Waverley Fellowship Baptist Church

Sunday May 2, 2010, 10:00 am
Waverley Fellowship Baptist Church, 2171 Waverley St.

I'm going to apologize if any of this is incoherent, I had a bit of a late night and an early morning. No double vision to report yet. I pass Waverley Baptist every time I go to the University of Manitoba, but I never checked it out until now. It's a big building with a huge stage inside (only the right half was actually used during the service) and quite possibly the comfiest chairs ever.

I was greeted twice walking in and handed a visitor card to fill out (free pen!) Then I headed into the sanctuary. There was actually a decent mix of the young and the old, and maybe 150 people there. The pre-service announcements (including a plug for the wonderful "Love Winnipeg" program) seemed to take forever, though it might have just seemed that way since as I mentioned it was taking an inordinate amount of energy to concentrate and not fall asleep.

A small worship band (guitar, bongos, piano, 2 singers) led some nice music to start the service and then Rev. Mark took the stage. The message this morning seemed pretty long and at times repetitive, but the gist of it was actually kind of neat. He talked about the Jewish "Shema," Deuteronomy 6:4-9 which talks about putting God first "when you lie down and when you rise." It is the original staement of "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might," and was recited fastidiously by Jews in Jesus' time. Mark talked about these ideas for a bit and then concluded by noting that Jesus does something unprecedented: he adds to the single greatest commandment in the law when he says "you shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 22:39). Thus not only does he express the weight of his two commandments, he also displays the fact that he is God by amending God's law. It was an interesting message.

The offering went around, the worship band played a couple more songs and we took communion before Mark came back onstage and wished us well for the week. I had to hurry out because I felt a nap fast approaching, but I must say I did feel welcomed there. People sat near me with no hesitation and there were empty seats elsewhere. All in all a nice, unremarkable church but one that I might be tempted to learn more about.

http://www.mywaverley.com/