Image via WikipediaSchool has started back and I'm back to visiting area churches. If you are wondering why I'm slowing down, it because it is getting harder to write these posts with original content. This past Sunday I visited the Grace Bible Church over at the Oxford Community Center. Grace Bible Church is a young church at only three years old. It is not affiliated with any standard denomination (or any that is clearly evident). From the format of worship, the services are most similar to style seen at The Orchard of Oxford. From the brand of theology, they seem to be interdenominational. I've visited their services twice and all I can think about is that everything they say and do feels generic. I imagine that this is the version of Christianity that is best equipped to move into the future.There were around 200 people in attendance. Mostly I saw college students. The music at the service consisted of an acoustic guitar, drums, and several singers. The person leading the music would add his own personal reflections on how worship is to be performed. The music was pretty good, but all of the performers seemed to be packed into a tight area. The cymbal player was practically sitting on the drum set. The stage at the Oxford Community Center doesn't have the space needed for they are trying to do.
There was a special treat for this Sunday. The church elders introduced themselves and talked about their core values. I thought this might be a chance to reveal the inspiration for starting this church or some of their doctrinal concerns. Instead, it was bland marketing. Worship should strive for excellence; we have multiple teachers for different styles of teaching; we really want to focus on our community groups; (and finally) we have a youth group. I wanted to know more about this church. I left with more questions than when I first considered visiting.
The lesson of the hour came from 1 Corinthians 12. It's the passage where Paul is talking about spiritual gifts that one receives when one becomes a Christian. Some of these gifts are skills, like administration or teaching. Some of these gifts are supernatural, like performing miracles, faith healing, or prophecy. Other gifts are just plain weird, such as speaking in tongues and translating tongues. Speaking in tongues was discussed as part of the lesson, but I didn't see anyone attempt it. Does this church really believe that within their membership is the ability to perform miracles, perform faith healing and see into the future? If the pastor talks about this as being part of Christianity in the lesson, then it is a fair question to ask. Of course, I'm going to want to see evidence (and then I'm going to refer them to James Randi's challenge).
I realize that this had little to do with his lesson, but as a skeptical thinker that was my focus. The pastor wanted to focus on this idea of diversity (we have different talents) and unity (we are members of one body) all at the same time. It is a noble message. The pastor said, "How humbling it had to be a Jew for them to hear that a Gentile ... one who was kept at a distance, a heathen, a barbarian, they called them dogs, they were unclean ... that they were one with the Gentile in Christ." I found it interesting that he mentioned that Jews called the Gentiles dogs. In Mark 7:25-30, Jesus called a Phoenician woman a dog. Maybe the pastor was alluding to that passage. I suspect Paul was trying to cover the mistakes of Jesus.
Later on in the passage, Paul refers to individual members of a church being similar to individual body parts in order to show that all Christians are useful. "All of the different parts of the body are needed to make the body effective," spoke the pastor. I hope I wasn't the only one in the room to think, "Hey... what about the appendix? Isn't that safe to remove?" Paul's analogy falls apart in the light of modern science. Then again, the pastor probably wants us to look at these passages in the light of their intended meaning rather than nitpick over the details. (Don't stop nitpicking.)
The lesson ended. The collection plate was passed during the final song. For the first time in all of my visits to churches, there was no warning that the collection plate was being passed. If there was one positive aspect that I liked about this church, this is it. College students are known for being poor so I bet they appreciate not being asked to give.
As for the "Non-Believer in Church" series, I'm running out of interesting churches to visit. I figure this will be ending soon.
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