Kwanzaa Presbyterian Church

The youth at Buffalo in the past had a tradition of the first Sunday of the month visiting a different church for worship. I think they had always gone to churches in the Buffalo/Monticello Area. I have for a while wanted to take a group to Kwanzaa Presbyterian church. I have a couple of reasons for this, one they worship in the old Highland Presbyterian Church building where I attended until 5th grade, I knew the worship experience while at a Presbyterian church was unlike any Presbyterian worship service most have had. I have heard Alika one of the co-pastors preach ( she was a guest preacher at Plymouth once) and was impressed and I have met people from Kwanzaa though combined events at North Como and helping with the freedom school. I also was in a class during seminary with the Rev. Paula Sanders who talked about the ministry at Kwanzaa.

Makning shure we had enough time to get to the church and not be late, we got there about 1/2 hour before worship started. I had been to contact with Paula Sanders, so they knew we were coming to visit and they had a young man who spotted as as we walked up to the church and he led us into the sanctuary. What an example of hospitality. Some of my frist empressions were reactions to a building that I had not been in for over twenty years, yet somethings were so familiar to me. my overall sense is the building seems a lot smaller then I remember. I showed the youth the windows of the cry room that overlook the santuary ( like an enclosed balcony) where sometimes we would watch the service and listen on the speaker. Even 1/2 hour before the service there were people in the sanctuary singing songs ( maybe they were just practicing) but they got those in the pew involved ( how many church choirs have you seen involing the congegregation as they warmed up, practiced?) the acceplla singing flowed into praise mucic with the organ, piano, drums,cymbals, etc.... there was a gentleman who led the singing with much enthusiam, our group commented later on how many times he said just one more time before a song ended. following some quick announcments there was a prayer about saying yes to the Lord ( I have rarely heard a prayer before where the music still played and people shouted amen, haijuegh, etc.. it was anything but the traditional quiet prayer. Rev. Ralph had visitors stand up and he welcomed us, and told us to expect hugs during the passing of the peace. Also the ushers passed out visitor info cards to those of us that stood during this time ( a great lesson I think many churches could use). Passing of the peace we were welcomed warmly by many in the congreagation, they seemed to make a point to greet us unlike many churches I have been to where you greet your friends, and visitors are they are near you( but you don't make a point to) the choir sang a song, then the scripture was read and people commented even as scripture was read. then a woman with a great voice did an amazing grace song, that was so powerful and the congregation was so pumped up, I wonder how Alika would be able to preach after that. Alika's sermon was on "grace" and she did a great job of weaving personal stories, three other stories about grace and even inlucded the people of the congregation in by name. It probably was a longer sermon than most of used to but it was so engaging, insightful and inspiring that i don't think most even those who came with me from Buffalo minded or noticed. One of the youth sitting next to me turned to me when Alika finished and said that was really good. Not to disrespect our Pastor at Buffalo or most Presbyterian Pastors I know but for a fifth grade girl to say this about a sermon I thought was something.

The bulliteen the ushers ( who were all wearing black pants or skirts and white tops) passed out was a two sided 8 1/2 x 11 sheet on one side was the welcome and announcements/calendar ,the other an outline of the service. The youth next to me kept looking at it and asking where we were in the service, a few times I told them I did not know or the part in the service we were in was not on it. i thought it was freeing to not be so wrapped up in a bulliteen that we had to follow along and I liked how it seemed like while there was an order to the service we also were moving along as the spirit moved. I think in an upcoming youth service I would like to use a similar bulletin and pull people away from being attached to the bulletin or hymnals. While they had the Blue Presbyterian hymnal none of the songs we sang came out of it. All songs were just sung multiple times and people picked them up as they went along.

Following the sermon played a song on CD for us to listen to but it was not a quiet listening but one of active participation as we listened. Then she invited people forward in what seemed like an altar call but at one point I wondered if it was more of a time for people to come forward with prayer concerns and have some pray with them one on one. Then Ralph started the word of institution for communion ( which was not in the bulletin) and he did it in a wondering way that at first I was not sure if we were starting communion or not. We did do communion intinction style and they invited the kids of the church to go first and a long line of kids came in from the basement and then the ushers singled each row when to go. The interesting thing was Ralph and Alika handled the elements and they had "elders" on either side of them that hugged people as they were returning to their seats. After communion one of the elders gave a quick word up giving as we have received and then the plates were passed. Alika gave a blessing and a gentlemen played a beautiful song on the violn. At lunch I commented it was one of the quietest times the whole service.

All the youth that joined us for lunch ( some had to get back sooner) seemed to enjoy the service and were glad they went. There were some mixed reactions to the amens, and other shouts though out the serivce ( some liked it others did not) and they didn't seem too upset that a service that started at 11am - ended at 1:30.

May post more later, enough for now, will probably post impressions of Alikas sermon as it was memorable and times very though provoking.

wow long time since my last post

I went to do a post and realized I have not done one since Christmas, a big reason why is I have not been visiting churches like before due to an interim youth director position I have had since Jan 6. It is a 12 hour a week position at Buffalo Presbyterian (about 25 miles west of my home). I am enjoying and have struggled with the notion of taking the permanent position if it were offered to me. I have some concerns about how much I could commit to it and the disconnect I have not living in the community.

