A New Church Home
Well, we have settled into a new church. And it's not what I thought it would be.
I am 38 years old, I've lived in 8 different cities, and for all but the last five years I have always attended a Church of Christ. I met my husband in Abilene, TX where we both attended a private University affiliated with Churches of Christ. After we married, Cory worked for two different CofC's as a youth minster and then preached at Crosswalk where we spent our last five years which technically was not a CofC but was a church plant started by "ex"- Church of Christ members. So, pretty close. :) You could say it's in my blood. When they were alive my grandparents attended a Church of Christ and my parents and all my siblings still do as well today.
Within the CoC tradition each local church is governed by itself, there is no higher organization that we take orders from or that we give a portion of our tithes too. Each church elects it's own leaders, creates it's own committees to find and hire it's own preachers, and determines it's own mission, budget, and traditions. We are quick to correct you and let you know that we are not not a denomination, because each church truly is independent. We are our own little democracies, each location is different. And those of us raised in more grace filled CofC churches want to be sure you know that each church does not believe the same things! Trust me, we know the embarrassing stories of legalism, hatred, and judgement that come from some Churches of Christ. As with most southern evangelical believers like Baptists and Methodists, I'm sure I have a CofC great grandparent up the line somewhere that believed their group was the only one going to Heaven. True, but sad.
But negating the exclusiveness that can come with belonging to a certain tradition for so long, there is also a beauty to it. It's really hard to visit a Church of Christ in another town and not know someone there- or at least know someone who knows someone kind of thing. It's like a Kevin Bacon 8 degrees of separation and I think there is a real beauty in that. It makes the world feel smaller. And although each local church is independent there are definitely overarching similarities. Most CofC's have acapella worship instead of instrumental. It's weird I know, but really it's only weird if you didn't grow up with it. For our last year at Crosswalk Church, we used instruments and honestly I prefer it that way. But, I also appreciate the simplicity of getting together with friends around a campfire or around a dying loved one's hospital bed and needing no sound equipment, no guitar, no worship leader to create beautiful music together. It can feel more authentic, organic, and less like a concert. Cradle CofC'ers basically all know how to harmonize. We're just born with it. :) I have sweet childhood memories of sitting next to my mom and copying her voice as I learned to follow the alto line.
But after Crosswalk closed it's doors this summer, we were on the hunt for a new church home. It was a weird time because since we've been married we have never picked a church. Cory has always worked for a church and so they basically picked us when he got hired. We knew we were looking for the authentic community we had at Crosswalk, but wanted a thriving youth ministry and children's ministry this time too. And we found it. A few weeks ago we committed our membership to St. Andrews, a local Anglican church. No one is more surprised by this than me.
It was a hard transition. And truthfully harder than it should have been. In my head I know I'm a Christian who happened to grow up in the Churches of Christ, but being a Christian is the real identity. I know that no denomination owns God for themselves, but I was also super skeptical of anything different than what I was used to. It was a work of the heart for me to separate out the core of the gospel from familiar traditions, and for me not just familiar traditions but familial traditions. It is still sometimes sad to me that my kids won't grow up with the same way I did. They won't know the words to "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," and definitely won't know when the tenors vs basses are supposed to come in, they won't ever snicker at the phrase "guide-guard-and-direct-us" spoken all together as one word, and the song number 728b will only look like gibberish to them.
Originally we only visited St. Andrews to appease Levi. He had been going with his best friend to their youth group for the past year since Crosswalk didn't have one. We assured him that our family would visit once, but we would not be making it our church home. Going in, I knew it was a liturgical style church which isn't really my thing. As I'm learning though, "liturgy" means the work of the people. And for all practical purposes it means the congregation recites scriptures together or repeats what the priests guide us to say. On a basic level it reminds me of elementary school when our class would read a book together and instead of the teacher doing all the work, we went row by row and each student read a paragraph or two out loud. I'm guessing teachers do this to keep students engaged and paying attention. Nothing more embarrassing than it getting to your turn and you aren't keeping up with the class. In the same way, by everyone participating in the out-loud scripture reading at church the congregation is actively participating and learning, not just tuning out the preacher as he does all the work.
Overall the service has more pomp and circumstance than I'm used to. The priests (FYI it's still weird for me to say priests and not preacher/pastor) wear robes draped with elaborate shawl type things that you might see at a college graduation. During the service there are kids in more white robes that walk with large candles down the middle aisle, and at one point someone else holds a big gold cross high in the air while the priest shows the Bible to everyone before reading out loud from it. This part is actually pretty reverent which I love. And bonus, when he's done reading all the kids leave and follow the guy with the cross out the back of the church to go to Kids Worship so our particular row gets suddenly calm and quiet. Win. win.
