Having never been to a mega church before, I was intrigued to attend last week’s services (March 30th) at Cornerstone. This is a very large church in Chandler with so many people attending that officers from Chandler PD have to direct traffic. To illustrate this point, there was no room for us to park in the massive parking lot near the building so we were directed to the gravel overflow parking. While walking in, Sally and I helped ourselves to some of there free coffee (which was very good, I might add).
Just inside there were a few businesses (I only noticed a snack bar and bookstore but there seemed to be more). We were running late (as usual) and headed straight for the "chapel". But this chapel was just a large auditorium with hundreds, if not thousands, of people. We were greeted by a female usher and were showed to a pair of seats.
We seemed to be in the midst of some hippy love fest for Jesus. The band looked more like they belonged in
But this guy didn’t like much of a pastor. He was wearing a plaid flannel shirt and had his hair spiked up like he was trying to be young again. He told some obligatory jokes and proceeded with his presentation (I don’t think you could call it a sermon). He actually stole the phrase "men are from Mars and women are from Venus".
We spent the next 30 to 40 minutes listen to a tirade that was loosely based on the bible versus from Ephesians 5:22-33. The basic gist of the message was that wives should respect their husbands because men crave respect and that husbands should love their wives because women crave love. It was a little awkward to be listening to this "sermon" with Sally, as it was intended to be advice for couples.
Besides reading those few versus from Ephesians, the speaker felt content to only point at the bible and state "Everything you need is in here." That seemed a fairly vague and ineffective way to spread "god’s word". By the end of it, Sally was engrossed in something with her cell phone while I sat and painfully listened to every word. I felt like a masochist who was incapable of turning away.
At the first hint of a conclusion, Sally and I bolted for the door; not for fear of anything but in a desperate effort to beat the traffic. We went to Penny’s Ice Cream & Sandwiches and had a very nice breakfast. Although that day’s lecture was the first in a series on relationships, we had no intention of listening to the rest of the series.
2 comments:
I am wondering what do you look for in these sermons when you go? I sometimes find that sermons are more guidance for people through different subjects. The sermons should at least have some verses from the bible, but then yes, the verses are open to interpretation. Everyone has different ideas of what the verses mean and also because most of the time they can be taken out of context. But for more verse studies they have weekly in depth bible studies where they interpret the bible verses and also includes some biblical history around the text. It is very interesting to hear opinions of people about their churches. I didn't happen to see a blog but did you go to the Buddist Temple? That would be interesting to see what that is all about.
I probably came off more judgmental that I should have on this blog. I was projecting the mega church stereotype in my blog because in some way, the stereotypes are true. However, I do admit that I had gone to that service with prejudices and expectations. I suppose this stems from my understanding of Christianity (which is way to complex to discuss in this comment. Maybe I'll write an extended blog on those later). Overall, the sermon was informative and entertaining. I just didn't see the need to believe in Go or Jesus or any of the Bible to process what the pastor was saying. He seemed to be using good old fashion common sense to get his message across. As I mentioned to you earlier, I do understand that I was only going to worship services and should probably go to some Bible study classes for a more in-depth look at any specific church. Maybe when I graduate next year, I will take the time to do more research.
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