Sunday on the 4th of July

This past weekend I opted to visit a church much closer to me, namely “Church #2”. Not only is the church closer, its service starts a little latter which equals more sleep time for me. Meaning this church was already starting with some brownie points! However, things started going south when I walked into the worship center.

Now when I say “things went south” that is exactly what I mean, they went southern. No joke, if I had forgotten I lived in the south this church was here to reminded me. Please note, I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just unexpected. My first clue that something southern was a brewin’ was the red, white and blue.

I had completely forgotten that it was the 4th of July; I know this is not only un-American, but also un-Texan of me. However, I was reminded when I walked in and every single person there was wearing red, white or blue. I’m not just talking about the staff, or just the pastor, or just the worship team. The whole congregation had gotten on the patriotic band wagon. As I looked down at my black, gray and blue dress I couldn’t decided if it was a good or bad thing that I accidentally kinda fit in.

However, my blue camouflage didn’t stop everyone from noticing that I was there and that I was not one of them (oh the joys of visiting a small church). This did lead one woman sitting behind me to talk to me before the service started though. She asked my name and if I lived around there. It wasn’t the offer of a cup of coffee I was looking for, but it might as well as been, she was so warm and happy I was there that it gave the whole morning a great start.

This was the beginning of a truly patriotic church service. Now I understand that being patriotic on the 4th of July is an American thing as a whole, but I don’t think I’m wrong in thinking that it is even a bigger deal in the south. I never remember dressing in red, white or blue for church when I lived in Colorado… but down here it is natural.

Anyway moving on, the worship at this church was fun plain fun. The congregation was all into the music, everyone clapping and singing, some jumping up and down. I loved it. I also loved the beautiful country twang that the female worship pastor sang in. Made me proud to be in the south on the 4th! Of course most, if not all, of the songs we sang had to have to word “freedom” in them. I couldn’t help but wonder how many churches across the Bible Belt were singing Chris Tomlin’s version of Amazing Grace that morning just because of the phrase in the chorus, “My chains are gone, I've been set free!”

After this rip-roaring time of worship the pastor came up and gave us the sermon… It wasn’t what I’d classify as a “sermon”, it was more of a David Barton-esque type teaching time. I would count him as a very appealing history teacher if I had him as a professor at college, but for me a sermon on the Christianity and faith of our founding fathers (using the declaration of independence as his text) while interesting, isn’t the spiritual guidance I’m looking for in a Sunday sermon.

So after the sermon and taking communion (because it is the first Sunday of the month… again this is a subject I could do a whole blog on, where in the Bible do we get this “communion once a month thing”? But I digress) and some just plain good ol’ patriotic songs at the end of the service, I slipped out before anyone could catch me.

On a side note, something that concerned me about this church was they had a good representation of youth in their service, especially for a church of their size. Yet, they had no single or college age people that I could detect. I’m always concerned about a church that has a healthy youth group, but then can’t keep them after they graduate… just a thought to ponder.

In the end I can say, I liked this church. It was a place where everyone knew and loved each other, but it isn’t the church for me. So for now it is back to googling churches and asking everyone I know if they have heard of “this church” or “that church”. Next week I’ll be out of town and after that I have two potential “Church # 3”s. I don’t know what it is exactly that I’m looking for, but I hope to recognize it when I see it.