Jesus was not at Willow Creek

During the "show" a kid came onto the stage and they started projecting his image on the screens. He was doing skateboard tricks and the music going was "all hip and with it." After the kid was finished with his tricks the lights came up on the left side of the stage and a band was there. A speaker stepped forward and introduced the church and what the topic for tonight would be. It would be about "teens" and Stephen Baldwin was in the church for an interview. That's right, Stephen Baldwin is a "Jesus Freak." The band started reminiscing about their teenage years and the types of music to which they listened (giving a sample of the songs as they went along). Then there was a musical interlude as the stage crew setup the stage for the interview with the skater-kid and Stephen Baldwin. They talked about skateboarding and Stephen's ministry at skate parks and how the "Holy Spirit is the greatest adrenaline rush there is." They also talked at great lengths about Stephen's new "ministry video available after the service for only $10." Another musical interlude followed which was followed by the quot;lecture" for tonight. It was about raising kids. There was nothing of substance in the message. There was no reading of scripture and the message was very very fundamentalist in that it was conformist and directed at parents who were very very rich. "Keep your family together with your boat." The service ended with a short prayer about the wonders of Stephen Baldwin and the "other simple people helping in ministry too." (seriously they said that) We didn't sing anything or paticipate in anything at the service. It was definitely a ministry of the Clergy. Speaking of the "Clergy" in this church. Women were nowhere to be seen or heard at this place. It was a completely male dominated hierarchical system. At any rate, the service ended and we left the auditorium. How empty was that!

But that's not all. They were having a special communion service for those who missed the service on Wednesday. We decided to go to the service to see what it would be like. After walking what seemed like at least a mile (If you have been to O'Hare it would be like walking from the Delta terminal to the Continetal terminal). We arrive at the special communion and there was no proclamation of the word, the "preacher" was talking about the movie "Ransom" and how it tied into us having dominion over all of the Earth and how we screwed that up because Satan had kidnapped us. What happened next was the kicker that almost made us walk out. After the 5 minute sermon they started distributing the elements and warned people that there were people who were called to the table and people who were denied access to the table. They spent about 10 minutes talking about who was not allowed to join in communion. After communion the service was over. Again, no participation or singing by the people! We left and were completely dumbfounded by this being called "church." It was more like a pepsi concert for a social concern in a mall theater.

Jesus was not at Willow Creek.

I got to my parents house by 10:30pm and went to bed only to wake up @ 5:00am the next day to go back to McCormick. The first church was Trinity United Church of Christ. What Willow Creek was missing in participation of the people, Trinity had a double shot of it. There was prayer, lots and lots of singing and clapping, two alter calls, and a sermon. Only one scripture section was used during the service and it was the focus of the sermon. It was very much geared to an African American congregation. All in all a very powerful experience. Something I would consider attending again.

The last church for the day was St. Benedict the African East church. It was the most diverse church! The worship space was beautiful. The worship space was in the style of an African hut and there were huge plants surrounding the space. There was a baptismal font that was really a huge pool thingy that was amazing (I want one). The service itself was a bit different than most of the Catholic churches to which I've been but the form was definitely Catholic. I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't worn myself out at Trinity and I had gotten more than 6 hours of sleep! The service was fun and very enjoyable.

Jesus was at Trinity and St. Benedict!