I hadn't really planned ahead to which church I would be attending this week. I had though I might attend a nearby UMC congregation, but then decided I didn't want to drive 1/2 hour each way to attend a congregation of 14. At ten o'clock, I started googling congregations in the other direction to find out who was meeting at 11:00 or at a time I would still be able to make. Imagine my surprise when I couldn't find times for those congregations on either find-a-church or facebook. Some had no details listed at all on find-a-church; others had some information but no worship times listed. On facebook, if there was access to the "about" they didn't have a worship time listed. Oh, there were nice paragraph long invitations to join this very welcoming congregation for worship (if you can guess what time we meet!).
Finally, I decided to see if I could find information on the Mennonite Church that my neighbor attends. I found them on facebook and immediately saw posts, the second of which, told me they meet at 10:45. As they were less than ten minutes away and it was now 10:35, I made my decision, grabbed my coat and put on my shoes.
When I arrived I was greeted by two greeters and an usher who handed me a bulletin. I did not make it in without having to share my name and where I was from. Worship did not start on time. There seemed to be a discussion regarding a church meeting that week and if it was going to happen. The greeter was able to leave his post and he came to gather more information from me.
Worship started nine minutes late with announcements and a call to worship. We then sang a medley of three worship songs accompanied by the piano and a husband and wife team on accoustic guitar and bass.
We then heard some information on the mission focus beginning next week and the upcoming denomination wide gathering for mission. It was interesting to note the picture showing the larger gathering showed all the women on the stage wearing long dresses and hair coverings. In this congregation, there was only one woman wearing a "mesh basket" and I didn't notice if anyone was wearing dresses. There were a lot of jeans. This wasn't surprising as this is a community church attended by a lot of farmers and other rural people.
I knew the church did not have a regular pastor and had a rotation of speakers who had been with them for a very long time. Today the message was brought by a Catholic nun.
Since this was Baptism of the Lord Sunday, she spoke on baptism. She began her message by sharing her own story. She had been baptized as an infant as is the norm in the Catholic Church. She was a practicing Catholic, if not a Christian. When she was twenty, she had a tangible, visible encounter with God. She had a conversion experience that lead her to acquiring a Bible for the first time. Up until this point, Bibles were those giant coffee table books with pictures. She started reading the Bible for the first time in her life. She was particularly drawn to the verses on baptism.
She then began a quest to be baptized by immersion. She shared a very detailed and humorous story, culminating in her being baptized at a Pentecostal church.
She then informed the congregation that as Mennonites (the name on the door), they were Anabaptists. She asked the congregation if they knew this. Some didn't. She then went on to explain in detail the differing beliefs in baptism from the early church and into Augustine and Luther and the development of the anabaptists and their persecution. She shared from the Anabaptist rites of baptism and shared from scripture three or four verses on baptism. She also did a side bar on the eunich and Philip.
I thoroughly enjoyed the message today. The geek in me was thoroughly geeking out!!
It is worth mentioning that in this congregation, all visitors are introduced. The information I shared with the greeter was then relayed to the congregation during this time. There was no greeting time, for which I am thankful. However, several people made sure to talk to me as I tried to maneuver my way out after worship.
I am sure that this experience will not be repeated as I would not know ahead of time who the speaker would be or what the message might be. I am thankful that God saw fit to lead me to this congregation on this Sunday, but I will not be returning.
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