First Travel Worship...with a friend

Time to update on the worship service in Newcastle, OK.

The parking lot was mostly empty as we arrived twenty five minutes before the published worship time. We entered and the first thing to catch your eye is an entire wall filled with crosses. Crosses in plain wood, crosses with detailed carving, crosses with painted designs, crosses with tile work. It was actually pretty moving. Then we were greeted and welcomed to our first visit to the church. An indication that it was a tight congregation and visitors were recognized immediately.

I explained that the pastor and I were classmates from COS and the greeter offered to get the pastor. I said that wouldn't be necessary as I was sure she was busy getting ready for worship. As Pastor Lamarla worked her way from her office to the sanctuary. We met in the hallway and she actually recognized me. She mentioned that out of context (as in not at Duke), it took her a minute, but that she recognized me immediately.

We caught up and as expected were interrupted by her lector asking about the reading. So at this point, Jack and I entered the sanctuary.

Remember, these posts are observational and not at all meant to judge or demean in any way.

As the lay leader began the announcements, the pastor interrupted several times to clarify or offer updated information. I think this is one of the reasons I took over the announcements. No matter how plugged in the laity is, there is no way they can have all the information that comes across the pastor's desk.

They either had just started using their screens or they didn't have a dedicated powerpoint person. During the first hymn, the lay leader had to go to the booth to pull up a second, larger font version of the hymn. This was the only hymn on ppt. The others were from the hymnal.

Next, the children's message included a video and a slide show from VBS. Again, the tech didn't cooperate and it took a minute to get the video to play. The slide show was created and left longer than the music. The tech person tried to get the slide show and the music to coincide and had to be told twice that the video was longer than the music.

Then it was time for the message.

The pastor began with an illustration going back to the Coke commercial from the 70's about 'the real thing'. I was slightly confused at the beginning as the Gospel lesson had just been read, but soon realized she was using the Colossians text that had been read earlier.

I was also surprised by her use of an ipad. I think I knew from COS that she used an ipad, but the reality was not what I had envisioned. She carried the ipad balanced in her left hand and as she set up the illustration she touched and touched and swiped and looked and scrolled as she talked. I had noticed that during the reading of the Gospel she was looking at her ipad. I had assumed she was familiarizing herself with the outline of the sermon, so I was confused as to all the involvement with the ipad once she stood to preach.

The message itself was good. Christ is the real thing.

The service closed after the message and final hymn.