Two weeks ago, I'd briefly written about the traditional service at Grace Lutheran Church in a previous post where I'd mostly focused on traditional vs contemporary worship. One of the reasons usually mentioned to explain the emergence of this phenomenon is generation gap. It's supposed that teenagers and young people generally find the traditional service boring and prefer cutting edge ways of worship. While this may be true, it's not the case all the time.
I saw many Generations X and Y guys enjoying the traditional service here. And I can attest that the service (was more or less) free of modern flavors. Yet, it was very appealing to the extent that I had difficulty doing my job as a neutral observer and was carried away with the words and prayers.
One of the interesting points I'd not seen in any traditional service was the way Eucharist was given. Usually, people stand in a queue and the minister (or sometimes depending on the church doctrine, the person himself/herself) dips the bread into the chalice of the consecrated wine and then the bread is consumed as a remembrance of the Last Supper and as a Communion with Jesus Christ in his body and blood (and more so his path).
Here, people would kneel in front of the altar in a line and the pastor and his assistant respectively passed by serving bread and mini-chalices of wine on separate trays and anybody would take his share off each tray and after everybody in the line had been served, the pastor would say the prayers and blessing words collectively. Here, people were treated as flocks not as groups of disunited individuals. As people had to leave pews in groups in an organized (yet quick) way to form a line facing the altar, ushers had much more than a symbolic ritual role and they had to actually usher people in an efficient way. Well, as a former engineer, I cannot ignore such details concerning coordination, order and efficiency. :)
And as people would walk in batches to the altar and back to their pew while the next batch stood in the opposing aisle waiting for their turn, I had ample time to scrutinize people. I could see many teenagers and youth apparently (if appearance could ever be a criterion to judge people) unlikely to attend such a traditional Sunday service. Yet, they did. Instead of looking for modern attractions (which were virtually non-existent), I'd attribute it to the pastor and his assistant and the passion and dedication they had with their job.
To my surprise, I found the contemporary worship on Wednesday night very low-populated (in sharp contrast to the traditional service on Sunday) and people mainly consisted of elderly and middle-aged people. It was really fun to see grandpas and grandmas swaying to the pop music. This is what's called feeling young at heart.
Here, the pastor who was very venerable (yet very friendly) with a soft warm voice (exactly the stereotype you see in movies) was not in clerical robes, yet he'd not gone too far as to appear too casual. I was keen to know how would the assistant pastor appear for this contemporary service, but she was absent.
And all that post-911 propaganda has not been impenetrable to the minds of American people, even in this spiritual church. Over the closing prayer, there were some fears mentioned that people would confess to and ask God for help about; one of these was the threat of a terrorist.
In the end, there was something funny that really made our night. A very cute toddler struggled all over the worship to walk (toddle to be accurate) to the altar. Her mother more or less managed to restrain her. But by the end of the worship, while the praise team were singing a very jubilant song about the God's light that nobody could ever extinguish (and I couldn't help think about the verses mentioned in Quran to that effect), our little lovely fairy eventually managed to break free, running to the altar. Everybody was amazed and overjoyed. Well, she wanted to have a personal first-hand experience of the God's light and she had every right to that end.
And there was something odd that made me believe this was an extremely contemporary service (though it was free of any extravaganza); somebody had brought her dog (yes, a dog and a rather big one) to the worship. It appeared to be a spiritual polite dog as it didn't make any noise whatsoever during the worship and I had not noticed it before people got up to leave the chapel.
After the worship, there was a Bible Study and I didn't hesitate to attend it. It was book of Job, chapter 2. It mentioned how frustrated he felt after all the calamities pouring over him one after the other. People were expected to rephrase the verses assigned to them in a contemporary understandable language. I'd been assigned the verses 11-15. Well, instead of rephrasing the verses, I preferred to say what was my take of it all.
