A Fish Out of Water

On the very first Sunday of our O-team stint in Ringsend, we decided to go to church. We were pretty holy like that. After much deliberating -- which included John ruling out St Stevens due to the boisterous front rows and me ruling out ORCE because, you know, we're just not cool enough -- Willard Presbyterian it was.

I'm not 100% certain, but I think this may have been my first time in a Presbyterian church. Anyway, whether it was or not is irrelevant, just like Willard Pres. Ooh, burn! OK that may be an over the top criticism, but its partially true no doubt. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing though. 'Relevant' churches can be dangerous thing, what with watered down gospel messages and nifty electronic gadgets either perverting or distracting people from the truth. So being perceived as irrelevant can actually mean that you're not compromising just to hold mass appeal, which is a very good thing. But that said, all you have to do is look at the average age of the congregation to see that it's not exactly the most appealing church for anyone, say, under the age of 65.

Don't get me wrong now. The content wasn't bad or unsound. We sang some hymns, there was some solid praying, the sermon was...er...nice? I guess I just found the whole thing lacking in spiritual life. Even the use of a harmonica during worship couldn't inject that extra something, and that's saying a lot. Of course God was there no doubt, inhabiting the praises of His people. I just found it hard to connect with Him during my time there, because of my unfamiliarity with the way things were done, and my discomfort in such a rigid setting.

Of course while this kind of service is clearly not my cup of tea, there are obviously people out there who enjoy it and benefit from it, which is great. They may be mostly old people, but they're people nonetheless. In fact even some of our O-team members thought it was grand (you know who you are!). I guess I just didn't see it on that particular Sunday.

As for the sermon, it was a little shallow for my liking. As Ryan and I commented, that kind of preaching couldn't take more than half an hour to prepare. Of course this was only one sermon, so I'm not going to drag Rev. John Plate through the mud. Apart from being a 'nice man', there was something likable about him, while his prayers were clearly those of a man who knows God. But for me, his sermon was void of real incite, and more importantly, rich biblical exposition.

That's not to say it wasn't Bible based. He took Ecclesiastes 5 and connected it with Hebrews 10, which obviously worked well. I guess I just felt there was more to be said than what was said. He did say the word 'encounter' a few times though, which I think made a few people on our team think fondly of the message. Well, maybe not, but that's my theory and I'm sticking with it. And yes, I did fall asleep during one of several prayer times, but in my defence I was very tired.

So over all, Willard Presbyterian is a horrible excuse for a church and bad things will happen to he who goes there. OK that's not true at all. Willard Pres serves a purpose within the Body of Christ. I had problems with it -- mostly just personal preference issues (as I will have with every church I attend) -- but that's the nature of Church. To paraphrase Phillip Yancy, the very failings of the church prove its doctrine.

The comforting thing for me was to know and experience that my home church, Galway Christian Fellowship, is not alone in it's struggle. We visited 3 churches in total in the Dublin area and each of them were not without their difficulties. But that's OK. Not that we just settle for less, but that we strive towards something better, acknowledging our failings and our utter dependance on Christ, the Head of all these imperfect churches, who is in the business of making them perfect and making them one.