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/
Sunday, May 2, 2010
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2 comments:
Hey dude, I came across your blog here while doing a web search to find web sites for churches in Winnipeg. What your doing is interesting. It is something I will be doing soon too.
I haven't read a whole lot but I thought maybe I might invite you to my church, Bethesda. It is on Grant and Cambrian, across the street from the Pan-Am Pool.
I'm not sure if my church is what you'd be interested in though. I'm not sure were you stand theologically, but it seems though that you rate churches on how nice everyone is.
Of course Christians are to be loving and caring and friendly, but do you not consider theology and correct doctrine when rating a church?
Of course there is no perfect "church". But if anyone is to consider a congregation, I think whether or not they hold strongly to the Scriptures should be a higher priority than anything.
What do you think?
Hey Thessalonian,
I feel a bit foolish responding to your comment now, so many years later! To be honest I forgot about the blog, and even after I remembered it took me a while to sort out the correct email/password combination!
Bethesda was actually the first church I visited for my project (see http://youthwinnipegchurch.blogspot.ca/2008/09/bethesda-church.html). I enjoyed it very much, and would certainly consider heading back there sometime.
You raise a good point regarding theology. When I was reflecting on my church visits I did feel that some of my posts were blow-by-blow accounts and lacked real depth. I think the issue for me was that it's rather difficult to really get a sense for where a church stands theologically after a single service. Every once in a while a pastor might make a differentiating remark, and of course there were differences in how the services were run, but in terms of theological depth of a church I think it would be necessary not only to attend many services, but also to talk to the pastor and members of the congregation.
Particularly at the beginning of this project, I was pretty unconcerned with theological stances. For example, I'd never really attended a Catholic service so I went to a few, despite the fact that I disagree with many aspects of (traditionally) Catholic theology. I was really more interested in exploring than finding a perfect match.
In general I think I could happily (perhaps even necessarily) attend a church where I disagree with some of the theological points - for me, dialogue is one of the most important aspects of faith, and I'd never want to go somewhere where everyone agreed with me. And I think now, as a youth, the vibrancy of a church community would be the most important thing for me.
Thanks very much for pointing that out, and thanks for your invitation. Perhaps I'll head back to Bethesda sometime.
Regards,
-Brock
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