We go to church back east

Trinity Baptist Church, Clarkston, Washington
You could say that today’s post was years in the making.

Back in 2014, as we started this blog, we were figuring out how to pick a church, whether or not we should mention our project as we talked to people in a church, whether we’d kill each other after being cooped up in the car hours on end….There were a lot of questions. We decided to practice visiting churches in 2015, starting in January by going to the furthest North, South, East, and West churches we could find in the state. It meant a lot of driving and a lot of hours in the car every weekend.

We survived and enjoyed the process. We did a lot more driving during 2015, and during 2016, we made it to churches in all 50 states. It made sense to us that now, since we live in a different state and plan to finish up our weekly church visits at the end of the year, we should go to the furthest North, South, East, and West churches in our new home state (especially since we barely scratched one corner of the state in 2016). This week, we started by going east.

On Saturday afternoon, we left Seattle and headed to Clarkston. It was getting late, and we didn’t trust the back roads Google maps recommended, so we chose an alternate route. It sent us through Lewiston, Idaho, just after dark, then over the Snake River back into Washington. We found a Motel 6 on Bridge Street in Clarkston, a couple blocks from the border, and settled in so that in the morning we could visit what we figured (through our incredibly scientific reckoning) is the most easterly church in Washington state, Trinity Baptist Church.

When we told Gloria, a woman in the church, we came to the church because it was the furthest east, she laughed and said, “It’s also the best.” Gloria was one of several people who greeted us as we entered Trinity Baptist Church. It’s not a large congregation, and we were conspicuously visitors.

When I shook hands with Pastor Doran Williams he asked if I’d phoned the night before. I had, to check the service times, and he recognized “Dean” from the caller I.D. We gave him our card, and he also welcomed us from the front during the service.

A common complaint about worship services, particularly contemporary services, from elderly church attenders is that there’s too much standing during the singing. This was not the case at Trinity Baptist. The musicians were all seated as they led the singing, and the congregation was seated most of the time. (People stood when we began singing “I Stand in Awe of You,” because, well, you’d feel silly if you didn’t. They also stood for the reading of the Scripture.) Tom, one of the guitar players in the worship team, performed special music, “Life’s Railway to Heaven,” a gospel number that Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash (and many others) recorded.

Pastor Doran began his message with a very unusual request for the congregation, “Those of you who have been praying for your pastor to lose weight… Please stop it!” It was a lighthearted approach to something very serious. He’s battling Myelodysplastic syndromes, a bone marrow disorder. Chemo has resulted in a loss of appetite and a loss of weight. In a conversation after the service, he mentioned his disease to explain his need to wear a surgical mask before and after the service (his white blood cell count has suffered). He has also written a little about his struggle with illness in his blog posts. He noted that pastors are not exempt from hardship, but that, like all believers, they can trust God will be present throughout trials (citing Isaiah 43: 2 & 3).

I’m guessing Pastor Doran has been working through the book of Colossians, because this Sunday he spoke on the second half of the third chapter, “The Successful Christian Family.” He used examples from his own family growing up, discussing the discipline he received from his parents (he and his brother would sneak out during nap times, and his mother would track them down and give him a “whippin’” on the way home.) as well as examples from his own parenting experiences (when his son had a friend pierce his ear -- which soon became infected). He pointed out that though it’s strange for us to see slavery mentioned in this passage about families, in that day slaves were often a part of the household. (He also noted that slavery during that time was much different than the more cruel form slavery took in American history: “read Uncle Tom’s Cabin.”)

I appreciated that he noted that though this passage talked about husbands and wives, the passage still had things to teach us about living in relationship with others in the family of Christ whether we’re married or not (I get a little irritated when preachers assume that everyone is part of a two parent, two child family, with a dog and a cat and a white picket fence.).

I was able to talk to a couple of folks about what they appreciated about Trinity Baptist Church. Gloria said she appreciated Pastor Doren’s preaching, “I have learned so much from him.”

Pastor Doren said he appreciated that Trinity Baptist was a “caring community,” noting the “love people have for one another.” I asked him about strengths of the church, but he volunteered a weakness, “there aren’t enough young people.” We did notice several teens in attendance.

The church seemed to be doing a good job of caring for the people who were there. They did a good job welcoming us, visitors from the Wild West. We’re looking forward to seeing what the other points of the compass in Washington have in store for us this month.

We go to a Hymn Sing (with snacks!)

Northwest Church, Fresno, California

Something that intrigued us last year when we were visiting churches in every state, was the number of churches that targeted young people, but used hymns in worship. We went to several urban churches with congregations composed primarily of those in their twenties and thirties that used works by Watts and Wesley, along with other hymnists old and new. Often the hymns had new settings, and they weren't accompanied by an organ but rather by a worship band with electric guitars and drums.

