Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Choirs

I was speaking with my mother the other day and she mentioned in passing that her church only has a full choir once a month now. Apparently since the days since I've been there the congregation's numbers have dwindled, and no longer have enough people to support weekly choirs. Dad's church on the other hand remains sizable to support a men's choir.
My own church is also small. We have a cantor. When the occasion calls for it there is a choir. Of course I tend to show up to the masses with little to no music.

Thursday, December 09, 2010

This may be it

Well another Sunday another church. To get everyone up to speed, I’m Catholic marrying a Presbyterian. We both show up to our own churches once a week, so neither one of us is lapsed nor does it seem like anyone’s one church will rule them all so far, so we’re looking for a family church. Jokingly I’ve said we’ll raise our children Lutheran, so a Lutheran church we went.
The church is not too far from the house, so we walked. However, the walk is further than where I’d prefer to walk. It is in “take the bus” range. So we got there and was greeted to the sounds of “Louie, Louie” being banged out by a couple of kids at the drums and piano. It was an instrumental, so I serenaded the Help with “Louie, Lou-I, Oh, baby, we gotta, go. Yeah, yeah, yeah…” It was before church so I wasn’t too worried.
The Help on the other hand has a low tolerance for modern worship music.
In addition to being greeted by 60s party music, we were greeted by several church members as we oriented ourselves, figured out where we wanted to sit, and after we set. We were given devotionals, pens, a calendar.. Can’t nobody say this church isn’t friendly.
Despite the intro music, when church started it was straight traditional hymns. The sermon was good and reflected a theological outlook that we were both in agreement with. The coffee hour had protein. Hot dogs, mustard, onions and relish options. It would have been nice if ketchup was an option. I judge a church’s coffee hour by the level of protein provided.
The honest negatives, are a few. We sat in the back where a couple of church gossipers were. Yes, I too noticed the woman with the skirt that was too short, but did not feel the need to share that observation, unlike the women behind us. The church is kinda small. But I can’t complain, as my church’s numbers are sparse too. The facilities are old and will need some upgrade to keep it useable, which means in the next few years there might be a capital campaign.
On the whole we liked it. We’ll probably come again to the church to see if it will be a good neutral church for us.