: None

Our Rough Count: 34

Probable Ushers’ Count: 40

Snacks: none

Musicians: keyboards (woman)

Songs: "MIghty to Save"

"God of Grace:

"Christ is Mine Forevermore"

"I Sing the Mighty Power of God"

Distance to Church: 5 miles

Open WiFi: no

Tie/Suit Count: none

Church Website: graceclovis.org

Thanks to Cate Mills, who Mindy asked to take three pictures of important things about the church. 

We Go to Church for Training

Carter Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church, Fresno

Gladys didn’t come for the evangelism training, “I came for Bible study, but this is good too.” We were supposed to divide into pairs and discuss what might keep us from sharing the Good News about Jesus with other people. Gladys said nothing did. “I’ll be celebrating my 85th birthday this year and God has always been faithful to me. Yes, there have been hard times, but God has always been there.”

Many of us have a harder time talking about what God’s done in our lives. That’s why the sponsors of “Good News in the Valley” (also known as “Fresno City Fest” -- coming April 1st & 2nd at Save Mart Center) scheduled evangelism training at different churches throughout the city. We were happy they held a Wednesday night meeting, because we’re trying to got to church on Wednesdays evenings this month. (Have you noticed that worship services aren’t all we write about?)

Michael greeted us at the door. We later learned he's been at all the training sessions. He asked how I was, and I said, “Well.”

I asked how he was, and he said, “Blessed.” A cheerful and gregarious guy, Michael told me about the Festival he attended last year in Southern California, at Angels Stadium. He told me about the thrill of seeing thousands put their trust in Christ in that Festival, and how he was looking forward to seeing the same in Fresno. He told me 1,500 counselors had been trained, but they’d be needed for the thousands that would be coming.

Before the meeting started, I walked around inside Carter Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church. A wall to one side of the sanctuary was filled with pictures of the founders of the AME denomination along with pictures of pastors of Carter Memorial including their current pastor, the Reverend Sharon Avril. A group of people was finishing up a meeting at a table in the room, and we later learned they were taking a membership class. Since part of the membership class was evangelism training, they were taking advantage of the Festival session along with the rest of us.

Jeff, one of the leaders of the training, introduced himself to me before the meeting. A woman from Carter Memorial asked if he was my pastor, and I told her no.

Pastor Avril opened the meeting in prayer and welcomed all in attendance. Jeff came forward and mentioned that he and Pastor Avril were both members of the West Fresno Ministerial Alliance, an association of churches that has been working together for over 60 years.

Jeff talked about the upcoming event and said the purpose was to lift up Jesus; it was not about lifting up any particular person or church or evangelist. (The evangelist that he was talking about, I assume, that the Fest was not looking to lift up is Luis Palau. Palau has been called a successor to Billy Graham. Born in Argentina, Palau now has an evangelistic organization based in Oregon, but he has preached around the world, even in China in 2005.)

Jeff turned the podium over to Javier, who was to talk about the need for evangelism. He discussed the need to be open to God’s leading, telling us about driving to meeting in Fresno when he felt God urging him to stop at a Valero gas station along the way.  He stopped and saw a young man he knew. The young man said he was considering suicide. Javier counseled the man, who gave his life to Christ, and has now been active in a church for years. He urged people to pray in the time before City Fest, “We need to talk to God about people, before we talk to people about God,” he said.

Using a fill in the blanks handout, we were reminded “People are _______ without God” (“lost” was the missing word). We were encouraged to remember that just as Jesus Christ came into the world to save the lost, we are to be His witnesses.

Jeff and Javier traded off speaking, and they went on to talk about obstacles to sharing Christ and the importance of knowing the Gospel message so we would be able to share it. We were encouraged to write up a short summary of the Gospel message. (FWIT, I wrote, “All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory, and sin leads to death. But God sent his Son, Jesus, to die for our sins, so that we would know God’s forgiveness and eternal life.”) People were encouraged to share what they had written with the group, and all of the responses were given positive encouragement from the leaders. (Mindy and I didn’t read what we'd written aloud. She was still writing when they called for responses.)

