genevieve is…

I went back, again, to Village Vineyard this morning.  First, I’ll admit in a slightly sheepish manner that I basically got addicted to praise and worship at Summit, and so in a lot of ways I think I’ve been looking for good praise and worship as one of two things (the other being fellowship) in a spiritual community.  This is not to say that I don’t think a good pastor who speaks well and has good sermons isn’t important; that was the very reason I stuck it out at Summit–Devon was awesome.  But then somewhere along the way, as I was going to church for the message, I started actually listening to praise and worship and to, well, worship.  In a way, it’s like I know I can ask and learn about Devon’s message any given week, but I can’t experience the praise and worship at Summit.

So anyway, the p&w was really good today, and I thought the message was pretty darn good too.  One of the most amazing parts was that the pastor actually asked us to pick up our notebooks and write at multiple points during the service (there are notebooks under each chair for this purpose).  And people actually did it!  There are certainly things I don’t like, but I’ve been withholding judgment and so far it seems to be paying off because as I get a more complete picture of where things are coming from each time I go.

Since arriving in Columbus I’ve been looking for a spiritual community to become a part of…this is particularly hard because I come from the best community ever in Norman. Last Sunday I tried King Ave. Methodist Church, which was very nice but, as I mentioned, I’ve really become spoiled by Summit. Today I headed right around the corner from my home to Village Vineyard, which meets in the basement of the Anglican church.

First, the chairs were arranged in a circular (well, more like elliptical) shape and there were drums and people with guitars at the front of the green room. Those things were definitely good signs. There was a young girl doling out name tags–also a good sign. The only confusion for me was that there were mics at both ends and after I sat down I realized I was kind of behind one mic. I just ignored it. One awesome thing was that there were notebooks and pens under most of the seats, and people actually used them to write things down. People smiled when I made eye contact, and one guy even walked over and said hello and squeezed my shoulder. Excellent! The band was sort of jamming before the 11:30 service and then at 11:30 people sort of trickled into seats and stood up for the praise and worship. Sadly their projector bulb had just burned out so one of the band members tried desperately to cue us on the next line. Praise and worship only lasted maybe 10-15 minutes–two songs. Then their pastor, Joshua, came up and gave a few announcements. And I found out that about once a year they do a public confession, which was today. Joshua talked a bit about confession, how he’d seen it work, what the biblical supports were, and a philosophical justification. And then! Public confession occurred. I have to admit there was something powerful about seeing people go up to the mic, confess their sins, and get absolved by Joshua, and then go take communion. I’ll also admit I was kind of put off by happening to have my first service be public confession.

All in all, though, I’m glad I went and I’ll probably go again. At the end of the service, one member opened up a lunch invitation to everyone which is exactly the kind of community I’m looking for, though I didn’t have the nerve to try to go to lunch today.