the worship experiment: uk, week 7

Holy Trinity Brompton
15 November, 9:30am

Monica and I visited one of the largest churches in the UK, Holy Trinity Brompton. It’s a charismatic Anglican church in the heart of London’s shopping district, right down the road from Harrods. It’s famous for creating the Alpha Course, a 10-week course for those looking to discover the Christian faith, as well as worship leader and songwriter Tim Hughes, author of “Here I Am To Worship.”

I say that HTB is one of the largest churches in the UK, but I was surprised at how small the room was. The church was started in 1829 and now includes St. Paul’s Church in Onslow Square. My guess is that there were around 500 people in the room, maybe less, but the two churches combined have 8 Sunday services, of which all but the earliest service at St. Paul’s are informal.

HTB has been successfully transformed into a place for modern worship without damaging any of the traditional architecture. It is professionally equipped with Aviom in-ear monitors, one screen with an aspect ratio of 16x9, flat panel TVs mounted under the balcony so that everyone can see, and at least two mounted cameras. Their media, print and video, is professionally done. I was amazed at how good the sound was in the room (IEMs have to make a huge difference in a cathedral!). Service flow was good, and still included some Anglican elements such as readings (from the screen) and the words of institution during Communion. The crypt below has been transformed into a bookstore, nursery areas and choir room.

Before the service, a row of tables was set up at the side of the sanctuary, with drinks and food. It was a great way to gather people in the room instead of congregating in the hallway. The service began with all of the kids sitting in the front of the room, some of them leading the first two songs with their leaders—hand motions and all! Then there was a congregational reading and a time of prayer for the persecuted church. We prayed in groups of two for the country of India, and then there was simultaneous prayer (out loud—“Asian style”) for the two Christian women who are missing in Yemen. After prayer, we watched the HTB News—the announcements via video. It was a clever, interesting and professional way to do announcements—announcements with B-roll video and a voiceover. It was very well done and didn’t detract from the rest of the worship service, I think partly because the 12 or so minutes prior were a great mix of being professional and laid back. We could certainly learn from that!

Next, the children were dismissed to their own classes and we had a 15-minute worship set, led by a young guy on guitar (possibly an intern), keys, drums, female vocalist, an older lady on a cello (she played by ear and rocked!), and another guy who was playing either bass or electric—I really couldn’t tell. I could hear both instruments, but there was only one. I assumed he was playing bass and the keyboardist was playing electric, but later I watched him strumming an electric part.

After this, one of the pastors introduced the sermon (a sermon on healing from a series on spiritual gifts) by interviewing three people. One had experienced healing in her own life, one had experienced the healing of a number of people while he prayed for them, and one had experienced healing in stages—emotionally, then physically. Tim Hughes gave the sermon, and I must say, it was the least sensational, most down-to-earth and most biblical message on healing from a charismatic church that I’ve ever heard. Tim himself is very well-spoken and passionate. He didn’t seem like a famous worship leader, but one who has a deep love for his congregation.

Following the service, we took Communion. The ushers went forward and brought the elements to different sections of the room, then we were dismissed by rows to come forward and receive it by dipping the wafer in the juice. The band led us in reflective worship during this time (mostly keys, guitar and cello), and continued to pray as Tim asked people to come forward if they wanted prayer for healing or if they would offer prayers for those who came forward. As the service was 1 ½ hours long, and they had another coming in ½ hour, one of the pastors gave a benediction while those down front continued to pray.

During the announcements, a Christmas concert was promoted, which will be led by the choir & orchestra at HTB. My understanding is that it will be classical. While we in the States have found it necessary to make our choirs contemporary (and rightly so), choirs here remain classical. A worship service with a choir will be traditional, where an “informal” service will be led by a band. It was great to have a cello included, however!

food blog

I'd like to give you a little tour of the food Lydia, Monica and I ate on our week-long UK holiday.

There's this adorable little village in the Lake District called Grasmere. They have the world's best gingerbread, or at least that's what I was told. And it was really good. It wasn't what I expected. I was picturing thick bread, but it was thin, with crumbles on the top. It was hard but a bit chewy and yummy heated up. I don't have a picture of it, but this is where you get it. It's the only place in the world to get it, as it's a secret recipe.














On Tuesday in Edinburgh, we ate at Canon's Gait. This is what I had: pan fried chicken on a bed of bubble & squeak w/ panchetta & white wine sauce.














I'm not sure if that's where Lydia had Yorkshire Pudding, but here it is. Served with peas, of course. There's a lot of peas here.