Throughout the service there is quite a bit of sitting and standing and even kneeling. Totally weird, except I love it. There is something so humbling about a whole group of people kneeling together, it's a posture that we don't regularly assume in our day to day lives, and definitely not as a group. Current NFL protests aside, have you ever seen a group of people kneeling? When was the last time you kneeled before someone? It goes against our American culture. Here, we elevate self and work our way up the career ladder. Today's marketing is even geared to our egos to "have it your way" and "you deserve this." I especially love watching all the grown men assume such a stance of submission. We are all on equal ground before the Lord, no one ranking higher than the other. I really do feel like a princess from the medieval times bowing before my King. Again, I appreciate the reverence.
My favorite part of the whole service though is communion. I'm basically ancy through the combined 45 minutes of liturgy and sermon. I participate and listen, but I am always eager to get to communion at the end. The way St. Andrews does it is such a holy experience. In evangelical churches (Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ) the emphasis is typically on the sermon. We love this format in order to increase our head knowledge. You can see it in our educational system. We are taught how to sit through and learn from classroom lectures i.e. sermons. Unfortunately, we also know how to judge the value of a church service based on how much we agreed with and liked the sermon that day. I know this truth from experience.
But, what I love about St Andrews is that the emphasis of the service is on communion. It's not up to a charismatic worship leader or the public speaking skills of a charming preacher to make sure the congregation leaves happy and appeased. The bulk of the service (both in time allotted and the focus of the people) is in the receiving of communion. It is done intinction style where everyone takes their turn coming to the front. You kneel and place your hands palm up and are given the elements as they are offered. You don't take them for yourself, breaking off your own cracker or taking your own mini cup from the passed trays -you receive them- they are given to you. A simple, yet symbolically significant difference, from what I am used to. In this way God's grace carries the weight of the service and not man's ability to put on a good show. There is an honest purity in watching each of my kids positioned with their open hands resting on the ledge, as the priest walk to each of them and place the wafer in their ready hands, and with locked eyes says "Christ's body broken for you." I am emotional about it every week. All at once I am a part of the entire kingdom of God, I am a part of my individual family that pledges allegiance to the Lord, and I am myself alone claiming my Savior out of my own faith. I'm in awe of how such a layered telescoping moment happens all at the same time.
I wish I could say I jumped readily into a new season of growth for my faith, but my homogenous upbringing had me pretty skeptical for a long time. I think I had coffee with 5 or 6 different members from the church in less than two week's time. I asked a lot of questions! Most surprising to me is that I haven't met anyone at church who was raised Anglican. Everyone seems to be a denominational transplant. Even the new worship minister and children's minister where hired from outside the Anglican camp and I love that. Ultimately, we felt God's presence at St. Andrews, and when I got out of my head not only did I know it was safe to belong here, but it was going to be so good for our family. We have fallen in love with the diversity of the church, the presence of other transracial families like ours, the youth and children ministers, and the fact that most of our kids already knew other kids in Bible class from school. And when Cory and I met with two of the main priests we were comforted by their openness. They weren't offended when I said, "To an outsider all the pomp and circumstance feels kinda Pharisee-ish..." and when we asked "If we don't come around to all the Anglican doctrine and traditions is there still a place for us here?" They both said "absolutely" without hesitation. We like that they hold the gospel tightly and their traditions and doctrine loosely. Sign us up for that. Plus, I found out that C.S. Lewis was Anglican so there's that. :)
Yesterday when we left I remarked to Cory that the service often reminds me of a wedding, but one where underdressed guests and rowdy kids are welcome. There are flowers and candles. There are young kids dressed up that walk down the center aisle. There are processionals accompanied by songs and even priests wearing special white clothing they don only for this event. It definitely feels like a wedding ceremony. But then again, that seems right too. Every Sunday I get to join in the physical expression of the marriage covenant between the Lord and the church, the bride of Christ.
And what girl doesn't love a good wedding? :)
I am 38 years old, I've lived in 8 different cities, and for all but the last five years I have always attended a Church of Christ. I met my husband in Abilene, TX where we both attended a private University affiliated with Churches of Christ. After we married, Cory worked for two different CofC's as a youth minster and then preached at Crosswalk where we spent our last five years which technically was not a CofC but was a church plant started by "ex"- Church of Christ members. So, pretty close. :) You could say it's in my blood. When they were alive my grandparents attended a Church of Christ and my parents and all my siblings still do as well today.
