The seats are comfortable!

OK, today was our second attempt at making it to church on a Sunday morning. We had our clothes ready last night, made sure the alarm was set, and with only very little grumbling, we made it in time. We went to a Presbyterian church here in Tallahassee. I had never been to a Presbyterian service before. The church we went to is based on reformed theology. This made it an easy choice for me as most of the books I have been reading have been from the Reformed Calvinist view.

We both liked the service, first of all, the seats were cushioned, I mean who wouldn't be impressed with that? It seems to me that every time I have gone to church lately the pews have been wood and after an hour your butt gets sore. Definitely a plus. They had a huge organ along with a great choir, yet another plus, I love listening to choirs, besides they cover up the noise when the rest of us sing out of tune.

We chose to go to the traditional service, I think we are both too conservative for a contemporary service I am not sure why. The atmosphere was light yet serious enough for the pastor to get his point across during his sermon.

Today's sermon was based on one of my favorite parables, namely the parable of the Good Samaritan. The parable shows the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful in people. The pastor's main conclusion was that we should not label each other, and always value mercy over orthodoxy. There are no boundaries to Christian love, and unorthodox people, such as the Samaritan, a heretic, could inherit eternal life by loving in the way Christ loves. To me that seems to contradict the Calvinist point of total depravity, but who am I to say?. It doesn't matter, the sermon was great with a cleat point, and the seat was comfortable :-)

We have decided that we will try out different churches every Sunday from now until Christmas. Just to kind of get a taste of what is out there, and to determine whether or not going to church is for us. We will be attending today's church again next Sunday as they will have a special service, explaining Presbyterian worship, the order followed service, seasons of the year etc. We thought it would be a good one to attend!

Today's church had the following positive points not in order of importance, just in random order:

1. Comfortable seats
2. Great Choir
3. Cool organ
4. Great sermon
5. Gift bag with coffee mug when we left
6. Fairly young congregation
7. Bulletin where you could fill in the blank during the pastor's sermon to ensure that you pay attention. Brilliant idea for people like me who have very short attention spans, and who tends to day dream.

Things I could have been without:

1. Prayer for Young Disciples, a little puppet play performed for the kids re-enacting the parable of the Good Samaritan. It was neat, but just seemed kind of out of place, more like something that should be done during Sunday school.

Our first impression of this church was definitely positive, but since none of us are that experienced in the traditions of different denominations, we do want to go exploring for a while. I am very good at getting excited and carried away only to loose interest after a short time. It may not be a good idea when choosing a church. Who knows, it may also turn out that we don't need a church. What fascinates me though, is the sense of security and belonging churches seem to offer here in the US.

Remember soft seats automatically go on the plus list!

P

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