Church was a mixed bag today. Our beloved pastor Julie announced that she will be leaving next month. So that's bad. But it was Pentecost, which I love. And that's good.
I love my church. It's one of the only places I know where the picture below could happen:
Note the guy with the mohawk standing next to the little old ladies.And it's all natural and normal there. That kind of fellowship and community isn't forced or anything. It just happens. And that's good.
But since it is now summer, the choir is thinning out a little bit. So to help out, I volunteered to switch from tenor to alto and sight read today's choral piece. And how was my generous offer treated? Well Don Boscoe thought it would be funny to fill out the form below in my name and turn it in at the end of the service:
After filling in my name and email address, he wrote "I sing like a girl" in the place for "Prayer Concerns."So that was... ungood. But I shall have my revenge. The last time we got into one of these feuds, Boscoe had just played Daniel in two consecutive children's messages. He dressed up and was interviewed by a staff member for the kids. But he couldn't be there for the third one, so they asked me to fill in. When I went out in the costume, the staff member said, "Wow, Daniel, you look different than before!" To which I replied, "Yes, well, I'm older now. I'm wiser too. And better looking."
So the next week, when Boscoe came back, they asked him to play Nebuchadnezzer for the children. When it came time for the staff member to ask him about Daniel, Boscoe said, "Yes, I remember Daniel. I was a young king when we met. He sure let himself go in his old age."
So we are no strangers to such a feud. It would seem that Boscoe is spoiling for a fight again... and Cach shall oblige...
8 Cachinnations
haha, you sing like a girl!!
Posted on 5/27/2007
Why is Julie leaving? Where is she going?
Posted on 5/28/2007
So who'd you have to pass your Treo over to in order to get the mohawk pic? Beeki? Don Boscoe?
Look at what your blog is coming to, Cach. Someone should be worshipping and instead you make him/herpretend to sing, hymn book in hand, while stealthily sneaking the Treo out with the other hand and snapping a pic of old women.
Oh, for shame....for shame.
Posted on 5/28/2007
I took the picture myself, Fancy, thank you very much.
And the picture was taken, little miss, to point out the variety and community we enjoyed in worship! It was a worshipful expression! So there!
Posted on 5/28/2007
Dear Cach,
Your Treo picture taking skills are superb. I hope your alto sight reading skills are as such. According to Don Boscoe, you are doing quite well.
Sincerely,
little miss
Posted on 5/29/2007
I read an article one time that looked at social science research which showed that the most socially integrated churches were mega-churches. This makes sense since such churches tend to draw members from all across a community and not from a single neighborhood or part of town. I'm not sure if such a conclusion would hold true if mega churches were compared to other faith communities as a whole, but then how often do various members interact at the "denominational" level?
I'm not sure how closely that relates to your comments about community at your church, but that's what I thought about when I read it.
If I was ever asked to sing alto, I would probably have filled out one of those prayer cards myself. It looks to me like Boscoe did you a favor.
MB
Posted on 5/29/2007
Well that's the interesting part; my church is a neighborhood church and definitely not a megachurch. But we have such integrated community that we are somewhat of a rarity and oddity. Our church is right in the middle of a rather poor neighborhood, and we are committed to not relocating or becoming exclusive. Quite the opposite actually. We are committed to serving our neighborhood and doing all that we can where we are. We have drug addicts and we have college professors. We have welfare recipients and we have very wealthy folks. We are admittedly mostly white, but we have a good representation of many different races and nationalities. We're odd like that, and we like it. And like I said, that's one reason I like my church so much.
Posted on 5/29/2007
It's good that your church has decided to reach reach out the surrounding neighborhood. That's one fairly reliable indicator of a healthy church. That's one reason I like my own parish. There are rich and poor, white and hispanic. We sing in Spanish and English every Sunday and throw in Latin on occasion. Before I moved to the burbs, it was always nice to worship with the immigrant janitor that cleaned the engineering office where I worked. It gave me a connection to the grandma janitor that I didn't have with most of my other coworkers. When attending grad school in Cincinnati, I used to enjoy going to mass with the illegal family who lived below us in the apartment complex. They were a very kind and generous family.
I think I remember now where I read about the integrated churches. I was doing some background reading after reading some folks' criticism of Joel Osteen and discovered he has one of the most racially integrated churches in the country. To that extent, I haven't been able to find the reference to megachurches, though I found references that say non-denominational and pentecostal churches do much better than mainline Protestant churches.
http://www.houstonpress.com/2002-04-04/news/power-house/
http://hirr.hartsem.edu/cong/articles_huesinthepews.html
http://www.media.rice.edu/media/NewsBot.asp?MODE=VIEW&ID=8730&SnID=2
Speaking about my own faith tradition, one drawback/strength depending on how one looks at it is the segregation among many Catholic parishes among racially dominant worship services at the same parish vs. the integrated worship services at racially integrated Protestant churches. While the segregation at Catholic parishes gives the various cultures opportunity to preserve their own distinctive cultural traditions within the liturgy, it also tends to lessen the interaction of cultures not just during worship but after, relative to a completely integrated service like one finds at racialy integrated Protestant services. Honestly, though, I'm not sure a completely integrated service would be feasible in many Catholic parishes, especially among communities with large immigrant populations and the associated language barriers. Besides that, I can't imagine life without the Eastern Catholic culture that seems to thrive so well in our liturgically poor culture.
MB
Posted on 5/30/2007