Upon arrival in Bromley (where we stayed in London), we walked to the town centre and ate at O'Neill's Irish Pub. It was good. I think my favorite place we ate at all week. I had a Seafood Crockpot, which had mashed potatoes, cabbage, shrimp, fish, salmon & mussels (which I did not eat) and cheese. Served with potato bread. I topped it off with an amazing chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream.














This is Monica's Irish Breakfast. I think it's self-explanatory.














Lydia's Steak & Guinness Pie, with chips and, of course, peas.














On Friday, after our free tour of the Royal sites, we ate at a restaurant with most of our touring group. This is traditional fish and chips, with—you guessed it—mushy peas (in that little cup). They were actually cold and quite good. However, my fish still had the bones in it. It was a bit of a surprise.
































That night, we ate a little Italian cafe in Covent Garden. Here's my spaghetti. It was nice to get away from all the English food for a meal.














On Saturday night, we had Indian food at Bengal Cuisine. Here are all the sauces/relishes they brought us.














No week is complete without the great taste of Starbucks, which we frequented. We seemed to have a goal of visiting one in each city.

origin of rain, rain, go away

It was raining in London. Go figure. We got the entire London experience.

Anyway, I bought a poncho. On it were these familiar lyrics (though somewhat different than I remember):

Rain rain go away,
come again another day;
little Johnny wants to play,
Rain rain go to Spain,
never show your face again.

On the back it said, "The origin of the lyrics are said to date back to the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603), one of the English Tudor monarchs."

Who knew?

Amazing what you can learn from a £1 poncho.

driving civility

There's this concept here in England that many Americans are unfamiliar with. It's known as politeness. When driving down a motorway (highway), English people actually allow you to change lanes if you put on your turn signal. They use the fast lane as an overtaking lane, not a cruising lane. There's also this thing called a "speed limit," and sometimes lorries (trucks) have a lower one. In Britain these trucks actually follow it. If you are on a side road and want to turn onto a main road, incredibly, they'll let you in! British road rage is a horn honking.

Amazing!

the worship experiment: uk, week 6

Carlisle Christian Fellowship
1 November, 10:30am

This morning I attended Carlisle Christian Fellowship, a non-denominational Charismatic (not Pentecostal) church. As we walked in, my housemate and I were welcomed in by a greeter who handed us the morning’s notices. She showed us into the room, which was more compact then most and almost round, with a stage in front. It had old red carpeting and chairs, and heavy drapes around and behind the stage. There were three sections of chairs with aisles in between and a sound booth in the back. A large screen hung stage right off the stage, and there was a flat panel TV on the wall stage left. Another TV was on the left side of the room under the ceiling where it was hard to see the screen. The band was playing a prelude and there were people everywhere mingling about (I counted about 140-150 during the service). We took seats in the middle near the back. The lady behind us welcomed us. I commented to my roommate, “I think this band’s going to be good!”

And it was. This young band consisted of acoustic guitar, bass, keys, drums, female singer and male worship leader on electric guitar. Though the sound in the room wasn’t fantastic, the band was mixed pretty well and wasn’t too loud for the room. They played with dynamics and interest, and that was quite refreshing. The offering was taken during the first song. The worship leader opened the service with a scripture and then led a 30-minute song set, and true to charismatic form, there was freedom to stand, sit, kneel, jump, cry, speak in tongues, etc. Though none of this was led from the front (except once near the end where we were encouraged to kneel physically or in our hearts and pray to the Lord), there were a few people praying (and singing!) in tongues; one directly behind me, which was a bit unnerving. I kept thinking that if spiritual gifts are meant to edify the Body of Christ (which someone attested to later in the service), how does speaking a private language to the Lord do that?

After the worship set, the pastor got up and there was 15 minutes of announcements, including a few people telling about upcoming events. Then there was a children’s sermon, after which the kids were dismissed to the crèche. There was no sermon, as the speaker was unable to make it at the last minute. Instead, the pastor extended the usual sharing time to 45 minutes, and the remainder of the service was spent with people comingto the front and sharing what God was doing in their lives or what they had been learning. There was a theme of suffering in the worship set and it was good that those sharing seemed to keep to that theme. Even though this time was very family-like in many ways, the experience of allowing anyone to get up and speak without putting parameters on the topic and not knowing if what they are going to say is grounded scripturally, made me a bit nervous. On the other hand, I really appreciated that when someone shared a prayer need, the pastor immediately got up and prayed for it. However, there was once when I sensed a little bragging about a ministry and another time when the prayer request bordered on gossip—in the worship service!