We were encouraged to think of people from various parts of our lives: friends, family, neighbors, coworkers, etc. that don’t know Jesus and therefore need our prayers. We were encouraged to write those first names on two pieces of paper -- one list for our personal prayer life and on another card to be turned in so that Festival associates can also be praying for them. (Just so you know, Karen, Kay, Roscoe and Sandra -- someone is praying for you.)

There was discussion of how to begin conversations about spiritual issues. Some people suggested variations on “Where do you go to church?” which probably isn’t the best in a place where many people don’t go church and never have gone to church. Other suggestions for questions included, “Are you happy?” and “What’s important to you?” The importance of listening to people AND the Spirit of God was stressed.

Those who attended the training were encouraged to be counselors at City Fest. Counselors (or “Friends of City Fest”) were asked to go to a special tent at the Festival, where they would be registered and given an orange t-shirt to identify them as counselors. At the end of the evening worship meetings, people who want to follow Jesus won’t be called forward; instead, they’ll be asked to raise their hands so counselors can go to them.  

Toward the end of the training time, someone quoted Acts 1:8 (NIV), “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Javier said, “We are at the ends of the earth here in Fresno. You can look it up on the map.” It will be exciting to see what God does here at the ends of the earth in April.

We go to Church for Very Traditional Reasons

First Presbyterian Church, Fresno

I happened to catch a little of Jimmy Kimmel’s late night monologue on Ash Wednesday. He was talking about what he thought the day meant. “My mom goes to church, and they put ashes on her forehead to show she’s more religious than I am.” This tension between religious practice done to please God or to put on a show for yourself didn’t exactly originate on Jimmy Kimmel Live! After all, Jesus brought the issue up a time or two.

In Matthew 6: 16 - 18, Jesus said, “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

I really appreciated that particular Scripture passage being read together with the Isaiah 58 passage about true fasting because Ash Wednesday begins the season of Lent, a time when Christians traditionally prepare for Holy Week/Good Friday/Easter. But not all Christians participate.

Pretty much all Christians are down with Good Friday and Easter, but it’s Catholics and Orthodox who have, through the centuries, maintained Lenten traditions. Episcopalians (and a few other Protestant denominations) have recognized the season, but when Mindy was growing up in Presbyterian churches, Ash Wednesday wasn’t especially noted. For me, growing up in the Evangelical Free Church, the day was never mentioned (and still wasn’t in the Ev. Free Church we attend now).

So what is Ash Wednesday? It is the beginning of the season of lent, preparing for the remembrance of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Ashes were in Scripture a symbol of grief and mourning. In Christian tradition, the ashes on this day symbolize sorrow for sin. Traditionally, churches often use the palms from Palm Sunday, to be burned for Ash Wednesday ashes. The ashes are also a symbol of the transitory nature of life, referring to Genesis 3:19, “For dust you are, and to dust you will return.”

Over the past few decades, many Presbyterian churches have begun recognizing Ash Wednesday with special worship services, so we were pleased to be able to attend an Ash Wednesday service. (We were even more pleased, because we had already decided that this month, we’d visit churches for Wednesday night services and events, because a lot of churches seem to have Wednesday evening gatherings here in Fresno.)

Upon entering the church, we were greeted by ushers; as first time visitors we were given a pine slice with a thread with Habakkuk 3: 17 & 18 inscribed on one side. (“It’s Scripture,” the usher told us.)

First Presbyterian Church of Fresno is an Evangelical Presbyterian Church and has been since 2009, but the church traces its foundation back to 1882 and has been in its current building since 1950. Formerly the congregation was a part of the larger PCUSA (Presbyterian Church of the United States of America) denomination. (Tangential story: Years ago, Mindy had a temp job as a corporate spy, sort of. She was sent out to investigate whether a restaurant that used to be an A&W, was still using any A&W trademarked materials. Among other things, we found the A&W logo on the inside of lamps and on napkin dispensers. We were reminded of that experience at Fresno First Presbyterian when we noticed a children’s book in the pew. It was put out by the PCUSA to help children learn about worship services, and it featured worshiping mice.)

The service opened with the bell choir. As the worship service continued, we sang both hymns and choruses. A prayer for illumination preceded the Scripture reading, and after that, Meagan Bergem, the church’s director of junior high ministries (it’s a full time staff position) delivered a short sermon. Another staff member  member stood by her and prayed for her before the message.

