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Because I was curious and it was practically on the walk to church this morning, I wandered through the big outdoor Easter service being put on by a local evangelical christian church. It was quite an impressive production. They had the kind of sound system that would do well for a rock concert and they used it as such with some live music in the beginning while people were gathering and some and some uptempo rock-ish participatory singing which I guess could be called hymns, though not out of any old traditional hymnal.
It's a different part of this community than I usually interact with. I was there for over half an hour, mostly before they began. I saw two people I recognized, but couldn't name, and may never have said more than 10 words to. This out of the perhaps 2000 people there. Right as I was about to leave I did bump into a couple friends I knew from my UU church who were also there out of curiosity. I had to leave to get to the late UU easter service where I was running the sound. About 30 minutes later as the UU service was about to start they showed up having had their fill of the other.
Exclusionary Jesus talk turns me off. I'm ok with a lot of things Jesus said, but I don't like the focus that sometimes comes out of how "He is the only way" and I guess implicitly the rest of us are going to hell. To someone already on the inside I guess this gives them a feeling of satisfaction for having made the right choice, or is cautionary against 'backsliding', but to me on the outside it is downright unfriendly.
The UU service was really good this year. I'm glad I went. I had been kinda dreading it and thinking "oh, I have to go, need to do the sound". Last year's was a let down. But if this keeps up, I may even go to the similarly dreaded Christmas Eve service!
( picture of thousands at instant big church )
It's a different part of this community than I usually interact with. I was there for over half an hour, mostly before they began. I saw two people I recognized, but couldn't name, and may never have said more than 10 words to. This out of the perhaps 2000 people there. Right as I was about to leave I did bump into a couple friends I knew from my UU church who were also there out of curiosity. I had to leave to get to the late UU easter service where I was running the sound. About 30 minutes later as the UU service was about to start they showed up having had their fill of the other.
Exclusionary Jesus talk turns me off. I'm ok with a lot of things Jesus said, but I don't like the focus that sometimes comes out of how "He is the only way" and I guess implicitly the rest of us are going to hell. To someone already on the inside I guess this gives them a feeling of satisfaction for having made the right choice, or is cautionary against 'backsliding', but to me on the outside it is downright unfriendly.
The UU service was really good this year. I'm glad I went. I had been kinda dreading it and thinking "oh, I have to go, need to do the sound". Last year's was a let down. But if this keeps up, I may even go to the similarly dreaded Christmas Eve service!
( picture of thousands at instant big church )
