A New Experience

KJV Bible (Photo credit: knowhimonline)

It has been about 22 years since I attended a church on a regular basis.  In the past year, I have been spending a lot of time on my own, reading the Bible and books with Christian subject matter, listening to the various teaching ministries on Family Talk Radio on Sirius. I have attended a few churches, but not on a consistent basis, as a search for a new church home.

There have been two churches that I have attended on a regular basis and been a member.  Both have been Baptist churches.  The first one was Seabrook Baptist Church which I mentioned in previous posts.  The other was Grace Baptist Church here in Bowie, Maryland.  In future posts, I will talk a little bit about my experiences at both of those churches.

In my search for a new church, I have visited a few different denominations.  One of the things that I have been looking for is a church that has an early worship service on Sunday mornings.  An earlier service works better for me because I tend to wake up fairly early, even on the weekends.  This morning, I was out of bed around 6 am.

So far in my search, I have not found a place that I could say definitively that I wanted to make my new church home.  Similarly, there has not been any place that I have outright decided to eliminate, though I am pretty close to eliminating one church.  It is tough because that church lines up more closely with my theological beliefs, however the worship service doesn't quite give me what I am looking for.

Up to now, I have stayed away from Baptist churches even though that is what my primary church background has been.  The reason I have stayed away from Baptist churches is because of some of my past experiences with them which I will relate in some later posts.  Today, however, I decided to try the Baptist church that is closest to my home because they have an 8:30 am worship churches.

It was at this church that I experienced something that I had never experienced in my previous associations with Baptist churches.  The associate pastor of the church came over to introduce themselves to me.  Nothing unusual about that, but was unusual is that this associate pastor was a woman.  The Baptist churches that I have been a part of in the past held steadfastly to the belief that a woman could not hold that position within the church.

Another thing that I noticed was in the church bulletin for the day's worship activities.  The bulletin listed the names of all the deacons of the church.  Once again, I noticed that several of the deacons (actually, I should say the vast majority) were women.  Again, the two previous churches that I belonged to only had men in the role of deacons.

I will say that one of the things that I did like about the church was that it was very racially diverse.  I have heard it said that Sunday morning worship hour is often still the most segregated hour in the country.  The attendees of this particular service were split almost equally between white and black worshipers.  In fact, the female associate pastor is African American, while the lead pastor is a white man.

I was very impressed by the lead pastor.  Instead of standing behind the pulpit, he stood on the floor and delivered his message.  What was most impressive, is that he delivered his sermon without the use of any notes.  His delivery was smooth and very structured.  The associate pastor told me after the service that during the early service, he usually does not speak from behind the pulpit as it is a more relaxed service, but he does preach the 11 am service from behind the pulpit as it is a more formal service.

Another thing about the church that was different, at least to me, is that it seemed that they were a bunch of huggers.  After the service, the associate pastor gave me a hug and we chatted for a while.  She seems very nice.  Then after we finished our conversation, as I went to leave the church, another woman came up to me and gave me a big hug and thanked me for attending the service.

I have not decided whether or not I will go back to the church I went to today.  Part of me wants to, but another part of me isn't sure.  The church is conveniently located, and I like that they have an early service.  Still, another part of me wonders about them having so many women in positions of leadership within the church.  There is no doubt that the Bible teaches that women play an important role in the gospel. Still there are those verses that say that women should not be a teacher or in authority over men in the church, not to mention that is what I have experienced in my previous church lives.  What are your thoughts on women in a leadership position within the church today versus what is taught in the Bible?

Riding the Bus

First Baptist Church of Seabrook (but not my Seabrook Baptist Church) (Photo credit: Houstonian)

My first regular exposure to church came when I was in the seventh grade and just starting junior high school.  We had just moved to Seabrook, Maryland.  One of the local churches, Seabrook Baptist Church, had a bus ministry.  My parents decided it was time for me and my two younger brothers to get religion.  They signed us up to be picked up each Sunday morning to attend Sunday School and worship services.  For some reason, they did not include our sister.  Since she was six years younger than I was, perhaps they thought she was too young.

So, every Sunday morning, my two brothers and I would get up early, put on nice clothes and wait for the bus to pick us up, just like it was a school day.  We didn't really have a choice in the matter.  I think there were also times when we wondered why we were being punished with going to Sunday school and church services while everybody else stayed at home. If we wanted to ride the bus home, we had to wait until after the worship service as the bus only ran before Sunday school and after service.

The man who was our deacon and picked us up in the bus was a very nice man by the name of Darwin Spinks.  He truly was a gentle man in every aspect.  He was very soft spoken and kind.  A few years later, during what would be my second tenure at Seabrook Baptist, I came to understand that more fully, but that will come in a later post.

Since Sunday School was divided up by different grade levels, I was in a separate class from my two younger brothers.  After Sunday School, we would find each other and sit together during the worship service.  During one worship service, one of my brothers made a decision to go forward and profess faith in Jesus.  He would be scheduled to be baptized a few weeks later during a Sunday evening service.

During the morning worship service of the Sunday that my brother was to be baptized, I made a decision to go forward as well.  Normally, they waited a few weeks between your profession of faith and your baptism, but since my brother was already scheduled to be baptized the night, the church agreed to let me get baptized on the same night.

After my brother and I were baptized, we attended church for a few more weeks.  Then, we just stopped getting on the bus on Sunday mornings.  I wouldn't attend church on a regular basis until I was in my college years.  I didn't completely abandon wanting to learn about Jesus.  I would still read my Bible on occasion, but it wasn't a regular thing.  So the search would continue.