No Holds Barred... Church Style

This morning Bri and I were getting ready for church. We have a church down the street from us that we've been attending (when we're in Gilbert on a Sunday morning) for the last few months. During a text conversation with her brother, Nick, he invited us to the church he attends and works at. We'd been a few times before and decided to go because he was playing guitar in the worship band. We headed to the 11:59 AM service (I know Dad... we're slackers). Bri was really excited to see her big brother play.

When we got to the service, one of the staffers got up for the welcoming message. He started off by saying something you never, I mean never, hear in church. He said, "please take out your cell phones and turn them on... we're going to use them today." The church was trying something new; they were having Q&A with modern technology. Church goers could text a question they had to a computer in the back. Nick, the Media Arts Pastor, would hand pick some questions, forward them to two pastors on stage who would read the questions and give their answers.

I had never seen anything like this before at a church service, and was really intrigued. Questions from the audience were all over the place: from whether or not Christians should be pro-life, to whether or not the Suns should have traded Shaq (not kidding).

Talking about it after, Bri and I both really enjoyed the service. We thought the pastors on stage did a great job handling some very tough Q's with some quality A's. They discussed their stand on gay-marriage and their view of the overall sin of homosexuality. They talked about how even though he is a God of Love, the fact is that a "good person" without a personal acceptance of Christ can still be sentenced to eternal damnation. There were many other interesting questions answered; these were just a couple.

This was a fun and different experience for me and I would recommend it as a cool idea to those close to me that work at churches (Stockton, Santa Barbara). It can be very helpful to shine a light on what a church is all about. Also, it's a great way to hear some honest insight from people you want to hear honest insight from.

Gotta go. The Yanks need to get out of the 7th still holding onto this lead. I think facing the anemic Mets lineup may have been just what Chien Ming Wang's confidence needed.