Calvary Temple

January 4, 2009 7:00 pm
Calvary Temple, 400 Hargrave St. Winnipeg
Pastor Trevor Meier

I will freely admit how I ended up going to the 7:00 pm service at Calvary Temple: I slept through the morning service. However, it ended up being a really interesting experience. Calvary Temple is one of the largest churches in Winnipeg. The place is huge. The 7:00 service, called "Beyond," is held in the main sanctuary (because there are more than one). Their website bills it as the "multimedia-heavy" service, which naturally intrigued me.

When I walked in at twenty-to I was one of only about ten people there (later I discovered this was because everyone was at a pre-service prayer). The stage was set up for a band and there were three cameras and countless tv-screens warming up around the place. By ten-to it was brimming, with at least 150 people present. The age demographic was shocking compared to any other service I've attended: the 25 and unders outnumbered the 50 pluses. There was a huge spirit of camaraderie before the service as people dashed around the sanctuary hugging each other and talking animatedly.

I must admit I had to raise my eyebrows as a young man marched to and fro across the stage before the service, wielding a full-size Israeli flag. I won't mention my feelings about the issues facing Israel and Palestine, suffice it to say that I didn't feel it was appropriate to be waving any flags in church, Palestinian or Israeli. As Christians I feel it is our calling to support both parties in coming to a peaceful resolution, not to get behind one particular group (whether or not we may consider them "in the right.")

Onwards. The service started with music. Lots of music. Almost an hour of music. Guitar, bass, piano, drums, vocals. The female vocalist had a set of lungs on her, but (similar to my experience at Grant Memorial), she was trying waaay to hard to sound like a pop star. On a side note, I never imagined that I would have needed earplugs at a church service. But there you are. The band played seamlessley and their sound was quite good. The songs were all pretty generic, "uplifting" Christian rock and though there were a lot of people in the front really getting into it (a few men were dancing in circles in their pews, and at least half the hands in the room were outstretched towards the ceiling), I must admit I was a bit bored by the time Pastor Meier bounced onto the stage.

Pastor Meier is an animated speaker, really engaging, really easy to listen to. His sermon started off with a distinct sense of direction as he spoke about "opening our sails to the wind of God" in the new year. Basically his main point was that instead of trying desperately to make things "work," we should simply listen for what God has to say and be influenced by what we are called to do at a specific time.

Good stuff, but it was downhill from there. Suddenly he was pulling scripture passages out of nowhere and somehow stringing them together, but everything was out of context. I really lost him for a while there. At one point (I apologize, I've forgotten the exact passage), he was meditating pretty heavily on a particular passage. After reiterating and tying it into the idea of listening for the "wind of God," he added, "but everyone! This is definitely not an excuse to be weird or flaky! I see all kinds of people read this passage and use it as an excuse for being weird and flaky." Weird and flaky? I almost walked out. What kind of sermon labels and then attacks people for being or acting a certain way? Acceptance this was not.

I'm rambling. But you get my drift.

The service ended with more music, and I had to run out upon realizing that two hours had just passed, instead of one. When I left the music was still going on and people were congregating at the front to be prayed with.

I must say I enjoyed the contemporary musical aspect of this service. More churches need to look into alternative methods of worship, because comparing this congregation to most others its obvious that it's hard to attract youth with the old formulaic service. I'm getting bored, what about you?
If it wasn't for Pastor Meier's sermon, I would've left feeling a bit better than I did. His sermon was a classic example of talking a lot, but saying very little. And using disjointed Bible passages to say very little. Hmm. I will definitely consider going to one of Calvary Temple's morning services; it will be very interesting to contast the two.

http://www.ctwinnipeg.com/