Mindy goes to church alone

The Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist in the Admiral District of West Seattle, Seattle, Washington
The Reverend Kate E. Wesch was describing the impromptu use of the church building as a smoke sanctuary when air quality made it dangerous for children and those with breathing challenges to spend time outdoors. The families and children who came weren’t there for a worship service, she said, they were “simply enjoying this holy place.”

She talked about the meaning of the word sanctuary: a place of refuge and safety.

I appreciated hearing how members of the congregation and the community had come together to provide a place of refuge. Like most others in the Seattle area, I’d spent a good deal of the previous week concerned about the smoky air from distant fires. It was good to hear how the church had responded.

Then Kate talked about the Gospel reading for the morning, John 6:56-69. She said it was the end of the “Bread of Life” passage, and mentioned the connection with Communion. Then she quoted Take This Bread, a book that Dean and I refer to frequently, one that inspired a visit to another Episcopal church.

In that book, Sara Miles described her sudden and unexpected conversion to Christianity, a description that Kate (who said she was a “cradle Episcopal;” she'd been part of the Church her whole life) said, “has always stayed with me because it was so foreign to my experience.”

The congregation would be sharing communion -- good bread and wine -- together as the culmination of the worship service. In preparation, as she closed her sermon, Kate said that as the author of Take This Bread “found sanctuary that morning...I pray that we find it here together. I pray we find it here in this holy place of refuge.”

The smoke had, for the time being anyway, lifted outside, but inside, the sanctuary of the church was still very much present, even after the worship service when I joined others for a time of fellowship (and snacks).

We go to church, but miss the show

Sanctuary Christian Reformed Church, Seattle (Greenwood neighborhood), Washington

We've enjoyed worshiping with congregations who meet in movie theaters, but this week was the second time we've been able to worship in a church that meets in a Legitimate Theater. Taproot Theatre calls itself a “Professional theater in a neighborhood setting.” Mindy and I were both in theater in high school and college (different schools in different states -- and different plays), so we both have a fondness for the setting. And the background for the worship service was the set of Sweet Land, which ended the day before we visited. Sweet Land is set in rural Minnesota, so there’s a windmill in the backdrop. Which was cool.

The Sanctuary Church website suggested parking in the Fred Meyer parking lot, so we did that. (And went shopping afterwards because we haven’t been in a Fred Meyer for a long time). We walked the short block or two to the theater, where the big sign, obviously, was for the theater, but sidewalk signs let us know we’d arrived at the church.

A tall man greeted us as we entered, telling us we could sit in the balcony or downstairs, handing us the morning’s bulletin, and directing us to cofee. There was the free church coffee, of which MIndy partook, but if we’d wanted to pay, we could visit The Stage Door, which was also in the theater lobby. (Not surprisingly, we went with free coffee). Home baked snacks and Girl Scout cookies were available nearby (also free). While we were pondering goodies, a man introduced himself, “I’m Mark, one of the pastors here at Sanctuary.” We’d just started our conversation when someone came through ringing a bell to call us to worship. (It wasn’t a large steeple bell. And there wasn’t any flashing of lobby lights as is typical for theaters).

The service opened with “A Mighty Fortress” (the projected lyrics had a footnote for the definition of “Lord Sabaoth” as “Lord of Heaven’s Army”). A woman came forward to lead the call to worship (“My name is Jen and I’m one of the elders here at Sanctuary”).

Soon the children were escorted to class by their parents as the rest of us “passed the peace.” I was glad that it was a genuine greeting time, rather than people mechanically shaking hands and saying “peace be with you” to a set number of people. That rote greeting can be better than nothing, but I prefer a chance to chat with people. We met a delightful young woman, Elissa (maybe Alissa; we talked about the pronunciation but not the spelling of her name), who had been attending Sanctuary for nine years. I asked her how long the church had met in that theater. She said they’d been at Taproot for the whole time she’d been there, but she’d heard the church had originally met in a home. I asked what had drawn her to the church, and she said it was the worship and teaching.

Summer, the Pastor of Spiritual Formation and Mark’s wife, conducted an interview with Ashley and Jeff, a couple the church supports. They are leaders of the Graduate Christian Fellowship at the University of Washington, and they talked about caring for the whole person as part of that ministry. Over the summer, their group has hosted discussion groups with the chair of the Women’s Study Department about the #MeToo movement and talked to local journalists about the media in the age of Trump.

