Church visit #10 First Presbyterian of Maple Plain (Independence?)

This morning the plan was to visit my friends at First Presbyterian Maple Plain. They have a 9:00am worship service and it takes about 1/2 hour of travel time to get there. I figured if I left by 8:20 at the latest I would have time to find the church ( how big is Maple Plain I thought). I had been to Maple Plain earlier this fall to have lunch with Julie MK the youth director at First Presb. Julie had told me in general terms how to get to the church from where we had lunch, but I did not write down them down and guessed it would not be a hard church to find. I was running behind this am and did not map quest the church. When I got in my car it was 8:25 and I was running low on gas, but thought I had plenty of gas to get to Maple Plain and maybe have time to fill up there before church. I get to Maple Plain and try to follow the directions as Julie told me, something about turning at the stop sign ( which is cty rd 6) I must have forgot that I needed to turn off of 6 and I did not know the church is actually in Independence not Maple Plain, so when I saw a sign that I was independence I assumed I went to far.

I did not remember what street the church was on and was running really low on gas at this point, so after driving around Maple Plain figuring I would stumble on the church, I found a gas station and filled up. I tend not to ask for directions, but I went inside the gas station and asked about directions to the Presbyterian church in Maple Plain. Neither of the workers knew where it was and so I asked for a phone book, the church was not listed in the big phone book so I inquired about a smaller local phone book they were not in that either. with a full tank of gas I thought I would give it one more shot, I found my self on 6 again and was about to give up when I saw a sign for the Presbyterian church 3 blocks ahead. When I arrived at the church it was 9:30 and I decided to sneak in and take part in the 2nd half of the service and then Sunday school after that . The church looked smaller in person than it does on their website.

I walked in and saw the sanctuary in front of me closed in by french glass doors ( tougher to sneak in when you have to open a door) I saw Emily who I knew from triennium in the last pew and I sat next to her and her mother. Meg the pastor was reading the scripture, so I got there just before the sermon. The sanctuary seemed very modern( guess they probably did a renovation fairly recently. I tried to think of what it reminded me of and sad to say the best I could come up with is a funeral chapel. The walls are bright white drywall which could use some color and maybe some soft wall hangings to soften up the brightness of the room. The front has a neat cross in the shape of a church window, that I thought had glass with a light behind it until I saw it with the light off. The pulpit, piano and organ are on a high platform that a steep set of stairs leads to . There is a light bar with stage type lighting that is used for plays/musicals they do at this church. Sitting in the back but yet not that far from the pulpit it seemed the sound was too amplified and not natural sounding enough, there was someone sitting in front of the sound board, but it seemed even when there was some reverb from the pastors mic that he did not adjust this at the board. Being as late as I was I will make a return visit sometime and can only comment on the service from the scripture reading on.

I was surprised at a few things, first that the offering is done before the sermon. I thought the offering was a response to the word proclaimed ( sermon and scripture reading). I also was caught off guard with the pew bibles being the Good news translation. Not being a bible translation snob, but I always thought this was a kids translation and not used very much anymore. In seminary onetime a classmate brought a good news bible to class or discipleship group ( forget which) and the professor made fun of it and threatened to burn or shred it. During Sr High Sunday school I asked about the bibles and Lizzy who I appreciate her bold questioning nature asked what was wrong with the good news bibles, it's just very simplistic language I said but did not have a very good answer, I guess sometimes we get into this idea that the NRSV is the Presbyterian pew bible. I guess being more readable is not a bad thing.

One unique element after the sermon was a musical interlude, a time for reflection before the prayer concerns, prayers of the people and the Lords prayer. there was a closing hymn, the benediction where everyone was to hold hands, and a closing song that must be sung each week as the congregation seemed to know without looking at the words.

comments on the sermon- the basic premise was what belongs to God, what belongs to us and how can we be good stewards of what belongs to God. I liked at one point Meg asked a question pointed to the youth and children in the congregation which prior to this I was wondering if Preachers ever consider that their whole audience is not just adults.

following worship I went into the fellowship hall which is next to the sanctuary for fellowship time and connected with youth who went to Triennium and Jim Shannon who is the accompanist and I knew when he had a similar position at Plymouth Presb. following fellowship time I joined the Sr high youth for Sunday school. A small group but they had all seemed to contribute to the discussion and used a video called 24-7 experience about 7 youth from around the country visiting Jesus followers in various cities. This weeks lesson was the first in the series and dealt with what it means to be Christian, some stereotypes people have about Christians, and how easy or difficult it is to be a christian.

this is getting a very long post especially since I did not attend the whole worship service so I will end it now and may pick it up later.