Sunday, June 26, 2005
A visit back to my favorite xtian church
Hi. Please note that I frequently use Xtian in place of Christian. If you are at all offended by this, get with the program right now and unoffend yourself. I don't have time for crap like that, and neither do you.
On Friday night, my wife and I went with my dad and stepmother to Peace Lutheran Church in Lauderdale, MN. When I was growing up, it was a very small congregation, and had an excellent minister with a wonderful vibe and deep insights and understanding. Since then, they've gone through a couple short term ministers, and now have a new minister that my parents just rave about. I got to meet him on Friday, and see the work he's done at the church. He had the most open and non-judgemental spirit I've seen in a long time, and very active with a surprising amount of energy and moxie.
Anyway, the church used to have red carpeted floors, with pews all facing the front where the altar was, along with the eucharist railing and the other trappings. Shortly after he arrived, they ripped up the carpet, somehow scared up $15000 for new chairs and pews, and turned the orientation of the church sideways, so that now everyone faces toward the front wall, in sort of a semicircle. And there is modern vibrant art posted on the walls, and large pieces of art hanging from the ceiling, including flags, a peace banner in many languages, and several crosses that had a soft comfortable feel to them, if that's possible (I'll try and be sure to provide my thoughts and opinions on the nature of crosses in the future, but will just preface that entry now by asking "was it most likely Jesus, his disciples, or the Roman Catholic church who decided that the symbology to use should be a cross?" I think Jesus would've chosen otherwise.) Don't get me wrong, I have a fascination with crosses, but also have spent a lot of time thinking about the dark psychological seeds that they plant in xtians. In the minister's office, he had a wall with probably twenty more crosses on it, all of them had a nice artistic feel to them, and not that spooky creepy feel to them.
But I digress... The main thing I wanted to say was that the church is so much more attractive. The minister I'd grown up with there had such an excellent aura that it was always fun and educational to be around him, but now this new minister also has applied his aura to the whole building. Frequently, churches have their crosses out front, and they're just crosses, or they're cold and intimidating in some way. This church just screams warm, friendly, open-minded community.
Why were we there on a Friday? Well, I wasn't going to be in town on Sunday, but wanted to meet this minister, who had gone to seminary right next door to the seminary I'll be going to. And also had wanted to see the changes. The event that evening was a community music show. There were three different artists/groups who played. First, a woman played a couple Rachmaninoff tunes (I'll correct that spelling later if I get the chance). Then a violin quartet played. While they played, I thought that it might be worthwhile at some point to get some classical violin sheet music, and learn to play it on guitar. The last group was a men's 50's-style Doo-wop quartet called the Fairlanes. Their tunes really brought me back to when I was in college and earlier and used to see barbershop quartet shows with my friend Paul. There's something about the showmanship that is just so catchy. Needless to say, my musical tastes have changed remarkably (I much prefer Melvins, Ministry, PJ Harvey, and John Coltrane, plus a wide wide variety of other tunes ranging from gabber to classical to jazz), but I still like a good show, no matter what it is.
Today, we're up at my mom and stepfather's place in NW Wisconsin, just hanging out together. Since we're moving to the Bay Area soon and won't see them quite as often, I'm glad I'm getting some time with them. Therefore, signing off to go do just that.
Hugs,
Joel
On Friday night, my wife and I went with my dad and stepmother to Peace Lutheran Church in Lauderdale, MN. When I was growing up, it was a very small congregation, and had an excellent minister with a wonderful vibe and deep insights and understanding. Since then, they've gone through a couple short term ministers, and now have a new minister that my parents just rave about. I got to meet him on Friday, and see the work he's done at the church. He had the most open and non-judgemental spirit I've seen in a long time, and very active with a surprising amount of energy and moxie.
Anyway, the church used to have red carpeted floors, with pews all facing the front where the altar was, along with the eucharist railing and the other trappings. Shortly after he arrived, they ripped up the carpet, somehow scared up $15000 for new chairs and pews, and turned the orientation of the church sideways, so that now everyone faces toward the front wall, in sort of a semicircle. And there is modern vibrant art posted on the walls, and large pieces of art hanging from the ceiling, including flags, a peace banner in many languages, and several crosses that had a soft comfortable feel to them, if that's possible (I'll try and be sure to provide my thoughts and opinions on the nature of crosses in the future, but will just preface that entry now by asking "was it most likely Jesus, his disciples, or the Roman Catholic church who decided that the symbology to use should be a cross?" I think Jesus would've chosen otherwise.) Don't get me wrong, I have a fascination with crosses, but also have spent a lot of time thinking about the dark psychological seeds that they plant in xtians. In the minister's office, he had a wall with probably twenty more crosses on it, all of them had a nice artistic feel to them, and not that spooky creepy feel to them.
But I digress... The main thing I wanted to say was that the church is so much more attractive. The minister I'd grown up with there had such an excellent aura that it was always fun and educational to be around him, but now this new minister also has applied his aura to the whole building. Frequently, churches have their crosses out front, and they're just crosses, or they're cold and intimidating in some way. This church just screams warm, friendly, open-minded community.
Why were we there on a Friday? Well, I wasn't going to be in town on Sunday, but wanted to meet this minister, who had gone to seminary right next door to the seminary I'll be going to. And also had wanted to see the changes. The event that evening was a community music show. There were three different artists/groups who played. First, a woman played a couple Rachmaninoff tunes (I'll correct that spelling later if I get the chance). Then a violin quartet played. While they played, I thought that it might be worthwhile at some point to get some classical violin sheet music, and learn to play it on guitar. The last group was a men's 50's-style Doo-wop quartet called the Fairlanes. Their tunes really brought me back to when I was in college and earlier and used to see barbershop quartet shows with my friend Paul. There's something about the showmanship that is just so catchy. Needless to say, my musical tastes have changed remarkably (I much prefer Melvins, Ministry, PJ Harvey, and John Coltrane, plus a wide wide variety of other tunes ranging from gabber to classical to jazz), but I still like a good show, no matter what it is.
Today, we're up at my mom and stepfather's place in NW Wisconsin, just hanging out together. Since we're moving to the Bay Area soon and won't see them quite as often, I'm glad I'm getting some time with them. Therefore, signing off to go do just that.
Hugs,
Joel
Labels: Christianity, music, paradigm shift
