What We Do

This is part two of What Kind of Church is this.  I think there will be a part three named What We Believe. As I said earlier, most people new to a church want to know what we do and what we believe.  It would seem the two things should go together and I wouldn't need a separate blog post, but alas, this is not the case here.  I have been going to church since I can remember, thanks to my parents who were faithful in making me come with them.  We have always attended an Anglican church, but most of them were Episcopal. There is way too much to discuss to get into the differences of the two, and it really isn't important here, so we will just skip that part. All Episcopal/Anglican churches have a few things in common.  When most everyone is seated, excluding late-comers, the priests come in from the back following a procession of someone carrying the cross, followed by a couple candles and some other people in robes.  I love the procession of the cross. When I was a kid I used to make my grandfather carry the cross around the house as I followed him singing hymns. We didn't really have a cross, so he carried my horse head on a stick. A toy we played with. I know there must be a name for it, but you can picture it. At our church we have many different people that carry the cross, and they all have their own style. One of our carriers has earned the name "cross-ninja" by the band.  This guy carries the cross with his hands upside down, as if he is ready to flip the cross around and take someone out. Anyway, we do "the parade." Then we sing.  We sing for quite a while, maybe 10-15 minutes sometimes. All Anglican churches have music, but the style varies. Ours is a more modern setting, using keyboard, drums, bass, guitars, etc.  Our church likes to sing; most of them do anyway. It always makes me smile to see a new person looking around after the second song. I can hear them thinking "how long does this last?" We then read from the Bible. Usually 3 readings. One from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament, and one from the "Gospel" books (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John).  After that you will hear a message for about 20 minutes. Pretty standard church stuff up to this point.  During the service we also pray. We read ancient prayers, we read not-so ancient prayers, we pray our own prayers.  We sit, we stand, we kneel, and do it all over again.  It's like a form of Anglican Aerobics. We share a greeting with everyone in the church.  Most people think the service is over at this point because it sure looks like it is. People get up and wander around saying hello to their friends.  It is like a seventh inning stretch. We are almost done...more than half-way for sure.  We then take your money...oh sorry...we ask for tithes and offerings.  I really am not making fun of this part. Jesus talks more about money than anything else in the Bible. People have a problem with money and things coming before God. The Bible tries to teach us if we can give these things up freely, we can follow God freely. That includes not worrying about where the money goes after you give it.  God deals with those who abuse it.  I like how our bulletin tells visitors they are not expected to give, but our ushers will be sure to pass that plate in front of them with an expectant look. The last part of the service is communion. It is where we eat the styrofoam wafers and drink wine or grape juice.  We now even offer gluten-free wafers. I don't even know what that means but it makes some people happy, so good for us. In the Bible, Jesus tells us about the last supper and says "do this in remembrance of Me"!  I am not sure how any church can ignore this part of the Bible, especially when the letters are in red. So we do that in the service. This is the one part I get, and yet, it is the one part many churches leave out of a service. So there you have it. We parade, sing, read, pray, talk, do the stuff Jesus tells us to do, and then go outside to have a smaller "people-version" of church. That is where we parade (outside), sing (the song stuck in our heads), read (the bulletin), talk (to each other), give money (to our kids for lunch), eat (donuts and drink coffee), then go (home). New Covenant Church.  Its what we do.