52 Churches

After not taking communion last week with the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Michael said that Team Quirky needed to go Episcopalian. I tried talking him into Lutheran or Catholic, since we haven’t done either of those, but apparently last week was just a little too much for him. We’ve been saving some of the liturgical denominations for weeks like this, so we headed off to “The Well” 9:15am service at St. Luke’s. Continue reading →

We totally lied last week. We said we were going to skip Easter by going Eastern Orthodox this week, but we ended up instead going to The Memorial service at the Greenacres Kingdom Hall.

When we first started the 52 Churches project, I was conceiving going all sorts of places. Michael wanted to stay within monotheistic traditions, and, as we’ve gone along, we’ve decided largely to stay within Christianity. The Jehovah’s Witnesses utilize the Bible as scriptural text (they use The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, first published by Watchtower in 1950), believe in God and Jesus (though they are not trinitarian), and consider themselves Christian. Many mainline and evangelical denominations consider the Witnesses either a “cult” or at least consider them outside orthodox Christianity. When I did my initial research (I usually poke around a little about the different denominations before we go, so we have an idea of what to expect), I found out that the Witnesses celebrate “The Lord’s Evening Meal,” also called “The Memorial” or “The Memorial Meal.” This is the one celebration they point out that Jesus commanded, and it is one of the few celebrations Witnesses participate in. The thing is, most of those in attendance don’t partake. So it’s the one main celebration they have–but they don’t really celebrate it.

I’ve always joked, as Episcopalians, when ever there’s more than two Episcopalians in the room, and at least one has a collar, we’re pretty much obliged to have communion. I think, in this project, I’ve rather missed having communion on a regular (at least once a week) basis. This week, most Episcopal churches have offered services with communion on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Great Easter Vigil, Sunrise Service, and at least one Easter morning service. That’s at least one-a-day during Holy Week.
Continue reading →

We intended, when we set out to the Valley Assembly of God this week, to compare and contrast coffee bars outside the main service. Our friend Elaine was planning to come to play along on the home game, but the parking lot is so large, and we didn’t see her truck when we pulled up, that I called and told her we’d meet her in “The Link.” A few years ago, I was invited by an editing client to come visit, and she’d mentioned that they had a coffee-shop kind of thing where the service was piped in, so this seemed like the next place to go after Southside’s “other room.” (I will have to ask Mrs. Baldwini if their coffee shop thing has a name–during the sermon, the pastor refers to it as “the other room,” which makes me suspect it does not). It wasn’t evident when we walked in the door where the “The Link” might be, so we asked an usher, who pointed us to the Information Desk. If you haven’t been in a really large church lately, you would probably be, as I was, taken aback by the site of a large information desk. The desk is quite like the ones at the mall, or the bookstore, complete with a large sign that says, “Information,” and a number of facilities maps in plexiglass holders for easy reference.

As it turns out, it’s been more than a year since the Valley Assembly discontinued their “Link” program, and the Information guy and I shared a sheepish moment, and he suggested we go into the main service, which we did. Continue reading →

Today we attended church with the Baldwinis* again.

This time, at the Southside Christian Church, on Spokane’s south hill. The sermon was part of the Quest series, and you should be able to view it here. (As I wrote this, at 5:50pm Sunday the 9th, it was not yet posted for viewing). You’re looking for the 03/09/08 sermon from the Quest series, number 7, entitled GROW by Galen Doughty. It should appear as “03/09/08 Quest 7 GROW Galen Doughty” on the list here.

A few years ago, an editing client of mine mentioned that her church, the Valley Assembly of God, mentioned that her church had a room called “The Link” which, as she described it, was a coffee shop that piped the main service in via closed circuit television. I’ve been intrigued by this idea, and, when the lovely Mrs. Baldwini mentioned that Southside had a similar configuration, we jumped at the chance to try it out. (And we’re pretty sure we’ll hit the Valley Assembly’s Link next week–wow–we’re never this organized). Continue reading →

Well, after struggling to find an evening service that wasn’t going to be “take your zombie to church” night, but still allow time to pick Farmergirl up from her Winter Weekend event with the Episcopal youth, we’re planning to go to the 6pm service at the Spokane Valley Church of the Nazarene in the Spokane Valley.
Among other lovely things, they say the following on their website:

Use of Church Facilities
Our facilities on Sullivan are for the benefit of the community. If you need a place for community or family events, call about scheduling. God has graciously provided the beautiful buildings and we want to use them for the benefit of all in the community.

I don’t have any particular follow-up thoughts on this statement, except that it’s always refreshing to see a church open to the community beyond the congregation. Continue reading →