I'm still exploring the numerous denominations of Christianity in the small town of Oxford. The more different churches I visit, the more I see the same template for worship. My last three churches were Presbyterian, Episcopalian, and Catholic and this past Sunday I visited a United Methodist. If I had not known the name of the church on the outside of the building before hand, I would probably have confused all of these sects. I would like to understand at a deeper level how these groups are different enough to merit different names and different meeting places. They all had the same format of communion, same order to the service, and almost identical creeds were recited. I had trouble writing this week's column because of all the overlap from past columns. Even the bulletins have the same congregational responses. Here's a free tip to all churches: have less verbatim, boring repetition.
I attended the first service of the Oxford University United Methodist Church at 8:45 AM. There were about 80 people total. I estimate the average age of the congregation at close to 60. Just being young made me stand out. There were a few younger couples (by younger, I mean under 60) and a few children, but I did not see anyone my age in the service. As for the service's music, an organ was used and it was loud enough to overpower all the singing, so the music wasn't good. As for all of my negativity, the service was lead entirely by a woman, which was a pleasant surprise. She gave the announcements and the morning's lesson of a simplistic message of "Jesus is good. Follow Jesus."
The bulletin mentioned the church's increasing budget woes in some detail, so I engaged in a little math to occupy my time during the preacher's lesson. This church's annual budget is over $1.5 million. After 5 months, their 2008 contribution of $570,000 falls short of the to-date budget of $650,000. To meet the end of the year budget, the contribution needs to be $30,600 per week. The preacher mentioned that the total church enrollment had over 1000 people (that must be a huge second service if all 920 show up). We can estimate (crudely) that ever four people equals one family, so this church has 250 families. $30,600 divided among 250 families is $122 per family. Are the Methodist a denomination that practices tithing 10 percent of their income? If not, please forgive me of this assessment. At $122 per week, a family would need to make over $63,000 per year to fulfill that obligation. According to city-data.com, each hypothetical family would be (on average) in the 90% percentile of income for Oxford homes. At what point does a church change from aiding a community to being a stress on a community? Maybe some people don't go to church because they can't afford it.
Today was "Communion Sunday". As with the last three churches, the communion was prepared in front of the congregation during the service. At those services, the priest would hold up a cracker and break it into two parts, but at this service, the priest broke what appeared to be a loaf of Subway bread. (As you can tell, my mind was already drifting to lunch.) As people in the pews would come up to the front of the room for communion, the back doors of the church came open and more people started getting in line.
The service started with 80 people but ended with close to 100. These 20 or so people got to skip the boring lesson and the collection plate, take communion, be seen in church, and then be out the door for the dismissal. Now that's convenience and commitment.
Among the services that I have attended, I put this one somewhere in the middle. It wasn't bad. It was just dull.
Tags: church, United Methodist, Oxford, Mississippi, Christianity, non-believer, atheist