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I have a new internet buddy.  His name is oliver and one of his many hobbies is visiting churches and blogging about it.

Oliver is one of a few contributors for the Mississippi Atheist Blog and last Sunday he came to the Orchard in Oxford.  Here’s 99% of it (read the whole post here):

The Orchard (not to be confused with The Orchard in Tupelo) is a small Methodist church that meets in The Powerhouse, which is the community center for the Yoknapatawpha Arts Council. The sign in the front of The Powerhouse says that The Orchard is “A Church for Everyone.” That’s a pretty lofty goal once considering that “everyone” includes people from non-Christian religions as well as non-believers.

Being a small church, it should be easy to spot the visitors. Pat recognized me as soon as I came in the door, despite having never met in person. I have to say that this immediately put me on the defensive. He began talking to me about what he and I have in common. It seems we both have interests in Twitter and pop culture. He had to greet others, so he told me to help myself to the free coffee. I’m already concerned about how objective I can be about this column (Hi Pat!). At least this church doesn’t have a problem with an atheist visiting the service.

I’ve been to other services that were casual. The Orchard at Tupelo, with over 1000 members, was equally as casual as this service. This service had about 50 people, with age ranges from college student up to middle aged. There were few children or elderly people. The music consisted of a guitar player and a drummer (I think). It was simple, acoustic, and beautiful. The lyrics to the songs were on an overhead projector, but I didn’t see anyone singing along.

The pastor’s lesson was on “The Scandal of Grace”. It focused on God’s perspective of grace by retelling the story of Jonah. The story is classic: God argued with Jonah to convince him that the people of Nineveh are in need of God’s word despite Jonah believing that they are all unworthy. The message from the book is also clear: God’s grace is currently extended to anyone, no matter how far away a person is from God. Pulling from the story in Luke 15:11, he pointed out that many aspects of our lives are not fair. Thing may not appear fair to us, but God sees things differently from us. This is why God is in charge and we are not (which I thought was a tad oversimplified). In his view, the idea of grace is “scandalous” because all people are undeserving of grace and are still allowed to have it.

He suggest that the Christian God represents that which is hope, mercy, grace, love and compassion. Once you factor in other Biblical concepts such as Hell and judgment, the idea of a loving God becomes muddled. As for these types of lessons, I prefer these messages over the dogmatic ones. I saw a glimpse of this last Sunday, as well as at the Episcopal service and the Unitarian service. Some churches are moving in the direction of teaching ideas that shape the overall community, while other churches are moving in the direction of their respective dogma. In the interest of easing the tension between believers and non-believers, I want churches to move toward community ideas (such as grace, peace, and love).

No discussion was made over the likelihood of a person being able to survive for three days in the belly of a fish, or why didn’t God just reveal himself to someone inside Nineveh and cut out the middle man. Maybe it’s best that these details were overlooked. It is easier to examine these improbable tales for the moral messages than examine them for their accuracy. Just one step in the direction of reality and the Book of Jonah as a historical account falls apart. This is true for most of the Bible.

After a closing song, the service ended. Members could stay for the communion, but people who didn’t want to take it were allowed to leave. That is something that I haven’t seen any other church do. Most of the time I’m left sitting by myself in the pews while everyone else takes communion. That flexibility to the service was a nice change.

I do have friends that attend this church, so I’ll probably be back at some point.

I really feel like I learned a lot from reading it.  Here are a few observations:

1. Not only do we not have a problem with atheists visiting our service, we actually like it.  He’s not the first atheist to come and if he’s the last, then we might as well pack up and go home.  
2. Oliver came on a odd Sunday.  Oddly low crowd.  Kindof a sleepy crowd.  And it was a Sunday when my microphone decided to go haywire (although he was gracious to not mention that part).
3. I would like to clear up the offensive notion that we use an overhead projector at The Orchard.  We actually use a regular projector.  Had to get the truth out there.
4. I did address Jonah as a metaphor or as history the week before.  It’s on the podcast here.
5. I was glad to see some of the things that we do with people like oliver in mind get mentioned:

• our sign does say “a church for everybody” and we mean it.  we are moving in one direction, but everyone is welcome to join us.
• we try to keep our music simple and beautiful so everyone can engage with it. 
• we do offer optional Communion every week.  not only does the option set people at ease who aren’t believers or who don’t really understand it, it has also created a great, intimate setting for people who do decide to stick around.

Oliver,       

I’m an Oxford pastor too and I read your blog often in my feed reader. I enjoy your perspective on a lot of things that I have taken for granted or overlooked about church. It’s been a long time since I sat where you sit – observing, searching, questioning – and I need to remember what that feels like sometimes. I don’t sit down to write my sermon without wondering if this is the week when you are going to wander in and hear it. 

Sorry for all the things you have seen on your journey that have hurt. Church is the place where the Glory of God meets the Inconsistency of Man and unfortunately the latter drowns out the former at times, despite our best efforts. Thanks for taking it easy on us, I know you’ve edited out a lot of things you wanted to say and we appreciate it. 

The church I lead is called The Orchard and we meet in the Powerhouse and you are always welcome there. I say that without some vain attempt to pass your test and read a glowing review on your blog on the following Monday morning. I say that because our church has become a place where Hope and Love win, a place where people bring their real selves at the end of a real week and ask God to somehow pull them together again. It’s a good and warm place to be. 

Have a great week. Enjoy the debate excitement. 
Pat