First Mennonite Church of C-U--Nov 2021

November 14, 2021

Today I was happy to visit the Mennonites in this medium size sanctuary, simply and lovingly decorated,  with an intimate feel. Everyone wore a mask, and although it was only 40*, windows were open for ventilation. The congregation had met outside until a couple of weeks ago.

In the guest bag I found a full-size, fair-trade dark chocolate bar—Wow!  There was also church and denomination information, 10,000 Villages info and a friendly welcome card handmade by the kids. The handful of children present were called up for their own special story time near the beginning of the service.

Centering chimes and then piano drew us into worship. The congregation sang from a contemporary hymnbook, led by a single guitar player, Raphael, with a strong beautiful voice.  

Today’s message was an interesting video-link interview with Anne G K, former member here and 40-year Bible translator in Burkina Faso. She met us from her office in Africa and shared some of the difficulty of her work. Consider, for example, translating the word holy. Hebrew has something like three words for it, English four, and the native target language over twenty! Anne also shared a story of her fear in 2005 when armed men were firing shots in her street. She missed her flight to Canada. But the plane she’d been scheduled to fly on crashed in Cameroon. Consider the paradox, she encouraged us, of her great fear of the rebels, but her lack of fear of the flight. Anne reported that today, fall 2021, about one third of Burkina Faso is in antigovernment hands.

After a few minutes of meditation, it was time for congregational sharing of prayer needs and thanksgiving. About sixty people were there with another thirty tuned in by internet. As a visitor, I didn’t find the life details of unknown persons that relevant, but of course this sharing had great value for participants. It took maybe ten minutes:  people sick and those recovering, new jobs, woman leaving abusive husband, an anniversary, etc. Apparently, text messages were also coming in to a chat board for those who didn’t want to stand and speak up or those connecting by internet.

Several people struck up conversations with me after the service. The pastor caught me to chat as well and invited me to call anytime. 

I like it that this church is a big supporter of Champaign's 10,000 Villages, and they support Sola Gratia Farm too. For Thanksgiving they’re having a Gratitude Walk at Meadowbrook Park, and there's a gathering to sing around Pastor Deb’s firepit.

Irrelevant note:  FMC is the place where, many years ago, we were invited to a wedding in which we saw the adoring father of the bride crawl onto the stage to discretely (not!) take photos of his daughter's big moment. :-P

Wesley United Methodist Church--Sept 2021

 Sunday, September 19, 2021

I decided to go big for the first of my proposed other-church visits today and went to the Wesley Center at UIUC—their traditional service, not the contemporary one.

The grand Wesley Foundation building has been in continuous operation since 1920 and was modeled after the one at Oxford where John Wesley was educated. Because it's on campus, I parked half a mile away and walked in. The first two church doors I tried were locked, but circling around—it's a really big building—I found an open one at last. (I also noticed a small parking lot in the back—too late.)

The sanctuary is classically dramatic with high ceilings and stained glass. Because of Covid, every second pew was cordoned off and everyone was masked. About a hundred people were spread in the big room. A sweet older woman down the row from me was happy to chat.

Lovely, moving music opened the service, followed by congregational singing of hymns. Spirit of the Living God we sang the first time through with our voices and then in sign language only. Loved this! Passing the peace in sign language was also encouraged.

Preaching today was Rev. Julie Dowler, a dynamic woman in a black t-shirt, who spoke of Mary and Martha in a message entitled Mind Your Own Busyness. The detailed bulletin told me this is third in a series on Soul Rest and that today is the 17th Sunday after Pentecost. 

At the end, most people seemed to exit back toward the parking lot. But Pastor Julie was on the front steps when I came out, offering snacks to any walkers who had come today. (These were in addition to a snack in the guest bag handed out inside. It also contained information about the church, of course. 😁) It was nice to talk with her a few minutes.

Here are a few random pluses picked up from the bulletin. This congregation participates in the CROP walk! They host a "midweek campfire" with gourmet s'mores. Also listed were Friday picnics, ESL class, international coffeehouse on Zoom, "A Queer Space," yoga sessions, two book studies (one a New York Times bestseller), men's Bible study, and more. 

Overall, visiting here was a positive experience and I'd be happy to go back sometime—use the parking lot (!) and try the contemporary service. It was moving to pray the old chorus in sign language and I very much enjoyed the setting and the music.

The peace of Christ be with you!

INTRO to visits with different denominations

Firing up the blog for a look at different denominations 

I've been visiting different kinds of churches, once a month, for a year now. A few friends have read these reports as they come out, but I'm thinking it would make sense to post my observations and impressions here in case anyone else is interested or curious as to what's going on in Champaign-Urbana (mostly) churches. :-]

I'm not really shopping for a new church or denomination, so what's my motive? I was born and raised American Baptist. (Please do not confuse with Southern Baptist, quite different!) I was happily Baptist the first thirty years of my life and greatly respect the ABC to this day. In the early 80s, however, the Vineyard movement reached Indianapolis where we lived. Once I experienced Bill Jackson's teaching and Vineyard worship, I was all in. Even after Jax moved west and we relocated too, the Vineyard has  remained our tribe through the following decades. So from all the variety of Christian expression through different denominations, I had solid knowledge of only these two. Ok, I should include a third, Steve's family church, the Apostolic Christians. I've gotten to know that culture fairly well from many visits and personal interactions. 

Even with knowledge of three, I realized there were multitudes of people in the US worshiping the Christian God, relating to Jesus, in ways I had no experience with or understanding of. How do they worship? What are their priorities? I set myself a project, on a very limited scale, to find out. I decided to visit a different kind of congregation once a month to see what goes on. My purpose is not to evaluate or pass judgement, but only to observe. Of course, my perceptions are colored by beliefs and past experiences.

These are all posted with March 2022 dates, but they were written over the past year and a half. The dates of attendance, starting mid-Covid, are posted in the articles.

~Wesley United Methodist, UIUC 
~First Mennonite, Urbana
~Episcopalian Chapel of St John, UIUC
~City on a Hill Church of Christ, Peoria

~Christian Missionary Alliance, Champaign
~Living Stones Church, Kona, Hawaii
~Church of Christ Scientist, Champaign
~Greek Orthodox, Champaign
~Unitarian Universalist, Urbana
~Church of the Brethren, Urbana
~Apostolic Christian, Washington, IL
~St Thomas Catholic, Philo, IL
~Champaign Church of the Nazarene

~Eastside Church, nondenominational