So, the first impression I had as I drove into WCCC (Bill Hybel’s megachurch in South Barrington, IL) was the parking lot. And how it was full. On a Wednesday night. I went inside the building. I’ve never heard of a church with escalators… when I entered the auditorium, I realized I hadn’t seen that many white people in one place in a *long* time.
I watched Pastor Randy Frazee give a sermon on a section of Luke, when Christ ressurected the “widow’s son.” While I didn’t think any of that was actually true (Either it didn’t happen, or the son was never really dead), I was still captivated by the way Frazee spoke. He spoke (digressed?) about his mother and how she had been sick, and how she later died, even though he had prayed as much as he could to keep her alive.
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I stepped into an Irish Catholic church yesterday morning for my first mass experience. I expected a sermon but I got very little of that. People were already silent when I walked in, praying, though mass hadn’t started. This was admittedly a short service, but I think it encompassed what I expected. The pastor read a couple Bible verses, shared some stories, and then gave out communion. Somewhere in there, there was a lot of kneeling.
I did find myself listening pretty intently when the pastor talked about how we shouldn’t value materialistic things (in lieu of god). He talked about how he had given up smoking decades ago, but he said the exact year, month, day, hour… he even kept the last ashtray he used. He had my complete attention. Then he talked about communion and I faded. But for a good 2 minutes, I was quite into it.
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