Meagan first acknowledged her students, “It’s awesome to see beautiful junior hIgh students in the front row,” and then the rest of the congregation, “It is a privilege to talk about Jesus with you.” Her message was called, “When the Infinite Meets the Finite,” and she used I John 4: 7-10 as her text, focusing on God’s love for us and how we should express love to others. She used the old saying, “Love people, use things; the opposite never works.” But, as she pointed out, loving people requires risk and vulnerability. She encouraged students to risk spending time with people who are different. She encouraged adults to go to lunch with someone who votes differently (we do live in odd times when that’s a thing).

The sermon served as an introduction to the Lenten season as, we were told, “a time we dwell on the brokenness of our sin but there is hope.” The season is all about “bringing the infinite love of Jesus into our finite lives” and reminding us that “to know joy, we must know suffering.”

Before the “imposition” of ashes, another staff member led in a time of prayer. “We’ll be silent for two to five minutes,” she said, “which is longer than some of us are used to. But I’ll watch the clock so you don’t have to.”

After the silent prayer, people were invited to come forward. “We’ll make a sign of the cross on your forehead. It may not look like a cross, -- no guarantees,” the pastor said. People went forward to receive the mark decently and in order, as Presbyterians do. (There a couple people on the worship team who already had an ash cross on their foreheads. I believe there was a service at Fresno State at noon that day, along with other services in the community.)

The service concluded with an offering accompanied by the bell choir. (The bell choir played “Sing Hallelujah” which didn’t involve singing. This struck me as odd.)

After the service, a couple in the row in front of us introduced themselves. They used to go to a large independent church, they said, but came to First Presbyterian a couple of years ago. The first time they visited they found the music “majestic,” and they haven’t considered going anywhere else since.

We will be going somewhere else -- we always do. But we were happy to celebrate Ash Wednesday with the good, sooty people of First Presbyterian Fresno.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 9 minutes

Sermon Length: 16 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Greeters at the entrance welcomed us. We found connection cards in the pew and dropped one in the offering plate. The couple in the row ahead of us greeted us after the service was over. Otherwise, no particular notice was taken of visitors.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 157

Probable Ushers’ Count: 175

Snacks: none

Musicians: organ (woman)
bell choir (3 men, 5 women)
piano (man)
vocals (man and woman)
violin (woman)
bass (man)
drums (man)
vocals (woman)

Songs: 3 Lenten Impressions (organ prelude)
"Breathe" bell choir
"Our Great Savior"
"Praise to the Lord, the Almighty"
"I Shall Not Want"
"Lord, I Need You"
"Sing Hallelujah" (offertory, bells)
"Glory Be"

Distance to Church: 6 miles

Open WiFi: no

Tie/Suit Count: 2

Church Website: http://www.fpcfresno.org/

We Walk to One More Neighborhood Church

Immanuel Community Church, Fresno

“I’m not the usher, I’m just helping. Please make yourself at home,” said the woman standing near the door as she handed us bulletins.  As we walked into the sanctuary, many people welcomed us, sometimes shaking our hands. One of the most welcoming gestures was the one that included giving us earpieces.

The congregation of Immanuel Community Church is primarily people of Indonesian heritage, and Indonesian is the language of the service. We were given the earpieces so we could listen to an interpreter who sits in a small room in the back of the sanctuary translating the worship service into English.

After the service I thanked the translator and asked her how many sets of ear pieces the church had. She said they had 14 sets, but if I invited friends they would buy more. (I should add she did a great job of keeping up with all that was said throughout the service.)

During the piano prelude, most people bowed their heads. (That is certainly a difference in church cultures. There are churches where people are chatting and laughing right up until someone in front hushes them. In this church, “solemn prayer” begins and ends the worship service; it’s a time of silence, prayer, and meditation. There is something to be said for the both the cheerful fellowship of one style of preparing for worship and the quiet reverence of the other.)

A woman liturgist opened the service, greeting the congregation (in Indonesian, of course), “Though the weather is cool outside, we here can warm each other.” There was a reading from Psalm 18. The Scriptures read during the service were projected on the screen in Indonesian and English, but it was only read in Indonesian. Of course, the singing was almost all n Indonesian.

