My cousin has been messaging us on facebook, asking me if I would come to her church to see her get baptized. I tend to ignore my cousin because of a bad experience I had with her mom and dad (my aunt and uncle). I know it is wrong now and I feel bad about it now. Never-the-less, one thing I will give her is persistence.
She saw that my wife was online at facebook and began chatting with her. She explained to my wife that she was getting baptized at her church this (past) Sunday and asked if we could come along. Evidently my wife asked if her family (dad and mom) were coming and when she indicated that they were not, my wife felt bad for her and told her that we would come. When my wife told me that her family was not going to her church, not even to see her get baptized, I felt bad too. When I was baptized at my old IFB church, my parents and siblings weren't there either and I just explained to my wife that my cousin's parents, much like my parents, probably aren't too interested in church. My wife thought that odd seeing as how she sees baptism as a sacred event that friends and family should celebrate. To each his own.
So we feed the kids and get them dressed, get in the truck and drive to Norfolk to attend her church. The church she attends is called The Potter's House which is a movement that I noticed beginning around 2003 and I even attended church there once back in '03 myself to see what it was all about. They've certainly changed and grown since I attended that one time in '03. They start the opening prayer and immediately it seems like everyone in church started speaking, mumbling, in tongues I thought but at the time wasn't too sure. My wife and I looked at one another and was like, huh? Then the others silenced as the leader starting praying for the group. Then the music began, contemporary gospel with people singing and clapping and moving to the music, my wife and I actually enjoyed that part and she commented later that she enjoyed all of us being together doing something spiritual.
Then the music ended and the leader announced that it was time for the offering. He went on an on about how we should pray to give more and related it to the talents from the parable Jesus spoke about. On and on and on he went and he even used Rockefeller as an example saying that he gave $1.50 the very first time he tithed and gradually increased to his first tithe of $1 million. Frankly, I thought that WAS the WHOLE sermon for the night. Finally the plates were passed and when it came by us my oldest daughter got it and we told her to pass it down and as she was doing it it appeared that she was about to grab an envelope and take it out the plate. I told her, no, they're not passing out stuff for us to take and commented to my wife that she has never seen an offering plate before. My wife's reaction was priceless, her eyes bugged out in surprise and I knew why. I then said, "Our church does not pass out an offering plate, they have boxes in the front and in the lobby area for donation similar to what you have at the KH."
The sermon was a recording and they dimmed the lights to show that. My daughter gets restless and she decides that she's rather be in the nursery where they were basically playing the bongos and singing old mcdonald. As I was returning to the sanctuary with my cousin, I noticed some chick tracts in the hallway. Surprised, I asked her about them and she said that they were tracts they pass out and all. "Interesting," I thought to myself as I always assumed that chick tracts were a fundamentalist baptist thing and never thought I'd see them in a pentecostal church. That pastor on the recording certainly seemed fundamentalist himself and even blasted the Assemblies of God churches which I thought was strange because I thought the AOG churches were pentecostal too.
Then the singing in the end came and the leader invited people to come to the alter to pray. Then they started flying with the tongues, la la la la, ba ba ba, and all kinds of jibberish. My wife was in the hallway getting a hot chocolate and when she returned to the sanctuary she noticed one man knealed over his chair and asked, "What's he doing?" I told her that he was praying and that they had the invitation to come to the alter and pray. My wife then said, "I could get up there and speak in tongues, 'la la la la.'" We both laughed and then my wife went back in the hall to get the baby. Then, the leader (maybe pastor, I don't know), invited those to come up front and get the annointing of the Holy GHOST (a phrase I don't often hear). My wife, as she was returning with the baby decided to stay in the hall and told me later that she told the baby, "We're not getting in that." I, on the other hand, wanted to see someone fall out or start speaking in tongues and I went very close to the front while they were praying for the people who was up front to be filled with the Holy Ghost. Few did, evidently, according to the pastor / leader since he said only a couple began speaking in tongues.
Finally, the baptism came and my cousin was nervous as they were each asked to give a testimony before getting baptized. She was so nervous that she did not want to stand up and my wife and I were telling her that it was okay and that we were behind her. She gave a brief testimony and was baptized. Some others were baptized that night too and some gave very moving testimonies. One preteen boy, on the other hand, simply said, "I'm getting baptized because, um, it's the thing to do." Of course, they were all baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost (not the spirit directed Potter's House, HA HA HA).
On the way back, my wife and I commented on the whole experience and one thing she said that I agreed with 100% was that in spite of the fact that the church obviously has beliefs and practices that we did not fully agree with or are even sure are correct, their love for God and each other was undeniable. She said, "I cannot see why God would not find favor with those people who were baptized that night. Its not like God is coming down to set the matters straight regarding what doctrines are correct and all." I added, "So true, all we have are all these various sects claiming that they have the correct teachings and disagreeing with each other on minor issues and calling one another false." I told her about the Eastern Orthodox religions and found out that they do not necessarily call other Christian sects heretics for not adhering to all their doctrines but rather heterodox. Then I told her about NonStampCollector's video illustrating how three different Christian sects can't seem to agree on what Jesus really said.