We first had two options- we could attend the traditional "first service" at 9 or the contemporary "second service" at 11. We, of course chose the 11 o'clock. :)
We had found the church, parked, and decided to go in the closest door. This door not only confused us, but the only way we saw into the sanctuary was through the front, and we didn't want to do that. I already felt a little awkward not knowing any of the people there, so we went back outside and around, where we entered the sanctuary through the back. Much better. We took our seats, and the service started. There were only about 25 people there when the service started but for the first couple of minutes more people showed up. There ended up being about 40 people, which seemed like a small crowd in the large sanctuary (we assume that the "first service" probably has a higher attendance).
The service was presented almost entirely like one in the CRC would be. The only noticeable difference was the lack of the "mutual greeting" (and of course the large baptismal "dunk tank" at the front, but that wasn't used today).
The only way I noticed the difference from my own church was the name "Baptist" which of course implied adult baptism. Indeed, in a pamphlet (titled "What Do American Baptists Believe"; exactly what I wanted to know!) we found in the narthex, it lists several main points they believe Christ has called them to be. The main headings are: a redeemed people, a biblical people, a worshiping people, a mission people, an interdependent people, a caring people, an inclusive people, and a contemporary people.
The parts that struck me the most were first, under "A Redeemed People" it just briefly mentioned their belief in "Believer's Baptism." It never said "We believe in adult baptism; like it or get out." I felt as though they were just humbly presenting one of their own personal beliefs, not ostentatiously or forcefully, but also not ashamedly. They were simply providing a description of their denominational values in a respectful way (something I haven't seen much of before).
The second attention grabber for me was "An Interdependent People." It must be the non Dutch roots of the Baptist church that have cultivated the security to admit the need for other churches. While any Dutch Reformed person would have to honestly admit that the Church must work together and with each other, it never struck me as something we would print in a pamphlet without being asked. I guess it was the straightforwardness- the "yeah duh of course we need other churches" attitude- and not being ashamed of it that I really liked.
The third part that struck me was the wording listed under "An Inclusive People." It states:
"An Inclusive People
who, gifted by a variety of backgrounds,
find unity in diversity and diversity in unity;
who embrace a pluralism of race,
ethnicity, and gender; and
who acknowledge that there are
individual differences of conviction
and theology."
WHAT??! Hold the boat. You mean to tell me that we are supposed to be okay with not only differences in theology, but also the pluralism of race and gender?? Okay, okay. Sorry. But this really hit me. Like I had to re-read it a few times. The CRC denomination is one that only fairly recently has allowed women to become ordained, and you have to go to some lengths to find a racially or ethnically diverse congregation. I spent a week and a half this summer serving the most racially diverse congregation in the most racially diverse neighborhood in the most racially diverse city in the world: Friendship CRC in Toronto, Ontario. Yes, it was a CRC, and yes, there were more than white Dutch people. It was a new (and I'll admit strange) experience for me.
Ask anyone in any CRC and most of them are going to agree with all or most of the things written in this pamphlet. We know how to speak of love and inclusiveness and how to go about sending our support to those actively doing it, but I don't think many people know HOW to actually minister to others. I think we have lost sight of the fact that we don't need a degree to care for people. We don't experience. We don't NEED a pamphlet (but it wouldn't hurt).
The biggest thing that struck me was that it was almost just like my home church, but I bet a lot of CRC people, when asked, would get totally hung up on the adult baptism thing. I guess for me it's not something I view as a "salvation matter" and it's not something worth splitting or fighting over, so it's not something worth focusing on.
At the end of the service, there was a row of girls from Central College sitting behind KB and me. They were very eager to learn who we were, were we new in town, just visiting, etc. They were extremely friendly and explained that they are RA's on campus. I told them I'm going to be a freshman and they got all excited and were excited to have me at Central. It felt good. Not only were there social and polite college students but they were outgoing and willing to branch out and find out about us. It could have been so easy to for us to come, sit, listen, and leave without ever interacting with anyone. But nope. They got us. And it was nice.
The sermon was about Jesus calling the little children to come to him and about Him saying a little child is the greatest among those in the kingdom of Heaven. He talked about how Jesus' touch was a coveted blessing (especially on children- only 40% of whom would live past age 20- didn't know that). He (the pastor) talked about how the disciples were too quick to brush off the children as unimportant and focus on their own learning. The part of the sermon that has stuck with me though, was when Pastor Heikes said that Jesus saying He has time for the little children is Him saying He has time for EVERYONE, no matter how seemingly unimportant. Another thing I found very interesting was, according to the pastor, the Greek word used for "touch" in this passage (Lk. 18: 15-17) is also the same word that means "to ignite." Christ does not merely want to touch and heal us, He wants to ignite something within us. The sermon also pointed out that we must have the faith of a child to enter the kingdom.
This last point brought up a good point from KB post-service. She started saying that not only must we just have a child's faith, we must also have a child's colorblind acceptance of all peoples, colors, and races. As she put it "A little kid will go talk to a serial killer if they're nice enough." Little children don't see skin color, salaries, or gender. They love because they haven't been conditioned yet to see those things. KB brought up a good point- shouldn't we all have the unconditional love for one another that children have? I really think so.
This concludes my adventures for day one, and thus far I'm pleased. I found a church today I had never been to, knew almost no one there, and new almost nothing about. I also found a church that was loving, open, and not that different from mine. If only everyone could see that. So long for now,
Cameron
