A Different Church

I had a new experience yesterday. A friend from church invited me to Tupper Memorial Baptist Church's annual "Journey to Jerusalem" services. This is a four-week series from 12:10 - 12:40 on the four Wednesdays preceding Easter. He had gone in years past and thought I would enjoy it.

I've never experienced anything quite like it before. First, there were four ladies who got up and sang a couple of songs accompanied by a rockin' organ. The organist sang in the second song too and he has a great voice as well. I've never done so much clapping at church before! We clapped for the praise team. We clapped to give praises to God. I think we even clapped after we read the text for the day, though I'm not sure.

This was the text yesterday (note the translation):

1Pe 1:18-20 KJV
(18) Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, [as] silver and gold, from your vain conversation [received] by tradition from your fathers;
(19) But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:
(20) Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you,

The emphasis of the sermon was on verse 20. It was very powerful to again consider that Jesus was already getting ready for the journey to the cross even before the foundation of the world. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was not God's plan B. God knew what would happen in the garden and He already had a plan for that.

The delivery was incredible. Though it was a bit forced, I did find myself shouting out some AMENs at the appropriate times. The cadence of the delivery was incredible. This may sound crass, but the best thing I can equate it to is sex. It starts slow and it sort of builds up to a big crescendo. The organ playing with the preaching helps with that too. And after the point was made the preacher stopped, wiped his brow with the handkerchief that he previously put at the side of the pulpit, and everyone had some slower amens to kind of come down from the experience.

I don't know if I could take a steady diet of this style of preaching, but it is good to experience something different. There is certainly a lot more passion and joy than with our services. I was joking with a coworker who joined me that I wanted to call the church and tell them that I missed the three points of the sermon and to ask if the PowerPoint would be working next week.

I look forward to see what is in store for the next three weeks as the pastor "brings God's Word" to us. I'd say that he was "bringing it" in the sense that Nolan Ryan brought his fastball.