Within the CoC tradition each local church is governed by itself, there is no higher organization that we take orders from or that we give a portion of our tithes too. Each church elects it's own leaders, creates it's own committees to find and hire it's own preachers, and determines it's own mission, budget, and traditions. We are quick to correct you and let you know that we are not not a denomination, because each church truly is independent. We are our own little democracies, each location is different. And those of us raised in more grace filled CofC churches want to be sure you know that each church does not believe the same things! Trust me, we know the embarrassing stories of legalism, hatred, and judgement that come from some Churches of Christ. As with most southern evangelical believers like Baptists and Methodists, I'm sure I have a CofC great grandparent up the line somewhere that believed their group was the only one going to Heaven. True, but sad.
But negating the exclusiveness that can come with belonging to a certain tradition for so long, there is also a beauty to it. It's really hard to visit a Church of Christ in another town and not know someone there- or at least know someone who knows someone kind of thing. It's like a Kevin Bacon 8 degrees of separation and I think there is a real beauty in that. It makes the world feel smaller. And although each local church is independent there are definitely overarching similarities. Most CofC's have acapella worship instead of instrumental. It's weird I know, but really it's only weird if you didn't grow up with it. For our last year at Crosswalk Church, we used instruments and honestly I prefer it that way. But, I also appreciate the simplicity of getting together with friends around a campfire or around a dying loved one's hospital bed and needing no sound equipment, no guitar, no worship leader to create beautiful music together. It can feel more authentic, organic, and less like a concert. Cradle CofC'ers basically all know how to harmonize. We're just born with it. :) I have sweet childhood memories of sitting next to my mom and copying her voice as I learned to follow the alto line.
But after Crosswalk closed it's doors this summer, we were on the hunt for a new church home. It was a weird time because since we've been married we have never picked a church. Cory has always worked for a church and so they basically picked us when he got hired. We knew we were looking for the authentic community we had at Crosswalk, but wanted a thriving youth ministry and children's ministry this time too. And we found it. A few weeks ago we committed our membership to St. Andrews, a local Anglican church. No one is more surprised by this than me.
It was a hard transition. And truthfully harder than it should have been. In my head I know I'm a Christian who happened to grow up in the Churches of Christ, but being a Christian is the real identity. I know that no denomination owns God for themselves, but I was also super skeptical of anything different than what I was used to. It was a work of the heart for me to separate out the core of the gospel from familiar traditions, and for me not just familiar traditions but familial traditions. It is still sometimes sad to me that my kids won't grow up with the same way I did. They won't know the words to "The Lord Bless You and Keep You," and definitely won't know when the tenors vs basses are supposed to come in, they won't ever snicker at the phrase "guide-guard-and-direct-us" spoken all together as one word, and the song number 728b will only look like gibberish to them.
Originally we only visited St. Andrews to appease Levi. He had been going with his best friend to their youth group for the past year since Crosswalk didn't have one. We assured him that our family would visit once, but we would not be making it our church home. Going in, I knew it was a liturgical style church which isn't really my thing. As I'm learning though, "liturgy" means the work of the people. And for all practical purposes it means the congregation recites scriptures together or repeats what the priests guide us to say. On a basic level it reminds me of elementary school when our class would read a book together and instead of the teacher doing all the work, we went row by row and each student read a paragraph or two out loud. I'm guessing teachers do this to keep students engaged and paying attention. Nothing more embarrassing than it getting to your turn and you aren't keeping up with the class. In the same way, by everyone participating in the out-loud scripture reading at church the congregation is actively participating and learning, not just tuning out the preacher as he does all the work.
Overall the service has more pomp and circumstance than I'm used to. The priests (FYI it's still weird for me to say priests and not preacher/pastor) wear robes draped with elaborate shawl type things that you might see at a college graduation. During the service there are kids in more white robes that walk with large candles down the middle aisle, and at one point someone else holds a big gold cross high in the air while the priest shows the Bible to everyone before reading out loud from it. This part is actually pretty reverent which I love. And bonus, when he's done reading all the kids leave and follow the guy with the cross out the back of the church to go to Kids Worship so our particular row gets suddenly calm and quiet. Win. win.