A little before noon, the pastor closed out the sharing time by saying something about the service being a little different than normal if and they liked the way it started, maybe they’d do it again. He also welcomed the visitors. Then the band closed with an arrangement of “Be Thou My Vision” that was in 4/4 time.

After the service, there was coffee, tea and biscuits in a room behind the sanctuary. Two or three people introduced themselves to me and made me feel welcome. I actually knew a number of people because quite a few OMers attend CCF.

In many ways, it was a refreshing service, especially because it was musically good and I felt very welcomed, but I have some theological difficulties and mixed emotions about other aspects of the service. It is quite amazing how much feeling welcomed pulls me back to some of these churches that I wouldn’t otherwise attend. That’s been my experience at a few of them. I understand why the main reason why an unchurched person will attend a church for the second time is because he/she felt welcomed the first time!

the worship experiment: uk, week 5

St. John the Evangelist’s Church
25 October, 10:30am

When I walked into St. John the Evangelist’s Church a few minutes late, I was still greeted by a member of the congregation. 60 or so people were in attendance, demographically older. The church building, an old cathedral-style like most others in town, is about to undergo a facelift. Currently, there are two rows of pews with an aisle in the middle, the pulpit is at the front of the choir, but the choir extends far behind it—a typical church in Cumbria. They use a screen in the front and the band is off to the side. The other side has a small play area. It actually has quite a bit of space, and the vicar has plans to make use of it. This old congregation is getting ready for “Fit for a Purpose,” where they are being asked to give £10,000 to refit the room. The pastor’s plans are to remove the three sets of entry doors and put in one set of glass doors, and add a kitchen and youth office in the front entry. Inside he wants to remove the pews, gut the floor, put in a stage, re-carpet and put in chairs. The front of the church has an old Victorian-style cement decorative wall, which he intends to cover with a nice drape and put a cross overhead. He also wants to add a café and charity shop after the entry way. He said that they have a charity shop down the street and it is a great outreach, and so he’s hoping to put it inside the church so that people have to go in the church to do their shopping. It was exciting to see this pastor’s heart for the community and especially for young people. He knows he has an old congregation and desperately wants that to change. His sermon was all about “Change for the sake of the gospel” and he really challenged his people. He gave some disturbing figures: 25% of adults have left church in the past 20 years; 60% of teens have left, and even more 20s-30s. He was a good preacher and interacted with the congregation. He even used a flipchart to illustrate a bell curve of types of churchgoers and their reactions to change.

As far as the worship service, it was a bit more formal than any of the others I’ve been to. There were no song sets; we would sing one and then there would be another element of the service: announcements, singing “Happy Birthday” (with Christian lyrics) to those who celebrated birthdays that week, prayer (as at the other Anglican churches, it was in sections: prayer for the youth [the theme of the morning], for ourselves, etc.), congregational readings (from the screen), and a Scripture reading before the sermon. The vicar would instruct us to stand when we were about to sing, but no one would stand until the song intro was complete. That tripped me up more than once. There were at least two people missing from the band (sadly they were the guitarist and worship leader). Playing were a keyboardist, flautist and drummer. We sang a total of 4 or 5 songs, half of which I knew. One of them was “The Power of the Cross” by the Gettys, and one of the ones I didn’t know was by Stuart Townend. If I know 50% of the songs in any given service, I’m doing pretty good. Many of the songs are by British songwriters we know in the States, but the percentage of their tunes that make it over the ocean is quite low. Once again, there was no offering; the plate was in the back of the room, but during the closing song, two ushers brought the offering forward to the altar.

After the service, my friend who brought me introduced me to the vicar, who talked with me, told me his plans for the church, and escorted us to the other building, to what would be like a fellowship hall for tea. This room is also where they have children’s church. (As has been the case at every church I’ve visited, the children are in the service until a point, usually just before the sermon, and then are dismissed to their own church.) This other building is twenty years old and is quite impressive. It contains the kitchen and fellowship hall, a very nice gym with a second story overlook, and offices on the top floor.

Though St. John’s was formal and stylistically not very relevant to this generation, I really appreciated the pastor’s heart for his congregation and community. From its beginnings, this church has historically been an instrument of change in the community and I suspect that they will be again soon.

video

I was browsing OM USA's web site today for pictures, clicked to a video on youtube, and eventually landed on this video. It's called "I'm Dalit, how are you?"

There's not much I can say. Just watch it.