Tis Easter Sunday. Generally considered to be a good day to go to church, if you’re of the Christian persuasion, and sometimes even if you simply nod to the Christian persuasion now and again, Christmas Day and Easter Sunday are Days To Go To Church.
So, this is why Dusel and Dorf wanted to go to church with me, and also because they wanted to give their parents the [apparently] quintessential Australian experience. So this evening, all 5 of them arrived at church to enjoy the Easter Sunday services. Which, happily, instead of being subjected to having the thrill of a good meaty sermon, they were able to partake of our annual Easter musical, or passion play.
That wasn’t the freakshow part.
Actually, it isn’t really a freakshow, but sometimes, when I’m with someone who doesn’t usually identify with our expression of worship I put myself in their shoes and wonder if the services don’t appear a little that way…
First of all the music simply doesn’t sound holy enough… click here for an example… There’s no choirs or strings or even any organ type instruments… But we’ve a plethora of electric guitars, drums and singers…
Second, we even have dancers… (eep I hear you say)… I know, it’s strange and unusual… but happily they’ve come a long way from the streamer waving, tambourine banging, white skirted pentecostal dancers of yore… but stil… dancing in church???
Third, it’s noisy… people pray out loud, there is much passionate seeking God from the pulpit…
Fourth, there is much talking about giving and the offering… which, when you are standing in buildings worth a substantial amount of money, all paid for by donations from the congregatiion is likely to feel a little disturbing… our detractors regularly use that as a point of disagreement…
Finally it’s mad simply because of the number of people there… to see so many individuals clapping, dancing, and praising God you have to think you’ve walked in on some kind of cult… I mean, church is so passé these days isn’t it? For so many people to be identifying themselves with that kind of organisation there must be some kind of mind control in play right?
At least, these are the things I imagine that people are thinking when they come to church with me.
Dusel has gone home to check us out on the web and google the Captain to see what people out there are saying about him… From what I’ve seen he won’t find much that’s derogatory… and after the show, and even after the appeal at the end for ‘souls to come home’ (Not the terminology used… ) I think we made a good impression.
And if not? Well… they haven’t started looking at me as if I’m from another planet.
That has to count for something…
I was brought up and still consider myself Catholic. A couple of times we accompanied my friend to a service in her pentecostal church (AOG?) and I must say I found it a very…. different….. way of worship to what I’m used to!
My friends who were quite meek and mild outside of the church turned into different people!