On the Outside, Looking In*

I was out of town in February so I wasn't able to attend my church; I attended another one with some relatives. I jotted down some things that I thought were interesting.

hard wooden pews with no padding (reminded me of my church days in Japan in the 80's).
Wooden floor
huge stain glass individual windows (in memory of a loved one was under each window).
huge pipe organ display
I did admire the 7 foot stainglass window by the one-toilet-bathroom.


Two young boys come down in middle aisle to light the tiered candles.
A boy in a robe comes down middle aisle, holding a huge opened Bible in which he places it in the hands of the pastor.
The Pastor places the Bible on the wooden Bible stand at the front.

Pipe Organ solo.
choir sings.
Everyone stands and re-sites something from out of the bulletin.
Everyone grabs a hymn and sings the 4 whole verses.

Then they recite this for worship. It says:
The leader says: We gather as those who want to walk with you Jesus to Calvary.
The church says: We know that it was there that you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of God's saving embrace.
The leader says: so clothe us in your Spirit, O Christ, that we, in reaching forth our hands in love, may serve you in all that we do.
The church says: May we be agents of your love, doers of your will, proclaimers of your grace, workers of your justice, servants of your peace, and missionaries in your name.


Kids come up for a little illustration with a missionary from Haiti.
The missionary does her illustration of how women carry gallons of water on their head.
Children's teacher comes up and starts speaking a blessing over kids.
Then everyone starts resiting a blessing over the children.


Anyone who has a prayer or praise report is given a microphone to speak.
Pastor then says, lets be together. So I bow my head as I assumed that meant we were to pray.
The choir starts singing, the pipe organ is playing a song.
The Pastor prays for all the needs then the church immediately says the Lords Prayer.
As soon as we say amen, the choir sings a verse.

Then the golden offering plate comes my way and it's so heavy I help a lady carry it to the next person who is on our same pew.
The plate is brought to the front and we all say a prayer over it (which is on power point).
After the missionary speaks again, immediatlely everyone stand to their feet and sings another hymn.

The pastor starts preaching and then everyone sings a song while the 3 young boys in robes come up the aisle again. This time the boy gets the open Bible from the pastor's hands and the the young boys all in robes snuffs out the candles. All three boys go down the middle aisle along with the pastor and missionary right behind them.
We are still singing. Then everyone says a loud AMEN.

Even though I was a little confused of when to recite things, sing, or stand up, or sit down, I am glad for the experience. It was very interesting, and I have to admit, I did do a lot of chuckling. It was a lot different then what I am used to.

All end with a quote from The Missionary:
"Every human being is a human being."

They also said: we got to GO where we got to GO and DO what we got to DO.