diary of a church hopper, part whatever

The tale of Swastika-Carpet Church:

The whole church-hopping process is still dragging along. One obstacle could be that I don’t really believe I’ll find anything I’ll want to commit to, and even if I did chances are I won’t be here more than another year anyway.

The main town I cover is one of those with 10 churches for 2,500 people. Practically everyone belongs to a congregation – even those you would never guess. One of my co-workers even shocked me this week by telling me he was not only a church member but has given dozens of sermons in his lifetime as well. So not infrequently I am asked what church I go to.

Swastika-Carpet Church (RCA) is about five blocks from my apartment. It’s a smallish building with those early ‘70s wooden boat ceilings and orange-upholstered pews. It took me until this morning’s sermon to notice the carpet swastikas. They’re not really noticeable unless you’re closely studying the pattern. It isn’t like they’re red and black or anything – just brown and gold and flowered and wavy. But if I were to photograph it and outline the pattern for you, there’s really no way to deny they’re there.

The style is quite traditional – all organ accompaniment, no drums or guitars of any kind, not even a hint of PowerPoint fundraising. The pews are surprisingly full.

One thing about this congregation is that it looks to be Sundays-only. There is Sunday morning worship and Sunday School and evening worship.

This morning one lady asked my name. I said my first name and she replied, “Oh! From the newspaper!” Same incident occurred when shaking the pastor’s hand. The lady works at the library and was nice – asked me where I was from and where I was living and said she liked my articles. The lady sitting next to me asked my name too and shared her Bible with me.

The pastor, I’d bet, is a relatively recent NWC grad. At the very least he must be the brother of a recent grad from the theater department. And this pastor sounds like he came out of the theater department, too – I need to learn to live with the fact that some pastors use purposeful voice inflection. We aren’t all looking for the same thing in a pastor. Some are looking for interesting instead of honest. (Not that everyone isn’t concerned about honesty…) While I was sort of listening this morning I wondered – what would it take for me to like a pastor? The only pastor I’ve met in a long time (besides Will Healy just for being Will Healy) that I’ve really liked was at St. George’s. But again, St. George’s is the most unusual of congregations – full of academics and very much Sunday only. To my knowledge, the pastor’s role there is more so official permanent celebrant and figurehead more than really leader. But I like that. But “real” congregations (normal, full-time, larger, diverse) do need some kind of leader.

Update in short: There is no progress. If anything, I’m farther from committing to a congregation than I’ve been in my entire life. Much of this, though, is life circumstances.

But, as the pastor said this morning, we need to learn to be content in all circumstances. And I know he was right.

Side note: Does it seem accurate that congregations use pathetic (emotional) arguments much more than the average rhetor today?