Back at The Cross | Erie

We made it back to Erie in time to have Valerio's pizza before heading over the hear Pastor Chuck.

I somehow decided to check the website to double check worship time. When I got to the website, I noticed a bunch of pictures and Pastor Chuck's youngest was in a picture with stained glass in the background. There was no stain glass in the concert venue. I looked for an address. At the bottom of the page was a new address, but I couldn't find a worship time. I went with the assumption that they would not change their worship time since it was set for a very specific clientele. They met at five o'clock and had dinner after at six o'clock. (I later went back to the website and found an entire tab I had missed that had the worship time clearly spelled out!)

I arrived just a minute late to the new venue, which happened to be just around the corner from the previous location. It seems that Pastor Chuck had partnered with the church elders for the mission incursion last year and the partnership went so well they opened their building for Sunday night worship.

The guitarist/worship leader was already playing. I had heard that they have a full band some Sundays, but I have only ever attended when one guitarist lead worship. The church had written some worship songs based on the Psalms (and recorded them), so I wasn't familiar with all the music that was played though the congregation seemed to be.

I think this made my third time (maybe fourth) worshipping here. Pastor Chuck assures me his numbers are usually higher than what I experience. The church attracts several men from the Salvation Army, college kids from Gannon (they hadn't yet checked in for fall), ministry groups from the suburbs (GCC I believe were there this time), street people, and others from the downtown area. This time there were several young people from GCC/LECOM helping the couple from GCC who provided the meal and a few street people and others I didn't get to meet as I spent my time talking with Pastor Chuck after worship.

The sermon itself was typical of what I had experienced in the past. I am always surprised by how deeply theological the sermons are. There is a lot of theology and even a little Latin thrown in along with historical information around the book being presented. This week, we looked at Job 2. The sermon started with lawyers and in particular prosecutors. Satan was presented as a poor prosecutor. God gave Satan everything he needed to win his case, but he couldn't close the deal. Job was found to be a righteous man and could not be convicted of any crime. A joke was thrown in about Job's wife and how married couples should treat one another. Pastor Chuck though it fell flat because of his delivery, I think it was just the wrong joke for the congregation that was present.

This time I was more aware of the direction of the sermon leading to Jesus who is our ultimate defender. Pastor Chuck's sermons always lead to the communion table where he makes the connection of Jesus' sacrifice for each and everyone of us represented in the bread and the juice. In the past, I had not quite caught the connection since the UM Communion Liturgy is so clearly separated from the rest of the service (though clearly a part of and a culmination of all that goes before it). This week, I caught the transition and was ready to receive when it was time.

At The Cross | Erie, each person breaks their own piece of bread and dips it in the cup from the elements on the table. I try to be near the beginning of the line for sanitation reasons. After I returned to my seat and joined the singing of the hymn, I noticed the woman who had sat in front of me and played with her hair the whole time in a sort of nervous twitch returned to her seat with an entire half a matza, one third of which had been dipped. She seemed to enjoy her "snack".

I truly think that if I were to return to Erie, I would be a regular at this church. I would definitely "apprentice" with Pastor Chuck in his inner city mission work. As I go back and forth over what I think God is calling me to do and be as clergy in the future (after my year long sabbatical and sending Jack to college), I am fearful of what it would entail to actually work in an inner city environment and being drawn to what I see being accomplished here.