But they are beginning another ministry, a church plant. They were inviting, and they invited people to help out with a work day at the building where a Lutheran Church is allowing them to meet. I won’t write much more about the this, because we might make the plant a post in the future.

People were encouraged to write needs on response cards before a time of prayer, “We love knowing how to specifically pray for all of you.” The prayer also introduced the morning’s text, “As we learn from our Sister Esther, whether we are political activists, engineers, teachers, old and young, let us realize our influence, to have God shine through us.”

Pastor Mark was continuing a series on “Cloud of Witnesses” (the phrase comes from Hebrews 12:1, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses...”). He noted the Old Testament figures they’ve been studying were not necessarily “great.” Instead, they were often broken people, but God worked greatly through them.

He said he’d read up on Purim, the annual Jewish celebration where the book of Esther is always read. Listeners are encouraged to treat it like a melodrama, cheering Esther and Mordecai and booing Haman. Mark said maybe all Scripture reading should be done like this. He noted (as we’d heard a week or two in our visit to Calvary Chapel in West Seattle) that Esther is the only book in which God is not mentioned --which makes it a lot like most of our everyday life.

At Sanctuary Church, Mark noted, “We follow the Church calendar a little bit.” They celebrate Advent and Lent and Pentecost. Now, the time between Pentecost and Advent (most of the calendar year), is called Ordinary Time. It’s a time when coming together for worship weekly is especially important. Gathering together helps us remember God -- because we’ve probably forgotten Him some in the time in between.

Hebrews 12 was read for a benediction, and we were happy to be with this cloud of witnesses who are not just putting on a show, but seeking to remember and remind others of God’s work in the world.

We go to church and admire the book table

All Souls Church of Seattle, Washington
You know the old saying, “You can’t judge a church by its book covers.” (That’s how the saying goes, right?) In spite of that, when I saw the book table at the back of All Souls's meeting space, I could only think well of the church itself.

Of course there was a book by Timothy Keller (Shaped by the Gospel), I expected that. Keller is the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City. All Souls is an affiliate of Redeemer Presbyterian, and it was launched in partnership with Grace Seattle and the Metro Northwest Church Planting Network. I was actually surprised there was only one Keller book.

There were parenting books (Parenting is Heart Work by Dr. Scott Turansky) and books for kids (including as a children’s illustrated Bible). This wasn’t surprising either, as there were many kids in the church. (For safety’s sake, we try to be careful about children in photos, but as Mindy said, “Taking pictures without kids is difficult here. That’s a good thing.”) During the service, a father and his young son read Scripture (John 13) together. We saw a little girl wearing a unicorn horn headband. We talked to a teen who used to go to a church with three teens. He said he enjoyed being part of a church with plenty of other high schoolers.

I noticed Confessions by Augustine on the book table, which is one of the most important books of church history. After over a millennium and a half, it’s still changing lives. Sadly, in the few Christian bookstores that remain, you’re much more likely to find a Gigi, God’s Little Princess or a Bob the Tomato keychain than this classic.

Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (not a Christian book) was also on the book table. I tend to think it’s there to encourage a conversation interacting with the ethical dilemmas in the contemporary world (even though the book is approaching the century mark).

Best of all, I found Flannery O'Connor's Mystery and Manners, a book I dearly love, written by one of my favorite authors. We were able to visit her childhood home in Savannah, Georgia, when we were on our cross country trip.

Actually, that might not be the best thing of all on that table. The best thing on the table was probably the sign up for the City Service Day at Madison Middle School.

Madison Middle School is where the church meets. All Souls doesn’t own a church building, and I don’t know why. It might be a financial decision or it might be a strategic decision that allows the church to appeal to people who feel more comfortable in a school than in a traditional church building. I just don’t know.

Enough about the book table. On to the worship service. Andy Pelander, the church’s organizing pastor, introduced the call to worship. He said “The call to worship is a call to Sabbath, it is anchoring language, an invitation to rest.” The Call to Worship is written in the program, as almost everything is, including the song lyrics (they don’t use a screen). It must be a little costly to print the twelve page booklet every week, but as noted, they aren’t paying a mortgage.

Before leading the prayer of confession, Andy said, “What is confession? Confession is acknowledging reality. Only through the Gospel is approaching reality a form of rest.”

