Sic Semper Tyrannis

A Month of Sundays Part II

So, it turns out that regular church-going people that maybe don’t play guitar or maybe don’t teach a class or maybe aren’t on staff at a church really have it easy. They roll out of bed at whatever time on a Sunday morning, maybe have some breakfast, probably read the paper and watch the news at a leisurely pace before they have to arrive.

Yesterday I went to church by myself, an anonymous stranger for the first time in my life. The first thing which struck me about yesterday was just how late 10:30 in the morning is! No wonder people can fall into a pattern of shopping around for churches. When you are unconnected or have no responsibilities or both, church-going is easy! (Of course I realize that for the average family with kids a Sunday morning is anything but leisurely. You can’t make the start time late enough for those frazzled folks.)

I went to a medium-sized non-denominational church yesterday on the northern side of town. Just like at my home church the service started with music and the musicians started pretty much on time, but the majority of the congregation, casually-dressed and ranging in age from babies to early 50s, were straggling in about five or ten minutes later.

(Note: If I wanted to I could probably write an entirely different blog, separate from Sic Semper Tyrannis purely about church music and my experiences with it, aesthetics, etc.) Therefore I will limit my musical remarks to two things I know for certain:

1) I do not get excited about “Christian” music, by which I mean BOTH “praise & worship music” and traditional hymns with the organ, choir, orchestra and the whole nine yards. It’s just not the kind of music I listen to at home, at the gym, in the car, or anywhere outside the walls of a church, (other than when someone specifically asks me to learn a song as an accompanist.)

2) I do not expect a church’s musical selections to be consistent with my aesthetic preferences. If I did, I would be a miserable, miserable person. For the church that sings Radiohead, Red House Painters, Frank Zappa and Steve Reich or plays John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” (all artists or compositions that I would say have struck me on a very “spiritual” level, if I even knew what that means) most likely doesn’t exist.

Having said that, the music was pleasant enough- a couple acoustic guitars and vocals and rock band rhythm section, nothing too loud, distorted, or fast. I enjoyed watching people react to this music, everything from stone still statue, (a page out of my book!) to the requisite lifting of hands, closing your eyes, etc. I also thought it was sweet to see a couple little girls dancing at the front, as if they were having fun. Fun? Anyway, I get the feeling I will always feel like a foreigner during the musical part of a church service.

After the music there were a couple baptisms of kids. Of course with as many churches as there are in the world, that’s probably how many ways you will hear people talk about baptism. One thing I thought was interesting was how the baptisms were performed not by the pastor, but by either a parent or someone influential in their lives, (a small group leader, etc.) Scandalous! Thus, the talking during the baptisms was very off-the-cuff and unpolished.

Then came the pastor’s sermon, pretty basic stuff about how we need God and that we need to realize that fact.

And of course, it’s not church if the congregation isn’t invited to respond to the message. I was intrigued by how “low-pressure” the invitation to “come forward” was. For some reason, I guess to avoid coming across as some kind of salesman, the pastor seemed almost apologetic that they follow the sermon with soft music and a prayer time.

And then church was over. Really not unlike hundreds of other services I’ve been to in the grand scheme of things.

While I had some trepidation walking into a church by myself, (as I would have in walking into any social situation by myself), I will say that I was very comfortable in this place as an observer. I spoke to no one. Nor was I spoken to. That’s an easy morning. I know at my home church, they try to make that an impossibility-to be completely anonymous as a visitor. However, it didn’t bother me one bit this first time out. “Other people” are a blessing and a curse in my worldview anyway! But I would think that too many weeks of that on end would start to feel a little hopeless, however.

But this talk of social interactions leads me to think about why someone decides to go to a church service in the first place. I know why I have gone all of these years: to see my friends at this easy, predictable meeting place and time... to play music...to be of service...and (when I’m of the mindset) to hear about God and his people. But why would someone else go to church?

I’ll let you know when I figure it out…

posted by Mike @ 3:05 PM