Mrs Smith was going to the local Methodist church for about a year before she convinced me to give it a try. She has been quicker at getting the JW crap out of her head too.
I was in a church only once before as part of the guard of honor for a fellow fire fighter's wedding. It took all my self control not to run out of there flaying my axe at the false idols!! It was a 100 year old Anglican church btw. (But we can take the heat LOL)
But I digress, back to the story..
I entered the church building rather meekly, my eyes darting around for sign of an evil attack. What that would look like I was not certain, but I was super alert anyway! The main church, chapel etc was seperate from the entrance hall and to walk through the short tunnel to the chapel was like going to the slaughter. The chapel itself had high ceilings, (not used to that), and very few objects on the walls. My memory of all the statues of mary and the crucified Jesus from the Anglican experience was all I could go on as reference.
Then there it was, a HUGE empty wooden cross on the back wall! I then knew that I was going to be hit with a lightning bolt and turned to a small pile of ash on the pew. I sat quietly, sweating bullets waiting for the torture to begin. A thought of all the horrible stories, the harlot riding the wild beast for example, just to make things worse.
The congregation stood up and the first song that was Jehovah-Jireh. What a mind bender....The worship/ singing was great. Not the mumbling archaic dirges I sang at the kingdom hall, these people enjoyed their singing, and they did a lot of it. It was wonderful!
The service did not include dark chants, slaughtered chickens. In fact it was a good message, relevant and bible based. No books, or question and answer sessions. I did enjoy the whole thing, even the coffee and cookies at the end.
I am still very wary of doctrine, so I am not a Methodist or anything else for that matter. Just trying to make sense of it all.
Agent Smith