I attended a church today with a few friends. This is the first time I went to church since trying to go with my ex-girlfriend back in 2007 or so. Before that I couldn’t tell you when the last time was that I attended a service.
The church is called Sea Coast Church. It’s a non-denominational Christian church. The presentation is very modern. The beginning started with three Christian Rock songs, which is when I began to get startled at the number of people, mostly women, who knew the songs, were actively singing, and were dancing. This is a major culture shock to an old fashioned Catholic man. Once the songs were over one of the Pastors made a brief speech about what to expect, and then the head Pastor, Greg Surratt, made an appearance. He talked for about ten minutes, we watched a video about a four year old kid that claims to have been in heaven during a surgery to remove his burst appendix, and then the Pastor continued talking for another twenty minutes I guess.
Regardless of how I feel about the four year old kid, the head Pastor was very good at describing some long-standing issues within the Christian community, namely the idea of the Trinity. I especially appreciated his description of what the Holy Spirit is. He said it is like a taster. The analogy was here in Charleston you have a wide variety of great food and often times these restaurants come together at a tasting event to provide samples of their great offerings, but the purpose is to make you realize that as good as the samples are, the real deal is that much better. So his story was something about going fishing with his kid on a marsh land nearby and for a good twenty minutes they simply sat in silence and listened to the sounds of their surroundings. Doing anything else would have felt wrong, and they both knew it. He described this as a God moment where God is showing you a small piece of what it is like to be in Heaven, but it is only a small taste of the real deal. I appreciate that description because I have had those moments, but never had that sort of perspective on the matter. He described that as the purpose of the Holy Spirit. It comes upon you at times unknown to show you what will come when your human life is over.
I’ve never had such an immediate connection with a religious idea in the years I went to Catholic church. Whether it’s the Catholic church’s fault or not is unknown, but the simple matter is it was never possible for me to feel that engaged and that in touch with the topic of discussion. The routine was too draconian and everyone was so caught up in the routine that they spent no time thinking about these things.
I’m not saying I’m suddenly religious again, but it was a refreshing take on a difficult topic: death and what happens afterwards. That is, after all, why many people turn to religion, so they can feel comforted that there is something beyond the flesh. I would be lying if I said I didn’t desire something as well.