Today I took seven youth and two other adults from Buffalo to Minneapolis for worship at Kwanzaa Presbyterian church, this leads me to post today, but that will be in another post.

December 24 Valley Community Presbyterian Church

This year my whole immediate family worshiped together for Christmas Eve, the past couple of years we have attended different services. I liked the way that children, youth and families all took part in the readings for this service. In addition to being the early family service it was also a Wellspring led service. Wellspring is the praise band at Valley, while I normally enjoy wellspring's music, I was disapointed that they did not do tradtional Christmas hymns for this serivce. This notion was also expressed by others who attended the serivce, I think sometimes we tend to desire familar things, and Christmas hymns is one of those. One thing they did at this service I really liked was instead of passing the plates for the offering, everyone was invited to come to the "manger" to leave gifts and to pick up a candle for each family. This led me to think that isn't it strange that we exchange gifts in celebration of Jesus's birthday, what would it be like if we exchanged gifts for other birthdays than our own. If I were working in a church I would like to do a sermon or message ( Sunday school, etc...) around this idea, we get so caught up in gifts we get for others or receive ourselves, what gifts do we give to Jesus for his birthday? I also wonder if Christmas eve worship serivce sometimes is more about who we will see or talk to than about truly preparing to celebrate Jesus's birthday?

December 23 Andrew Riverside Presbyterian Church

This Sunday before Christmas, I felt I needed another coming home church worship experience. After I left Valley during my college years, I ended up at Andrew Riverside because of Harry and Judy Maghikian, I was even employed by AR for a summer to work on building their youth ministry. I had not seen Harry and Judy in a long time and so this was a driving factor for me to visit AR this Sunday.

Since the AR church building was knocked down five years ago following the wall colapse , they have been worshiping at the YMCA on the U Campus. They have a small dedicated congregation and are looking forward to being back in their own building in the near future as the latest development (Senior housing with worship/fellowship and office space for the church) on the land where the AR Church was is progressing through the hurdles towards being built.

While worship does not need to take place in a church building, it is a little different to worship in rented space like the Y. They do a nice job decorating the space and setting it up to function well as worship space. It has Judy's creative touch to it.

The worship service does not follow the traditional PCUSA templet for worship, it seemed like there was more special music than needed and while scripture from the book of John was referenced in the sermon, there was not actual reading of scripture prior to the sermon. In traditional Harry and Judy fashion the sermon used visuals from the LCD projector and was given by more than one person. While I grew up with Harry and Judy's worship services, it seems very foreign to me some of the changes they have been during their time at AR and is not a worship experience that feeds me spiritaly as I need to be.

Plymouth Presbyterian Church December 16

I an earlier post I talked about the pull of things are like home, so I decided to go to worship at PPC I had not been back there since I left in June. I had planned to wait until confirmation sunday in January to go back but i might be obligated to be at another church that Sunday. I chose to go back this week because it was the Chistmas pagent. I didn't know what to expect , but was pleased with the warm welcome I received from all. One youth said I shouldn't have left and I hear the buzz from the middle school girls getting ready for the Christmas pagent was that Scott was at Church. The fact that a real King from Africa was in church did not seem as big a deal compared to me being back in the eyes of the youth. It was fun to see lots of old friends. I feel bad I did not have a chance to talk with evryone, hope no one feels slighted. it was a great christmas pagent, using middle school and high school youth added something to it. My mind wandered a bit as I thought about a family friend I know from my youth years at valley who has a pre-trial hearing for some pretty bad things he is accused of doing. I am praying for him that things go well for him at the hearing. the monster his accuser is making him out to be is not the person I have known for many years.

Valley community Presbyterian Church December 2

With the Christmas season I think we tend to graviate to things that feel like home, so I felt compeled to go to Valley the church I grew up in for a visit. I have been there on a yearly basis for the workcamp echo service, but can not remember when I have attended a traditional sunday worship service. While I grew up at Valley and know many people there from those years and people I have met more recently it did not feel like home as much as I expected it to. This is not a value statement( good or bad) as much as it is the realization that things do not stay the same. I think there are many great people at Valley and things I like and don't like about the way they do things and will keep Valley in mind when I decide where I will eventually land and worship on a regular basis , possibly even join. I will add to this post more at a later time and talk more in detail about the service itself.

update on my journey

SO a lot has happened since I last did a post, I began a new job and am starting to feel like my life is getting back to "normal". conventional wisdom says you get jobs via networking and the online job sites are not very effective when you post your resume on them. Well things worked out for me that went against these thoughts, I did not put as much effort into networking as I should have ( somewhat due to I was not sure what I wanted to do) and I got a phone call from a company that church management software that they saw my resume on a job website. They were looking for someone to do phone tech support for thier products. I interviewed with them and two weeks ago became a tech support specialist with Church management solutions. I am enjoying the work despite the fact they want me to learn the financial products and to provide support for these. I am not an accounting person ( think I started an accounting course in college but dropped it). I work 8-5 with a one hour lunch break and liek the fact we are not on a phone que ( so it is a pace that suits me). I am enjoying being home in the evening and will like having my weekends free once I finish working at Office Max in a few weeks. I might be helping a church with their youth program for a few months and am excited about move leadership opportunies with the presbytery youth ministries. I will post some recent church visits in other posts, but want to suggest I woould welcome comments to any of my posts.