worshipping in Flagstaff

Since I had to pick Jack up at camp at noon, I found a church that had an early worship service. A church in the neighborhood of my hotel was meeting at nine o'clock.

I found the church in a neighborhood nestled in the mountain. I was greeted at the door and given a bulletin, but no conversation followed. I smelled food, but none seemed to be offered though there were tables in the back of the sanctuary. I took my seat. A few people walked by and said hello, but no one initiated a conversation.

Worship started. The lay leader gave the announcements and later read the responses and scripture. The service started with a passing of the peace. It was here that several people introduced themselves and asked my name. They must have been waiting for the proper time, although there was no conversation. No one asked if I was new or a visitor to the area. One lady remembered my name long enough to introduce me to her pew mate.

The first hymn was Alle, Alle, Allelujah. The arrangement did not seem familiar and I had trouble following the pastor as she lead the congregation. The congregation had no clue about this hymn. A group to my left talked loudly through the first two of three times through. The 80+ year old men behind me tried desperately to sing Allelujah over and over again. The pastor noted the congregation would definitely get a chance to try again next week with this unfamiliar song.

The kingdomtide series was to work through the Psalms. Today the Psalm was written by David after his affair with Bathsheba. The pastor took the opportunity to share about David and Bathsheba. She actually began with the anointing of David and his time with Jonathan and King Saul's court. When she got to the part regarding David's treatment of Bathsheba, she noted, "We could have an R rated sermon today. We could talk about men abusing their power. We could talk about (I don't remember her exact phrasing, but was talking about the me too movement and the abuse of power that we are seeing in our country)... but we won't. If you want to talk about this in more depth, we can arrange a time. Just come to see me."

This service (UMC) was more along the basic worship order, though prayer concerns followed the offering. There was no children's message, but there was a plug for the cancer walk that was coming up on the calendar.

The organist was a substitute, which may have accounted for the lack of familiarity with the tunes attached to the familiar hymns that were sung. The powerpoint was on point. The pastor put up each scripture as she referenced them in her sermon and they appeared in a timely manner. The songs were shown (without verse numbers) but also flowed smoothly as we sang.

Over all a pleasant experience, though nothing life changing.