#50churches

Sunday's #50churches visit was coincidentally, or let's go with providentially, appropriately timed, because today is the feast of St. Augustine, who died on this date in 430AD.

Sunday’s church visit was number 50. As we said when we began this year-long experience, we really didn’t think we would make it to five different churches before sheepishly deleting the blog and fading back into some sort of routine that people consider normal. (People don’t consider attending 50 churches in a year normal behavior, if you are wondering.)

In typically fashion, the night before, we went off-script -- what little script we had -- and decided to visit St. Augustine of Canterbury Episcopal Church in Rocklin.

What we noticed:

They have a shiny, new building, less than a year old.

The décor is not lavish, but embellished with artistically crafted pieces, particularly the handcrafted wood cross and altar table and the stained-glass windows, which tell the story of the seven days of creation.

We missed out on meeting the Rector, Liz Armstrong, but got to hear Dr. Richard Wampler share about his recent visit to Haiti. I really appreciated how he was able to articulate the mixed emotions and unique challenges that one faces when attempting to make a positive impact in a place like Haiti. And, coincidentally (not ironically, I've been told with some condescension), we were accompanied by a couple of our personal experts on Haiti, Rebecca Barlow and her son, Tynan, who have been living and working there the past few years.

People were welcoming and took the time to answer our questions and show us around.

My daughter Asia enjoyed seeing several women involved in leading the service.

Oh, they had homemade cookies and breads after the service.

And, finally, they had a booth at Woofstock! What is Woofstock?

WOOFSTOCK 2014

In it’s 7th year, Woofstock is Northern California's premier Canine Festival – an event that also serves as a major fund-raiser for over 20 local Dog Rescue Organizations. In other words, dogs everywhere!

The church's booth offered free photos with you and your beloved (dog).

Fradel-Johnson WEDDING

We completed a very full day with an 1.5 hour drive back into the woods to Leoni Meadows for the wedding of Katrina and Eric. We were so excited to be included and to be able to share in such a wonderful wedding in such a beautiful place. I wish I had better photos to share with you. 

In the gap between the two Sunday morning services at Sun River there is a mass gathering on the patio just outside the front doors. There is coffee. There are donuts. And there are a lot of people. As you walk from your car to the parking lot, you can hear the hum of people talking and laughing.

Me and my friend Dean -- church-selfie.

The toughest part of attending church at Sun River is actually getting into church service. It is easy to get stuck just outside the doors, locked in conversation, desperately trying to catch up with all your friends. We finally got to our seats 10 minutes into the service. (Apologies to the people leading the service.)

“It’s late. I'd better get into church.” I said, seeking to excuse myself from one final conversation.

“This is church,” my friend replied.

 As you can probably tell, we have a history at Sun River. In fact, despite being wandering nomads when it comes to church, Sun River could likely be called our “home” church. Tara and I first met while on volunteer youth staff at Sun River 26 years ago. (We were pre-teens ourselves. At least that is how we remember it.) We were married at in the sanctuary at Sun River on a smoldering hot July day 25 years ago (25th Anniversary gifts can be sent to the address below. Cash appreciated.). In addition, always beyond expectation, Sun River facilitated us, supported us and always welcomed us back, throughout our years living and working abroad. We still have many dear friends who worship there.

The Message:

The present message series, entitled “Journey of Faith” Is based on the book, The Critical Journey: Stages in the Life of Faith by Hagberg and Guelich. I highly recommend it. A couple of different online summaries can be found here and here. 

Favorite quotes from the message from Dr. Paul Edwards:

“Grace always runs downhill to meet us, not up and to the right.”

“If you don’t go to the grave confused, you don’t go trusting.” – Re-quoting Dr. Larry Crabb

"When it comes to God’s will, the sooner you get out of the conjecture business the better."

Speaking of Dr.Paul Edwards

Paul with our girls in Kyrgyzstan

Paul eating a meal with our friend Bilembek in Kyrgyzstan.

Oh, and Paul showing off his athleticism in Kyrgyzstan.

SUNDAY EVENING

Continuing our Sun River Church Day, we attended the Claney /Clark wedding at the North Ridge Country Club in Fair Oaks. We first met the Claney family at Sun River Church in 1994, and, from 1994 to 2008, we periodically lived next door to them. During our time working overseas, the Claney family graciously provided us with a Folsom home whenever we spent extended time in the States.

At the wedding, we were again surrounded by longtime (none of us admit to being “old”) friends. It was a beautiful wedding and a fitting celebration for a fantastic young couple. Additionally, I was freshly impressed (is “re-impressed” a word?), at the sincere, deeply held friendships among our Sun River friends. Like many small and mid-sized churches located in places like Rancho Cordova, Sun River goes unnoticed for the most part, nevertheless, the staff and faithful families continue to devote themselves to each other in deep, sustaining relationships, as they seek to live God-honoring lives and serve their neighbors together.   

