Building Aesthetics: t t. First Presbyterian is my first mega-church, and it is big! Its campus takes up a full city block. The outside of the building is brick and concrete, with parts looking more like an office building than a church. The sanctuary inside is imposing and dark, but does have a beautiful stained glass backdrop. I've never really understood why churches attempt to awe with grandeur. I've never been much impressed with it; it seems too deliberate. Give me a small intimate space. They're much more condusive to spirituality. The service today was also live-streamed on the web, and the preacher gave a special "shout out" to all those watching around the world.
Creepy Glazed Eyes: t t. Definitely some creepy zombie-type eyes in church today. But even more creepy than the creepy eyes, were the raised hands during singing. This has got to be one of the most insincere ways I've ever seen to enjoy music. Never have I been moved to the point of raising my hand during a song. Lots of people at First Pres (as they are hiply known) were so moved, and it creeped me out big time. I kept thinking they must have a question about the lyrics. I also found their clapping to be a bit out of sync, like in middle school when we would clap out a beat to "We will rock you" on the school bus, and the special ed kids in the front seats could never quite get it right.
Hassled by Members: t t t t t. This church may have been too big to remember to hassle me. No one introduced themselves to me and I wasn't asked to stand and be recognized. I felt anonymous there, which I like, but it might not be the best for building a community.
Religious Time Management: t t t t. Not bad here. What seemed long were the songs, especially the intro three song medley that everyone had to stand for. I'm youngish, but I still thought it went on for a bit too long. The heavy-set lady next to me gave up after a few minutes. The sermon itself was a good length, and was called, "Leaning Into Full Life". It was about finding heaven in the present moment, and to be honest, it was pretty thought provoking. The preacher used multi-media, such as a clip from Field of Dreams, and relevantly brought bible versus into a 21st century understanding using boxing and skiing analogies. What bothered me was that his delivery sounded off the cuff, but was actually very polished and calculated. Overall he (Graham Beard) seemed like a decent guy, and even showed his vulnerablity when mentioning having had to visit a therapist.
Misinformation: t t t. "The race that God gives us is designed for us to win" says the preacher. What about the kid that get molested by their uncle or the baby born without legs? Those sound like races that have been sabotaged a bit. It tends to bother me when a philosophy is clearly born from a middle/upper class perspective. Looking around the sanctuary, I would guess many of the members had fairly easy races. The preacher also said that dancing was a good way to experience heaven in the present moment. I must be doing something wrong in my breakdancing.
Presence of God: t t t. Against my better judgement I was moved by the music a bit. I really wanted to hate it. The service I went to was a "contemporary" service, which meant that the church chorus was replaced by a rock band, and the preacher dressed down into jeans and cowboy boots. I hate Christian rock, and though the band had a drummer and an electric guitar, their music landed more on the side of folk. The highlight was Sign No More, a Mumford and Sons song that was rather beautiful. I felt the chill of inspiration run through my old bones a handful of times during the sermon as well, most notably during the Field of Dreams clip when Kevin Costner says, "No, this is Iowa", when his father asks if this is heaven.
Overall Inspiration (total score): t t t t. I didn't think I would, but I liked it here. Not totally, a lot of the people creeped me out, and the church itself felt uncomfortable, but the sermon made me think, and I suppose that's really the point of going to church. The message of the sermon was, "pay more attention to the present moment, because living fully in the present is as close as we get to heaven in this lifetime". Amen to that!
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