Tag: church

ORLANDO, Fla. (RNS) The Assemblies of God, a denomination rooted in rural and small town America, appears to have leaped into the 21st century with dramatic results.

At its General Council meeting this week (Aug. 5-9), the denomination touted its formula for defying the seemingly irreversible decline of other religious groups: contemporary music, arts and high-tech quality communication, outreach to young people, immigrants and ethnic minorities.

Take a step back and think of where our society stands at this point in history. We’ve seen the industrial revolution, the automotive revolution, the electrical revolution and the computer revolution.

I pack a few clothes and my mp3 player to board the plane for southeastern Kansas. My great-grandfather Henry and his family packed everything they owned on a train. They stopped and purchased land because there was a Lutheran Church, and so my Grandfather Erwin grew up on the farm. He left to become a German professor, and today I know almost nothing about farming.

Westminster Congregational United Church of Christ came first, then the city of Spokane.

Built in 1890, the church watched the city grow up around it — a high school, a freeway, other churches.

Who cares about some dumb old church? Well, I do. And maybe you do too.

My wife and I bought an old World War I-era historic building in Spokane in December of 2000.

Spokane has hundreds of churches. Many of those congregations gather in traditional, historic buildings.

One of the things I have heard quite often over the past 31 years I have been in parish ministry, is that congregations are supposed to be places where everyone loves each other. Until very recently I have agreed with that; I have pictured that as an ideal toward which we all ought to work. These days I am not so sure that this is the goal of Christian community in general...