We were at Northwest Church’s Primetimers last Saturday afternoon, and Pastor Bob asked the group, “How many of you love the old hymns?” I do believe everyone raised their hands. This wasn’t much of a surprise, because the event was, after all, a hymn sing. We’d heard the event announced at the 11:00 am “Live and Loud” worship service the Sunday before, and we decided we wanted to go. The music at Sunday’s service had not been hymns. As was true of most large churches we’ve visited in the Fresno area (especially those targeting young families), they mainly sang choruses with the worship band’s volume to eleven.

Saturday’s Hymn Sing was an event designed for those of retirement age (besides the sound guy, I’d guess we were the youngest in attendance). When we entered, we were greeted by many, and Margaret invited us to sit at her table. In the announcement we’d heard in Sunday’s service, the event was called a dessert potluck. But Pizza Hut was on the table, so we asked about that. “Some people in the group are diabetic,”  Margaret answered, “so we opened it up to finger food.” Mindy and I both regretted having eaten lunch already -- not that it stopped us from filling up our plates. (Mindy brought churro cream puffs with apple pie filling, by the way.)

There was lively conversation around the table. Bill and Kay sat next to me, and Bill mentioned that they too had been to all fifty states. He talked about churches he’d visited in various places. Usually, they’d been greeted warmly (he remembered a Methodist Church with a woman pastor that he’d happily revisit) but one church in their travels was an exception. Everyone treated them cooly, and the only reason they could figure for this was that Kay had been wearing slacks, while all the other women wore dresses.

I asked if Primetimers was the name of a Sunday School class in the church and was told it wasn’t. Primetimers is the name for special events for seniors. Still, most of those at the hymn sing attend the same 9:30 Sunday School class after attending the 8:00 am traditional worship service (with a choir and orchestra and “a mix of classic and contemporary music” according to the church website).

The hymn sing was the fifth of six Primetimers events this year. Several women at the table spoke enthusiastically about the Super Souper, a soup potluck, a challenging event where it’s difficult to try everything. The only remaining gathering this year is a Veteran’s Day event which will feature a Honor Guard.

While we ate, Bob (not Pastor Bob Small who organized the event) played the piano. We were told Bob played the organ at the 8:00 am worship service, and his work was greatly appreciated and admired by the group. Senior pastor Will Stoll wasn’t at the event, but it was obvious that his work was appreciated by the group. Their love for Pastor Bob, whose ministry is to the senior adults, was also very much apparent.

After people had an hour to talk and eat, Pastor Bob went to the stage and thanked Bob for his work on the piano. He passed out the “Red Backed Hymnal” which he described as the go to book for classic hymns -- though it didn’t have all the old classic hymns. It didn’t have “It Is Well With My Soul,” so a printed handout with that hymn was passed out. (The book did have the song, “Tell Mother I’ll be There,” but we didn’t sing that one.) Pastor Bob introduced Virgil, who would be leading the group in singing what Virgil said were “all your favorites.”

We sang “Victory in Jesus” which apparently was a favorite of a former staff member at Northwest and once was quite a favorite in the church. Before singing “It is Well,” Virgil had us read through the lyrics aloud, and Virgil made remarks about the hymn, a short little sermon. “It is well with our souls. The longer we live, the less well it is with our bodies,” he added.

“Amazing Grace” was introduced as “America’s Hymn” which I think is an apt description. (I think that’s true even when it is sung to the tune of “House of the Rising Sun” or the theme to “Gilligan’s Island”. Not surprisingly, the original tune was used here.)

We noticed as we sang that one or two people at our table signed along. We learned later that a woman at our table has a son who is deaf, and that Bill taught sign language.  We enjoyed talking about the challenges of translation when the singing was done.

We had a good time with the friendly and welcoming people of the Primetimers. It’s good to hear the “grand old hymns of the faith” kept alive. I’m sure we’ll sing these songs in Heaven along with some Jars of Clay, U2 -- and possibly Stryper.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 43 minutes (from prayer for the meal to the end of the hymn sing)

“Sermon” Length: 6 minutes

Visitor Treatment: Before we even came in, a woman greeted us. Someone helped us put our dessert on the table, and Margaret invited us to sit at her table. Nobody seemed “assigned” to greet visitors, but quite a few people welcomed us and invited us to come back.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 33

Probable Ushers’ Count: 35

Snacks: Three tables covered with desserts, salads, little sandwiches, and deviled eggs; decaf and water.