Oh, in case you are wondering, the food at the wedding was really good as well. Topped off with mini Mason jar pies from Karen’s Bakery in Historic Folsom. 

This week #50churches finally made it to New Season (Cantico Nuevo) Christian Worship Center in South Sacramento. I was a little confused at first because there are at least four churches on this short stretch of 44th Street. 

The meeting place of BOSS -- Bayside of South Sacramento is directly across the street (see photo below). I was tempted to try and visit both churches in the same week. Do I get extra credit for that?

Each church distinguishes itself with colorful flags bearing the name of the church. 

The inside of the New Season is attractive and conducive to worship. The congregation is ethnically diverse and come eager to worship. The worship singing was powerful and emotionally and spiritually moving. I have a short 30-second video on the blog to give you a taste. 

The pastor, Rev. Samuel Rodriguez was both passionate, in a black-gospel preacher sort of way, and thoughtful. He was loud and crazed throughout. At one point, hot and sweaty, he stripped off his jacket and threw it to someone in the front row. He also illustrated the story of Jesus turning over the temple tables by, you guessed it, turning over a large table loaded with goods himself. However, he also thoughtfully revealed the wisdom of the passage from which he was teaching. For example, he noted that holy anger is, at the same time, indignant toward injustice and merciful to those who have hurt us in the past (1 Samuel 11:13). His impressive résumé can be found on church's website. It was a joy to get to hear him speak. 

My favorite quote: "We need more angry people in the church." He said that righteous indignation -- holy anger -- means we push back! He had the people chanting, "I'm angry!" "I'm mad as heaven and I'm not going to take it anymore!" People would rise to the feet and encourage him on. In addition, to add to the drama, his significant points were punctuated by music from the worship band. It all had the volume and rhythm of a black-gospel choir. He made it clear that "People full of righteous indignation do not tolerate the status quo!" 

FOOD

Late night Caprese Salad at Hot Italian. 

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After 45 church visits, I have something to confess. It is substantially more fun to venture out and have new experiences with a friend or two. My family has been great, but periodically I have had to make a visit alone. So sad. No fun. This past Sunday was a blast. Not only did my wife and oldest daughter come along, but six very dear friends participated as well.

  The Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament sits near the State Capitol at 11th and J. I've learned that many of the downtown parking garages provide free parking on Sundays for parishioners of the downtown churches. The parking garage for the Cathedral is right next door.

  What we noticed:

Children are part of the church family. There was a prayer and blessing for the children. About 20 minutes into the service, when the elementary-aged children were dismissed to their program, there was a processional of kids right down the center aisle with the Bible held high by the boy at the front of the group. This also meant that the remainder of the service was punctuated by the sounds of the younger children who remained in the service with their parents.

The service almost felt like church-as-musical, accompanied by pipe organ and led by a cantor with a beautiful tenor voice.

The Cathedral worship experience is stimulating and multi-sensory. There is a fantastically beautiful building with biblical reminders and messages everywhere, transcendent music, the smell of incense, burning candles, and a large crowd of participating parishioners. I found it easy to worship there.  

My favorite line from the homily: “A parable is a little like an English muffin.” He went on to say that it is simple, but with many nooks and crannies, dripping with relevance, significance and meaning.

"It was so beautiful when we walked in, I almost swore. That would have been bad." -- my daughter, Asia

FOOD

Wanting to watch the World Cup Final, we tried to eat lunch at Hot Italian, but when we arrived 30 minutes into the match, the place was wall-to-wall people. We ended up at Café Bernardo for a very nice two-hour lunch. We were able to at least keep track of the final by taking a few peeks at the TVs in the bar. Since you asked: Germany deserved to win. They dominated from the beginning of the tournament. 

FOOD 2

It was a busy day, and, in the end, we did get to eat at Hot Italian after all. Maia decided to have her birthday dinner there. By 6 pm, well after the final was over and all the worn out servers were relieved by fresh ones, Hot Italian wasn’t crowded at all. It was just right. 

The birthday girl and her boyfriend, Josh. 

We ventured out of our Christian-church comfort zone to attend the annual Obon Odori Festival at the Buddhist Church of Sacramento, located right off highway 50 at 2401 Riverside Blvd.

Obon or just Bon is a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist-Confucian custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

It reminded me of Japanese Line Dancing. 