The Rev Matthew Bohling was the guest speaker that morning. Matthew was pastor of Living Hope Presbyterian Church, a sister church that “closed unexpectedly” after 68 years. Matthew and his family have been attending All Souls since spring, along with several other families from the church.

The church is working through a series on the Psalms, and Matthew was preaching on Psalm 127 which he said is his favorite Psalm. It happens to be mine as well. Much of the focus of the sermon was on verse 2 of the Psalm, “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat -- for He grants sleep to those He loves.”

He said rest is an unappreciated spiritual discipline, pointing out that a tenth of the Big Ten Commandments are about rest. He said, “What if God is more interested in giving rest than we are in receiving it?”

I give a lot of thought to sleep. I’m a night auditor, working 11:00 pm to 7:00 am and sleeping during the day, which isn’t always easy. Matthew said “Going to bed is an act of faith,” and I could relate to that. Sleep is a gift.

A good friend suffered from insomnia due to complications from a serious illness. I remember how, when she didn’t sleep, she wondered if God still loved her. (He does, by the way. He gifted my friend in multiple other ways, and has used her to bless others in many ways as well.)

The service ended with communion, as it does regularly. There were options: regular or gluten free bread, wine or grape juice. The bread and wine were tasty, which sadly is not a common thing.

My initial judgement of the church, from looking at those book covers, was quite favorable. The service itself, and time talking with congregants, only improved my opinion.

rare sighting of a pastor's actual sermon notes

We go to church at the Senior Center

Calvary Chapel West Seattle, Seattle, Washington
“We used to joke that we were ‘Coming to a neighborhood near you!’” Pastor Randy Leskovar said. Calvary Chapel West Seattle has gathered in a variety of places, but for the last few years, they’ve settled down at the Senior Center of West Seattle I should make it clear that very few of the people in attendance at the Sunday night service we visited would be considered seniors. all the people that came would not be considered seniors. (You might think Mindy and I are seniors, but you'd be wrong.)

The evening service met in a room containing two of our favorite things: a library -- or at least a book wall -- where I spent some time reading titles before the service began; and a bar. No one was serving food or drinks while we were there, but a sign behind the counter read, "No Minors, No Overservice." The only service going on while we were there, though, was a worship service, which was fine with us. We've already been to one church that met in a bar.

Before the service began, we were able to talk with Pastor Randy for a bit. He’s been part of Calvary Chapel for thirty years and a pastor with the denomination for twenty-five. He was in the military before that, and we talked about war and current events.

As people arrived, we sat at small tables arranged in a semicircle. Jamie, who was leading the singing, has a newborn at home, so he was a little late (everyone agreed that new babies provide a pretty good excuse). There were about a dozen of us, and we began by singing “King of my Heart,” followed by several other choruses.

Pastor Randy led a time of prayer, mentioning those who were sick and those looking for work. Then he announced upcoming events: Franklin Graham will be holding a special meeting at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma August 12th; the church will have an All Church Fun Day on September 30th; in October, men’s and women’s Bible Studies begin again. There was also an announcement for an evangelism outing, but they needed three guys to “make it work.”

Pastor Randy asked us to turn to Esther 10, the last chapter of the book they’d been studying. He reminded us that this was an interactive service, and we could feel free to interrupt. Randy read the whole chapter (out of the New King James Version) -- it’s only three verses long -- and summed up what had happened in the couple of chapters before. He told of the downfall of Haman and the exaltation of Mordecai. Here’s the entire chapter, “And King Ahasuerus imposed tribute on the land and on the islands of the sea. Now all the acts of his power and his might, and the account of the greatness of Mordecai, to which the king advance him, are they not written in the book of the kings of Media and Persia? For Mordecai the Jew was second to King Ahasuerus, and was great among the Jews and well received by the multitude of his brethren, seeking the good of his people and speaking to all his countrymen.”

On first glance, there isn’t much to discuss in the chapter. And we didn’t take long discussing it. (Though it did make me wonder about “the book of the kings of Media and Persia;” I hadn’t noticed it in the titles of the books on the wall.)

We moved to the first chapter of another book of the Bible, Jeremiah, and the interactive discussion ranged from Jeremiah’s youthful call to the importance of Christians being involved in government and public policy. Randy talked about how God has ordained us to be in the time we live -- probably the last days -- and said we’re running the anchor leg of history.

When the clock said time was up, Randy wrapped up the conversation, which would continue in the week to come. We were glad to have been a part of that conversation, which may well continue until the Lord comes again.