And trivially, as a Muslim, I expressed it in an Islamic way: whether we feel overwhelmed with calamities or indulged in luxuries, we'll be buried under the same earth; it doesn't matter how we feel about our life here; what makes the whole difference is how we live in this world before leaving for the next; when we meet our Lord, all it matters is whether we feel ashamed or proud in His presence on that day.
I saw many Generations X and Y guys enjoying the traditional service here. And I can attest that the service (was more or less) free of modern flavors. Yet, it was very appealing to the extent that I had difficulty doing my job as a neutral observer and was carried away with the words and prayers.
One of the interesting points I'd not seen in any traditional service was the way Eucharist was given. Usually, people stand in a queue and the minister (or sometimes depending on the church doctrine, the person himself/herself) dips the bread into the chalice of the consecrated wine and then the bread is consumed as a remembrance of the Last Supper and as a Communion with Jesus Christ in his body and blood (and more so his path).
Here, people would kneel in front of the altar in a line and the pastor and his assistant respectively passed by serving bread and mini-chalices of wine on separate trays and anybody would take his share off each tray and after everybody in the line had been served, the pastor would say the prayers and blessing words collectively. Here, people were treated as flocks not as groups of disunited individuals. As people had to leave pews in groups in an organized (yet quick) way to form a line facing the altar, ushers had much more than a symbolic ritual role and they had to actually usher people in an efficient way. Well, as a former engineer, I cannot ignore such details concerning coordination, order and efficiency. :)
And as people would walk in batches to the altar and back to their pew while the next batch stood in the opposing aisle waiting for their turn, I had ample time to scrutinize people. I could see many teenagers and youth apparently (if appearance could ever be a criterion to judge people) unlikely to attend such a traditional Sunday service. Yet, they did. Instead of looking for modern attractions (which were virtually non-existent), I'd attribute it to the pastor and his assistant and the passion and dedication they had with their job.
To my surprise, I found the contemporary worship on Wednesday night very low-populated (in sharp contrast to the traditional service on Sunday) and people mainly consisted of elderly and middle-aged people. It was really fun to see grandpas and grandmas swaying to the pop music. This is what's called feeling young at heart.
Here, the pastor who was very venerable (yet very friendly) with a soft warm voice (exactly the stereotype you see in movies) was not in clerical robes, yet he'd not gone too far as to appear too casual. I was keen to know how would the assistant pastor appear for this contemporary service, but she was absent.
And all that post-911 propaganda has not been impenetrable to the minds of American people, even in this spiritual church. Over the closing prayer, there were some fears mentioned that people would confess to and ask God for help about; one of these was the threat of a terrorist.
In the end, there was something funny that really made our night. A very cute toddler struggled all over the worship to walk (toddle to be accurate) to the altar. Her mother more or less managed to restrain her. But by the end of the worship, while the praise team were singing a very jubilant song about the God's light that nobody could ever extinguish (and I couldn't help think about the verses mentioned in Quran to that effect), our little lovely fairy eventually managed to break free, running to the altar. Everybody was amazed and overjoyed. Well, she wanted to have a personal first-hand experience of the God's light and she had every right to that end.
And there was something odd that made me believe this was an extremely contemporary service (though it was free of any extravaganza); somebody had brought her dog (yes, a dog and a rather big one) to the worship. It appeared to be a spiritual polite dog as it didn't make any noise whatsoever during the worship and I had not noticed it before people got up to leave the chapel.
After the worship, there was a Bible Study and I didn't hesitate to attend it. It was book of Job, chapter 2. It mentioned how frustrated he felt after all the calamities pouring over him one after the other. People were expected to rephrase the verses assigned to them in a contemporary understandable language. I'd been assigned the verses 11-15. Well, instead of rephrasing the verses, I preferred to say what was my take of it all.
And trivially, as a Muslim, I expressed it in an Islamic way: whether we feel overwhelmed with calamities or indulged in luxuries, we'll be buried under the same earth; it doesn't matter how we feel about our life here; what makes the whole difference is how we live in this world before leaving for the next; when we meet our Lord, all it matters is whether we feel ashamed or proud in His presence on that day.
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