When Was The Last Time...

[MaddLlama]

But, as a friend of mine who is in the music engineering business said, AOG always has the best sound system anywhere.

Indeed. Not only did they have great speakers, and a whole band, they also had a big flat-screen TV hanging from the ceiling with the words to the hymns. It was like "Christian Rock Karaoke".

I did have a great time talking to the guys who were running all the AV stuff. They let me play with the computer projector.

 

[Monat]

Because my wife is Catholic, I always enjoy attending all the different Catholic Churches in the different places we visit. Some of the Catholic Churches I've visited have been very beautiful. I've visited the universal unitarian church where I live a couple of times. They are a very fun group, but there are not that many regular attendees of my age group. They all seem to be older. I also spent a lot of time at the local mosque. The Sheik there is great. I think I went there every day for a week or so and then a few times a week for a few more months. I spend half my time in Bahrain in the middle east so I've even gone to the grand mosque there and it was one of the most amazing places I've ever been.

 

[MysticSang'ha]

I sat in a Rinzai Zen group meditation a few weeks ago with a lecture following. Really cool, and there was still the usual dialogue between student and teacher that I remembered oh-so-well...........

Student: Master, what is the meaning behind the concept of *enter word here*, and how does that apply to today's culture of *enter word here*?

Teacher: (loudly) AYE!!

(slams his hand or stick, or throws/drops something to make a loud noise)

The teacher then proceeded to discuss in depth how the loud noise and the question went together, and it is still always really cool how everything from the question to the sudden noise to the Dharma fit together.

Aahhhhh, those were the days.




Peace,
Mystic

 

[Ðanisty]

Indeed. Not only did they have great speakers, and a whole band, they also had a big flat-screen TV hanging from the ceiling with the words to the hymns. It was like "Christian Rock Karaoke".

OMG...that would help me out immensely. I don't know the words to anything!

The last church I was in was a Catholic church. I went to my sister-in-law's confirmation 2 years ago.

 

[James the Persian]

...you attended a church/religious meeting of a church/religion other than your own? What religion was it, and what did you think? Would you consider going back?

The year I got married, so 2001, my mother got married in a Methodist church and, of course I went to that. Out of choice I wouldn't go back but I would go for some family reason, of course. I didn't like it at all, am far too used to the Divine Liturgy to be in any way interested in a sparse almost irreverant service like that and frankly I have no interest in ever visiting another Protestant service at all. I would much rather visit a non-Christian service or an RC one.

James

 

[Terrywoodenpic]

I have been to many other services in my time, the last was a Christian act of witness ( all Churches) in the local park to mark Whit Sunday.

 

[Blindinglight]

It has been about 20 years since I've been to a church of any kind.

 

[TurtleGirl]

I work in community access television so I see church services for several of the local churches every week. I agree with the sentiments expressed earlier about the AOG churches. We run two AOG churches on the public access channel. One is very nutty and the other plays the same repetitive song after every service.

The last religious service I attended was at a gaming convention on Easter Sunday held by my friend, one of the ministers on the campus where the convention was held (he's also an avid board gamer like me). He did a great Christian service filled with humor and metaphors using gaming terms, but it was still very insightful. I had a great time! I would certainly go back to something like that because, even though the message was in the context of Christianity, he was very respectful of those who were not Christian and did a wonderful job of keeping the message universal.

It started with the hymn "Morning Has Broken" but instead of singing it without accompaniment we sang along to Cat Stevens' version.

He gave a small welcome and then started into a reading of Matthew 28:1-10 complete with gaming metaphors and use of Magic: the Gathering cards. Then he gave a sermon with even more gaming metaphors and MtG cards.

The service ended with a reading and response as follows:

Though our character sheet is missing data
People: God's love guides us to fill in the blanks.

While most GMs get very mad when you screw up their campaigns
God uses our brokenness and mess ups as an opportunity to demonstrate forgiveness and love.

God's Mercy is upon us
Except for Randy. God will take Randy and banish him to hell or even worse, New Jersey where he will wander the parking lots of strip malls.

Christ has ressurected indeed
Game on.

Christ has ressurected indeed
(a little louder) Game on.

Christ has ressurected indeed
(Shout it) GAME ON!

By the way, Randy is a friend of ours and the advisor of the campus club that organized and hosted the convention. He's from New Jersey.

I attended a couple of UU services a while back and I think that church would be the only church I could attend regularly. I have also attended Baptist, LDS, Episcopal and Pentacostal services, as well as being present for a few Pagan ceremonies.