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Home > Fellowship Plaza Apt. A202 |
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Pentecost Sunday
I left my apartment around 7:50AM in the morning and upon returning, it was already 2:45PM in the afternoon.
In the morning, the weather was nice and breezy, but during the return the weather had gone up to about 80°F.
So, the weather difference in Northern California during daylight cycle is about 30°F.
When I saw the thermometer back at my place, despite the lack of air-conditioning, the temperature was at 69°F.
About an hour or so before I left our apartment, I had left the windows and balcony doors all open to freshen up the place. Then I had closed the door to leave, so the cold air had stayed inside the apartment interior and kept it cool.
Thinking, this was a refreshing environment I changed my clothing to start typing on my computer. This week was the Pentecost for all Christians; therefore I had done my best to have the best, most devout service. Also to remember of the first churches in the history – to turn back into the simple and sincere essence the early Christian churches held. It was a week of challenge,
The reason why we left so early around 7:50AM this morning was, to see the dentist who took care of us. He and his wife are both so sincere and humble. His wife started to lose her vision and is very severely darkened. But her smile is like of an angel and always bright. They both show sincerity in smiles and humbleness in their life.
I remember last May for the last 3 weeks or so I taught the “Old Testament Panorama” and him and his wife had attended and attentively did the 77 body-motion extremely well. He and I are of the same age at this year. One of the better ways to spend the elderly days is of “learning till end” as the geriatrics has said. I believe that out of all the lecturer of “Old Testament Panorama” I am the oldest, or so as they would say.
While my wife and his wife were talking, my wife found out that the dentist’s wife likes chives and were looking for a seeding. My wife happened to be growing some in my daughter’s garden. She also requested for some or any tapes that had of the Good News. Fortunately, I had some cassette tape set of Reverend KyungJik Han’s sermons from 30 years ago. I had the tapes of his sermons on the “Lord’s Prayer”, “Apostle’s Creed” and of the “Eight Blessings”. That was the reason why I had attended the doctor’s church this morning so early.
Their 1st Service was held around 8:30AM in the morning. So I met Dr. Park in the entrance around 8:20AM to get to the service room. This was one of the mega churches in the locale, there were about 800 seats in the church in a amphitheatre-like format. The podium was more like a stage with many, large spotlights with a large screen showing very flamboyant background. There were several horns, guitars and 2 keyboards of different tone. It almost made me feel like I was attending a show. The way the service was so different from my familiarity. It was so new.
Finally the pastor started preaching. I was expecting the sermon to be about the Pentecost and of the Holy Spirit. But instead, it started with a small clip showing toy Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman doing a strength showoff instead. Then many other scenes of Wonder Woman followed by.
Then the pastor suddenly popped in and asked, “who is your hero?” then started to explain why Wonder Woman. During the times in the Book of Judges, Deborah, the only female Judge to be so, was not hampered by the patriarchal nature of that time, and that God had chosen rather a female warrior to save the Israelites. He walked around sometimes writing things down in a large paper, explaining that she was not deterred from the society’s look of woman at that time, and that she even encouraged General Barrack, instead of scolding and said “I will follow you.” He preached in a way that also would inspire women who were attending.
One thing I would never forget that he said was, while the pastor was attending seminary, sometimes he was discouraged but there was someone who encouraged him. Turns out it was the assistant pastor who was doing all the announcements and introduction. The pastor said, “If it was not for Pastor Wang, I would not be here today! He is one of my many heroes of my time.”
While between the services, I noticed there was almost no one who was “properly” dressed in an essence. There were about 400 people who had gathered, but those who were colleting the offering were the “properly” dressed people. It is not to say that dressing proper or not is important, but of the different culture in the church.
After delivering the things to Dr. Park, my wife and I visited our daughter’s place since their service has quite not started yet. This was because her house was on the way back from the church anyway – they used to attend a mega church near where they resided, but recently moved to another church through friends to a church 20 minute away and they were multi-cultural. I wanted to visit that church many times so I attended the service. So today, for the first time ever, I had attended two Sunday worship services.
I arrived shortly before service starting, but thankfully my son-in-law found us a parking spot and was able to make it in time (albeit barely). The building was a 3story building, half for industrial use, and the other was for holding service. How did they manage to get a permit to plant a church is a miracle. Sure, to have a religious building near where a lot of industrial and market going is hard, but it must’ve been very hard. After being greeted by members of the church, I noticed there were pots of hot coffee and water along with people serving nearby. I thought this was for the people who had finished the first service, or so I thought.
But the shocking part was I noticed some of the members went into the service while still drinking the coffee! I didn’t have too many services held within American churches, but this was very new and slightly shocking. Also the ceiling was painted in black. But why that color?
There is no such as “order of worship”, just in the entire span of an hour and half, about 20 minutes were spent each in the start and end with praise. Many of the hymns were new and unfamiliar. The senior pastor spoke about “The Pentecost” for 10 minutes, and then spent the time doing church announcements and time of prayer.
There was nothing about the “Pentecost” in the sermon however. American churches seem to have lost some passion in their work in the time. I feel they are however trying to not to lose the focus in God or not.
Today’s service was mostly for middle / high school graduates. First, there was a shot skit done by the high school students. The subject was how and what to wish for in the future. The education department pastor centered his message on Ecclesiastes.
As King Solomon said, “Everything is in vain”, one should revere God and live in that way of life. One thing I liked was, each graduating high school students were coming up the podium, there was a chance for the parents of the students to read letters of encouragement. It was so endearing.
The middle school students were next, and instead a Sunday school teacher read some letter, or parents read a short letter. Then they were gifted a cross. It was inspiring, seeing that this church was caring for the next generation. Then they were talking about visiting local Native Americans at Seattle during summer to do volunteer work in the announcement. The final bit of service was the student choir singing hymns in the end!
Sure, it was true the dress code difference and drinking coffee in service was all unfamiliar with me. But, as I was able to witness, they were still sincere in the service in serving to the Lord. I noticed the education department pastor also was dressed in a simple collar shirt and jeans. Despite being different from Korean culture, they greet well and had a tone of pureness.
When we left the service, my wife and I were the only formally dressed couple.
This was a shocking experience because of two time morning service, but the different way of passing the good news, along with the age gap shows how the American Christianity’s way of our faith is rapidly changing. It was an eye-opening experience.
(June 4th, 2017) |
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Wonderous New Records 
Pentecost Sunday