Located around the lake, the church is on a pleasant hill with a winding, wooded driveway. It’s a modest group of one story buildings, mostly white with metal roofs. So I felt right at home! The pews are comfy padded individual chairs with book holders underneath, so you get your hymnal and other stuff from under the seat in front of you. About every other seat has a holder with pencils and brochures etc. No I was not carefully studying this because I was bored.
We were a couple minutes late so we quietly slunk in and immediately sat in the first spot available. Then a church service program magically appeared from a kind man behind us. There were 4 hymns and several readings. The main reader was a tall guy with a handlebar mustache and a strong Texas accent. The reverend is new to the church; in fact his welcoming ceremony is this afternoon. He had that cute hair that’s styled into a little peak in front, and had a stylish bow tie as well as the scarf thing that reverends wear.
He spoke about God and such. He opened with a funny joke, even funnier than my squirrel joke. He was humble and charming and brief. Well mostly brief.
I liked the church but not because of any of these details. My reason for wanting to go there is they have actively supported a mental health center for Canyon Lake. Not just money—they are housing the center in their spare room. And they don’t have any spare room! So on weekdays the church is the Canyon Lake Mental Health clinic.
Before the service today, a group met for a continuing ed class about racism. The reference used is a book called “Anxious to Talk About It—Helping White Christians Talk Faithfully About Racism”. Also I forgot to mention there is a lovely chime choir AND a professional opera singer lifted her voice during one of the hymns. She was just in the congregation and Boom, everything changed.
Jenny comments:
That sounds great!
Jon comments:
Their services to the community sound great. A question prompted by the book title, were the churchgoers all white? It’s always been a mystery to me why churches are so homogeneous. It seems like the fellowship and overall experience for everyone would be so much better with a diverse congregation.
Suzy comments:
Jon, the congregation was mostly grey 😝. There were a couple non-whites sprinkled in. I agree completely about diversity. Of course, although the people were very friendly and inclusive, the actual church service is not. Two references and a paper bulletin. Lots of recitation some of which was not available for those of us in the dark. By the way Mom knew all of that, I was amazed. I still like that church and intend to go back. BUT since I spent some time in a new fangled mega church (Willow Creek Community Church in Barrington IL) which makes every effort to de mystify the church. It worked on me! I can’t support this but I bet those new churches have more diversity.