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evenings and weekends
Feb. 22nd, 2004 12:10 pmMet Graham to go to some friend's show last night. Walked with him and Ian down to this house for it, found the place incredibly tiny and smoke-filled to the point that the smokers were complaining about the air quality. The band was quite good, however, and made up for the shitty location. We split right afterwards anyway, and met Jake back at the house. Apparantly Ian was having a "gathering" (something between a "party" and "24 night") at his place, so we walked all the way down there. His house was huge (apparantly 5 people live there) and there were about 15 people jamming downstairs, none of whom I knew but all of whom seemed pretty cool and inviting - unlike the last house we were at, where everyone was viciously drunk. We chilled for a while and mostly listened. There was some stoned 30something dude playing his cowbell so loud I just couldn't stop thinking of Christopher Walken's SNL character... "I really wanna hear that cowbell!"
Anyway half an hour of that got old fast, so we decided we were hungry and made for the Horseshoe, which was good as always.
Graham made sure I knew I was invited to try out this Breakwater Church place they were checking out this morning. I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't woken up at 9am entirely on my own... figured it was a sign. It was a pretty decent church, it felt mostly like youth group on Sunday morning, but apparantly that's all the rage nowadays so I won't hold it against them... I guess I expect a little more suits, ties and hymns in my Sunday worship. I'm probably one of few in my generation that find formality in a service an aid to worship instead of a detriment. Just how I was raised, I guess. And casual worship doesn't really worry me except that it tends to lead to casual faith, which isn't good for anybody. Which isn't to say it takes someone in a suit to deliver good spiritual insight, but for me the real roots of my faith draw from experiences with people that were older and in settings that were traditional. I've met people that envy me for this, which is slightly unnerving as it's about as far from the current trends in Christian faith as you can get.
Occasionally I have to remind myself that these high-production-value churches worship the same complex, deeply charactered, and endlessly knowable God that I do, but mostly I feel like they're only seeing a fraction of who He is. And I know that's true for me as well, but I guess I don't feel like they're trying for anything beyond that. Graham described Breakwater as a "church for people who hate church," which I guess makes me not their target audience, because I love church. But I understand it's hard to reach most people my age because they do, in fact, hate church. That mostly makes me feel sorry for them, because they're missing out.
Rants aside, today is probably the most beautiful day in Bellingham that I've seen in 6 months. Spring is teasing us already, and I'm following her all the way to June.
Anyway half an hour of that got old fast, so we decided we were hungry and made for the Horseshoe, which was good as always.
Graham made sure I knew I was invited to try out this Breakwater Church place they were checking out this morning. I wouldn't have gone if I hadn't woken up at 9am entirely on my own... figured it was a sign. It was a pretty decent church, it felt mostly like youth group on Sunday morning, but apparantly that's all the rage nowadays so I won't hold it against them... I guess I expect a little more suits, ties and hymns in my Sunday worship. I'm probably one of few in my generation that find formality in a service an aid to worship instead of a detriment. Just how I was raised, I guess. And casual worship doesn't really worry me except that it tends to lead to casual faith, which isn't good for anybody. Which isn't to say it takes someone in a suit to deliver good spiritual insight, but for me the real roots of my faith draw from experiences with people that were older and in settings that were traditional. I've met people that envy me for this, which is slightly unnerving as it's about as far from the current trends in Christian faith as you can get.
Occasionally I have to remind myself that these high-production-value churches worship the same complex, deeply charactered, and endlessly knowable God that I do, but mostly I feel like they're only seeing a fraction of who He is. And I know that's true for me as well, but I guess I don't feel like they're trying for anything beyond that. Graham described Breakwater as a "church for people who hate church," which I guess makes me not their target audience, because I love church. But I understand it's hard to reach most people my age because they do, in fact, hate church. That mostly makes me feel sorry for them, because they're missing out.
Rants aside, today is probably the most beautiful day in Bellingham that I've seen in 6 months. Spring is teasing us already, and I'm following her all the way to June.