In the prayer time, prayers for for those who have “stepped away back from You,” “mercy to reach our younger generation,” and prayer “for those in Indonesia that they might find a place of worship”. (Though Islam is the majority religion in their home country, there is a tradition of religious pluralism.) There was also prayer that God would enable us to avoid temptation.

After the opening songs, a greeting time, prayer, and scripture reading, the congregation divided. Some stayed in the sanctuary for more Indonesian worship, while others went to a different building for an English language service. Most of the young people go to the English service and Mindy went as well, but I stayed in the Indonesian service.*

A guest speaker, Pastor Johanes Sudarma from San Leandro, spoke in the Indonesian service. He introduced himself, explaining that his name meant “John.” He also expressed admiration for the name of the church, Immanuel, meaning “God with us.”

The sermon was based on II Samuel 23, which tells about King David's mighty men. The title of the sermon was “Lion Chaser” because Pastor Sudarma focused on Benaiah, a mighty man who killed a lion in a pit on a snowy day. He spoke of the strength and power of a lion and how difficult it would be to defeat such a creature. (I found it very easy to picture the strength of a lion, since I was recently at my brother’s place, Project Survival’s Cat Haven, and spent some time near Titan, a majestic 450 pound lion.)

He used David’s mighty men as examples of those who dreamed big and achieved great things, but he also used Thomas Edison, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Billy Graham as examples of those who dreamed big and accomplished much. The sermon provided a bonus challenge to the translator, because once in awhile English phrases or whole sentences would be dropped in with the Indonesian, and she would have to decide whether to repeat the English (especially if it was just a phrase) or assume I got it.

One of the closing songs was “Bapa Engkau Sungguh Barik.” I knew I had no hope of singing along with it, but the Doxology was a tighter call. Both the Indonesian lyrics and the English lyrics were displayed, but everyone was singing the Indonesian lyrics. So what was I do do? I hummed.

After the sermon, the offering was collected in red and black baskets. The money in the red basket was to be used for ministry, and the money in the black basket was for building maintenance. The service concluded with announcements, including choir practice for Good Friday and Easter services, cell group meetings, and Bible readings for the week).

Quite a few people invited us to stay for lunch, and the Hermono family provided a wonderful spread in celebration of their son’s birthday. There were Indonesian snacks by the hot tea dispenser, birthday cake, and several dishes that seemed to be Chinese rather than Indonesian. Whatever the style, the food was very good.

We had a good time talking with people after church, both about their ministry and about our adventures visiting churches. I asked a man named Laurence why he attended Immanuel. He said that he wasn’t a Christian when he first visited the church as a student. But when he faced a difficult time in his life, he realized he needed the Lord.

Immanuel Community Church obviously provides a sense of community to Indonesian people in the area, but as a non-Indonesian, we were made to feel part of the family as well.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 45 minutes

Sermon Length: about an hour

Visitor Treatment: A number of people greeted us as we came in or as they passed where we were sitting. During the greeting time, people around us came up to shake hands. We were invited several times to stay for lunch after the worship service and encouraged to come back next week.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 70

Probable Ushers’ Count: 100

Snacks: hot tea, various sweet and savory snacks including raisins, pastries, and mango; sodas, several vegetable and chicken dishes, rice, as well as 2 birthday cakes

Musicians: vocals (3 women)

Keyboards (one or two men)

Piano (man)

Drums (man)

Songs: “The Upward Way”

“Mighty to Save”

“For God, There is Nothing Impossible”

“Father, You are so Good”

“Doxology”

Distance to Church: around the block, although we were told about a break that someone had cut into the church’s fence on the edge of our our apartment complex...so we could have jumped the wall and gotten in that way.

Open WiFi: no

Tie/Suit Count: The visiting speaker wore a suit and tie

Church Website: www.iccfresno.org

*Though most of the people in the English worship appeared to be junior high, high school, or college aged, there were several adults. Mindy was impressed with the message (based on part of Psalm 23, it included some fascinating facts about sheep, along with exhortation to remain close to Jesus, the Good Shepherd, particularly during dark times.)