Buddhist Churches of America (BCA) temples in the U.S [like this one in Sacramento, which was founded in 1899] typically celebrate Bon Odori with both religious Obon observances and traditional Bon Odori dancing around a yagura or “bandstand tower”. Many temples also concurrently hold a cultural and food bazaar providing a variety of cuisine and art, also to display features of Japanese culture and Japanese-American history. [via http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Festival]

FOOD

Friends Community Church is surrounded by houses in an East Sacramento neighborhood, not far from McKinley Park. The foundation stone on the old, red brick building says that it was originally “First Covenant Church”.   

What I noticed:

I felt transported back to the mid-1970s and to the small neighborhood church that I grew up in. The inside is a stereotypical, traditional church – vaulted ceiling, wooden pews and pulpit, rose window at the front, stained glass windows lining the sanctuary.

The service began with two hymns: number 503, “Since Jesus Came into My Heart” and 502, “In My Heart There Rings a Melody” – hymns right out of my memory.

Prayer played a prominent place in the service. They shared prayer needs and updated each other about people or situations they had previously prayed about together. They also expressed concern and prayed for believers facing difficulties in other parts of the world.  

Not only were there hymns, but there were what was called “Songs”, more contemporary music accompanied by a guitar. One of the ‘modern’ songs was “Mansion Builder” by Second Chapter of Acts. Now, since it was recorded in 1977, you would have to have been around Christianity for a long time to know that song.

Later in the service, the pianist led us in verse of “He Touched Me” which I remember from this album by the Imperials. Man, do I feel old right now.  

We attended an unprogrammed Friends service early in the #50churches. This Friends church made the cut because we wanted to try a programmed Friends service as well. Ironically, or is it, Consequently, this was a special week – one without a message. In its place, they had “Open Worship” -- unprogrammed, extended silence and people were invited to share as they were led by the Spirit. The pastor stepped down from behind the pulpit and sat with the congregation. During this time, two men punctuated the silence with longer sharing, maybe 7 minutes long each. It was thoughtful and almost sounded like preaching.           

During the sharing time, one man stood and simply said, “Never confuse the will of the majority with the will of God.” This simple quote might just typify the commitment of the people of Sacramento Friends Community Church.

Since it is almost Independence Day, we had a Declaration of Independence shirt in the house!

Just seven more visits left...

FOOD

Temple Coffee at 28th and S Streets. 

My first visit to St. Andrew’s didn’t go so well. I showed up a whole hour early to an empty parking lot. Despite the temptation to stick around and vie for a good seat, I made a quick change of plans, left and attended the 9:45 am service at Bayside Church in Granite Bay.  

St. Andrew’s sits on a corner, sharing its entrance with a pleasant-looking trailer park on Watt Ave., very near the line where North Highlands meets Antelope. It’s a well-worn building with bright red doors. Outside the USA flag flies alongside the blue and white Scottish flag -- St. Andrew’s Cross.

What I noticed:

I was greeted at the door by Fr. Peter Rodgers, the Priest-in-Charge at St. Andrew's and a professor currently teaching New Testament at Fuller Theological Seminary.    

People were friendly to each other and welcoming to me, the stranger.

The prelude at the beginning of the service was played on a harpsichord. 

A recent and unique feature at St. Andrew's is the installation of a pipe organ carefully built in the style of Northern European instruments from around 1615. The German motto in the facade: "Singen wir aus Herzens Grunde" was carved in redwood by Mr. George Simpson of St. Andrew's and quotes an old hymn: "Let us sing from the depths of our hearts."

The Message:

Fr. Rodgers, dressed in a white robe and green sash with his well-worn black Bible held to his side, expounded the first reading of the day’s lectionary: Genesis 21:8-21. He began by quoting Martin Luther, who said, “Nothing is more beautiful than Genesis or more useful.”

Nonetheless, Genesis 21 is a dark and troubling passage, most probably because it resonates as common human experience. In fact, Fr. Rodgers mentioned that there are literary parallels in Genesis between chapter 3: the fall of Adam and Eve, chapter 16: Abraham and Sarah plotting to conceive Ishmael through Hagar, and lastly, here in chapter 21: the Abraham family coming apart due to infighting and jealousy. Each case is an example of people taking ‘control’ of their own destiny, only to have it end tragically in expulsion.

In the midst of this tragic story of expulsion, we learn that there is a God who:

Listens.

Speaks.

Provides.

And Blesses.

We all know the stories. We know the chosen ones of the Genesis narrative: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We can predict what God is going to do. Yet God surprises us. “And God was with the boy.” The excluded one -- the boy, Ishmael, may appear to have been rejected, but God will not let him go. God will even bless him in his wildness. “I am his God as well.” This foreshadows the bringing together of a people, both Jew And Gentile, who are "joint heirs" (Ephesians 3:16).