Musicians: keyboard (man)

Songs: “Blessed Assurance”

“Power in the Blood”

“At the Cross”

“The Old Rugged Cross”

“Victory in Jesus”

“When we all get to Heaven”

“Just a Little Talk with Jesus”

“Have Thine Own Way, Lord”

“It is Well with my Soul”

“Amazing Grace”

Distance to Church: 5 miles

Open WiFi: no

Tie/Suit Count: none

Church Website: www.nwc.org

We Go to a Community Church

NorthPointe Community Church,  Fresno, California

“We don’t believe it’s good to do life alone,” Ben Koole, one of the pastors at NorthPointe Community Church said as he was opening the service. Mindy and I don’t believe it either, which is why we’re doing Community and Neighborhood Month on the blog -- and that’s what brought us to NorthPointe Community Church. Ben noted five upcoming events to help people get involved in the church, but he said there wasn’t time to discuss the events. Instead, he encouraged people to look the events up on the website.

There was time to talk about another program, “Say Yes to the Next Generation,” the ongoing fundraising program for the children’s facilities. So far, they’re well on their way, having taken in $4.7 million of the $5.8 they need to raise in order to pay off the buildings on the property. To help the congregation go “All in” on the project, they’d produced and showed us all a video tour of the elaborate teaching areas. The first and second graders meet in Kingdom Kids, which has a medieval castle theme. The third and fourth grades meet in the Cinema. The Outlet, with a power plant theme, is dedicated to fifth and sixth graders (for all those future engineers). “I’m envious, I wish they’d had this stuff in church when I was kid,” Senior Pastor Steve Williams said after the video.

The congregation was urged to look toward the examples of willing giving found in the Old Testament when God’s people built the Tabernacle and the Temple. Williams noted the example of King David, who gave to the Temple as an example to others, and he told the congregation that while he’d always given his tithe (a tenth of his income) to the church, he’d given a second tithe for this building program. “Who will step up with me? People aren’t expected to give equal gifts, but there can be equal sacrifice. You need to get the pledge cards in by September 3rd. Nothing becomes dynamic until it gets specific.”

We enjoyed the music. People in the congregation seemed to be singing. A little thing I noticed in the song lyrics on the screen was that everything seemed to be lowercase except for any reference to God and Christ, including the pronouns. When the offering baskets were passed, Mindy put our “connection card,” though there weren’t any others in the basket that she noticed.

Pastor Williams’ sermon was a continuation of a series entitled, “Why God? Handling Disappointment with God.” We were attending that morning with someone who has been going through difficult times, so we hoped this sermon would be an encouragement to him.

Williams used Job 23: 3, 8-9 as his main text and the idea of God playing Hide and Seek as a central image. When Williams related a difficult time from his own life, though, his story was rather underwhelming. About a year after he became a Christian, while he was still in high school, he began to have questions about his faith. He wondered about the problem of evil. So he got in his parents’ car and yelled at God, asking for an answer. But God was silent.

People in any congregation are dealing with big issues. Odds say that with five hundred people or so in the congregation, a large percentage are dealing with problems like divorce, mental illness, addiction, bankruptcy, the death of a child… Williams has been a pastor of this church for over thirty years, so I’m sure he’s counseled with people dealing with major issues. So wrestling with doubt as a teen in what sounds like an otherwise healthy life didn’t really have much of an impact.  

Along with the book of Job, Williams referred repeatedly to C. S. Lewis’ books that deal with the issue of God and suffering, The Problem of Pain and A Grief Observed. The person we were with has read and thought a lot about these two works, along with the Book of Job.  He felt that Williams gave a very superficial view of the arguments of these works, offering simplistic answers (and quotes used out of context at best), while Lewis' books present mystery.

At the conclusion of the service, baskets were passed again and people were encouraged to put in their connection cards at this time. We’d, of course, already taken care of that.

NorthPointe Community Church has beautiful facilities. Mindy and I both thought it was a little like a small-scale Saddleback Church in Southern California. It’s still pretty large compared to most other churches. NorthPointe has four Sunday services and averages over 2000 people in attendance each week. It is good to know that these people aren’t having to do the Christian life alone.

Statistics

Service Length: 1 hour 17 minutes

Sermon Length: 41 minutes

Visitor Treatment:Visitors were welcomed from the front during the worship service and directed to the Connection Center in the lobby. There were also several welcome areas with material for visitors throughout the campus.

Followup by Tuesday Morning: none

Our Rough Count: 475

Probable Ushers’ Count: 500

Snacks: ice water, coffee, decaf

Musicians: keyboard (man)

Vocals (2 women, 1 man)

Acoustic guitar (man)

Electric guitar (2 men)

Electric bass (man)

Drums (man)

Songs: “Your Love Awakens me”

“Light of the World”

“Cornerstone”

“Faithful to the End”

Distance to Church: 10 miles

Open WiFi: yes, if you set up an account

Tie/Suit Count: none
Church Website: www.northpointe.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.)