Throughout the service there is quite a bit of sitting and standing and even kneeling. Totally weird, except I love it. There is something so humbling about a whole group of people kneeling together, it's a posture that we don't regularly assume in our day to day lives, and definitely not as a group. Current NFL protests aside, have you ever seen a group of people kneeling? When was the last time you kneeled before someone? It goes against our American culture. Here, we elevate self and work our way up the career ladder. Today's marketing is even geared to our egos to "have it your way" and "you deserve this." I especially love watching all the grown men assume such a stance of submission. We are all on equal ground before the Lord, no one ranking higher than the other. I really do feel like a princess from the medieval times bowing before my King. Again, I appreciate the reverence.
My favorite part of the whole service though is communion. I'm basically ancy through the combined 45 minutes of liturgy and sermon. I participate and listen, but I am always eager to get to communion at the end. The way St. Andrews does it is such a holy experience. In evangelical churches (Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ) the emphasis is typically on the sermon. We love this format in order to increase our head knowledge. You can see it in our educational system. We are taught how to sit through and learn from classroom lectures i.e. sermons. Unfortunately, we also know how to judge the value of a church service based on how much we agreed with and liked the sermon that day. I know this truth from experience.
But, what I love about St Andrews is that the emphasis of the service is on communion. It's not up to a charismatic worship leader or the public speaking skills of a charming preacher to make sure the congregation leaves happy and appeased. The bulk of the service (both in time allotted and the focus of the people) is in the receiving of communion. It is done intinction style where everyone takes their turn coming to the front. You kneel and place your hands palm up and are given the elements as they are offered. You don't take them for yourself, breaking off your own cracker or taking your own mini cup from the passed trays -you receive them- they are given to you. A simple, yet symbolically significant difference, from what I am used to. In this way God's grace carries the weight of the service and not man's ability to put on a good show. There is an honest purity in watching each of my kids positioned with their open hands resting on the ledge, as the priest walk to each of them and place the wafer in their ready hands, and with locked eyes says "Christ's body broken for you." I am emotional about it every week. All at once I am a part of the entire kingdom of God, I am a part of my individual family that pledges allegiance to the Lord, and I am myself alone claiming my Savior out of my own faith. I'm in awe of how such a layered telescoping moment happens all at the same time.
I wish I could say I jumped readily into a new season of growth for my faith, but my homogenous upbringing had me pretty skeptical for a long time. I think I had coffee with 5 or 6 different members from the church in less than two week's time. I asked a lot of questions! Most surprising to me is that I haven't met anyone at church who was raised Anglican. Everyone seems to be a denominational transplant. Even the new worship minister and children's minister where hired from outside the Anglican camp and I love that. Ultimately, we felt God's presence at St. Andrews, and when I got out of my head not only did I know it was safe to belong here, but it was going to be so good for our family. We have fallen in love with the diversity of the church, the presence of other transracial families like ours, the youth and children ministers, and the fact that most of our kids already knew other kids in Bible class from school. And when Cory and I met with two of the main priests we were comforted by their openness. They weren't offended when I said, "To an outsider all the pomp and circumstance feels kinda Pharisee-ish..." and when we asked "If we don't come around to all the Anglican doctrine and traditions is there still a place for us here?" They both said "absolutely" without hesitation. We like that they hold the gospel tightly and their traditions and doctrine loosely. Sign us up for that. Plus, I found out that C.S. Lewis was Anglican so there's that. :)
Yesterday when we left I remarked to Cory that the service often reminds me of a wedding, but one where underdressed guests and rowdy kids are welcome. There are flowers and candles. There are young kids dressed up that walk down the center aisle. There are processionals accompanied by songs and even priests wearing special white clothing they don only for this event. It definitely feels like a wedding ceremony. But then again, that seems right too. Every Sunday I get to join in the physical expression of the marriage covenant between the Lord and the church, the bride of Christ.
And what girl doesn't love a good wedding? :)
posted by Christina at
1:17 PM
1 Comments:
Beautiful! I can echo so much of this. I cherish above most things in life the experience I had and have with the Anglican worship style/experience, both during the times I've been in England, and increasingly when in the states. Especially the last year I have begun to almost crave the liturgical style of worship - it's rhythm and reverence and strength. I so often previously shunned "high church" experience - leaning toward house church if anything. These days I long for the communal experience that comes with such recitation in churches around the world, the interactive experience of the standing, kneeling, and walking forward; and communion - it is incredible!! Thank you for sharing your heart and reflections on this. It's inspired me again. As you often do.
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