Capital Church - Salt Lake City, UT - May 3rd, 2014

 

      It has been a while since I have visited an evangelical church...and this one definitely had a similar feel to Eastridge Church and Meadow Creek Chapel. I mean this in regards to the aesthetics, the church like the website is clean and polished and very corporate/concert feeling. This was made greater by the pastors books being sold at the entrance (generally a red flag for me - Hello Mars Hill) and a hip cafe that sold coffee to the congregants.  

    There were some great differences this time though, first it was easy to be invisible. Which I appreciated. It made it possible to leave early when I had to catch my bus, and to fully experience the great Christian rock concert music. Which a question I have for believers. 

   Is the modern Christian rock of today in Churches meant to be like the psalms of old? There is a romantic feel to the music though thankfully some sorrow thrown in to a good degree. I always saw the psalms as people wrestling with themselves and God as that glass in which they could see themselves and their hopes and fears through. If Christian Rock is meant to be this (even if I'm not a big fan of it because of my love of the more traditional sounding stuff), I can appreciate it more.

     The second difference (since I wasn't around for the sermon so I don't know if they were conservative or liberal leaning) was that they were active. They had missions were they were doing more than building churches for believers...they were helping local areas improve housing and orphans have schooling. That was somethign great and actually living love in the world. Which I appreciated. Both Meadow Creek and Eastridge had way too much naval gazing and all events and money went just into that community...

    The third difference was diversity. There was a great variety of race and age which I hadn't really seen in many evangelical churches which have largely been white. 

    It was an interesting experience, and definitely not what I was expecting.

 

November Missionary Experiences in Issaquah - November 26th, 2013

       This has been an interesting month in regards to people evangelizing to me about their faith in Issaquah. The first involved an older woman who had lost her social security, and the second involved Mormon Missionaries. I'll also leave a little blurb for facebook friends who have evangelized this month too.

        The older woman is a woman I've seen at the Issaquah library when I go there on lunch breaks during work. She always greets everyone (including cars) with a "Have a great day," She is definitely kind and unique. The time she did what I would call missionary work or experience is when she gave my coworker and I poetry about Jesus. She told us, "Food for thought," and then left. Apparently others have had this experience with her too as far as her expressing her faith in any social situation or environment. If you drop by Issaquah and the library you'll probably meet her.

     The second experience was also at the library, except outside of it since it was closed. I had just gotten off work and was reading "The Adventures of Telemachus," a great book and one of my current favorites now by Louis Aragon when two Mormon missionaries dropped by. We talked about mythology for a while and they attempted to try and get me to talk about the Church, my reasons for leaving and unbelief were not a conversation I exactly wanted to have so I told them if I had any questions I'd just ask my Dad's family who is almost all Mormon (not to mention just recall memory from when I was growing up and do research). So they asked if I wanted a prayer and who for...My life is great, I don't need anything really. I have an amazing support network, I currently don't have any physical or mental ailments and there are people who honestly deserve others thoughts and actions a lot more than me. So I asked them to pray for the Philippines and those going through the Tsunami and other disasters. It was there the two young guys did the prayer and I used to remember too (and think of best action to take to help those going through that suffering). After they gave me a card the Bellevue Festival of the Nativity, hosted by the Mormon Church (may go for nostalgia, nativity shows were a staple growing up in Elementary school during the Holiday season). They went on their way.

      The third thing I've noticed is evangelizing by friends. Most are of the Catholic and Evangelical Christian variety, with a few Mormon family members also doing a post or two, and the majority of the time it is the person doing it by facing the reasons they believe and the honesty in facing themselves, or part of the work they are doing within a community. It is not always the case though, sometimes it can involve targeting of a group such as going against the gay community or sharing links of those who are...and I have trouble seeing how that can be love in any way. In the future I'll do another post explaining why I believe Gay Marriage is a right and how it is just as ethical and gives as much to the common good as any other stable consensual relationship built around a community.

   In the end I don't see it as bad. Missionary work can be harmless as long as the one doing the work accepts "no" as an answer or leaves room for other view points and can see the humanity in another person and respect them for who they are, and who uses the opportunity to do service within the community they are in. Any person can live with virtue, and if you're putting yourself out there with your religious beliefs, virtue is the best thing you can do too. 

    We all advocate are points of view in different ways, the key is how you do it and what you do. Is what you are doing taking the rights away from another? Are you coming from a place of self and ego or awareness of all members of the community? What you do and how you do it are part of what it means, to live with virtue.