Our kids attend a nearby Catholic school, but on Sundays, we worship at an evangelical church. If you have a baptist or an evangelical (or combo, like me) upbringing, it isn’t hard to imagine the many, MANY differences between an evangelical church service and a Catholic mass.
Church isn’t for entertainment or for our pleasure, but I am pleased that the kids enjoy going to church. They know that Sunday mornings are for church and never fuss about it. We have had some great conversations about communion and prayer on the way to church and as a follow up to the services. I am often blown away by the tidbits the kids take away from the sermon and then ask about later. The Holy Spirit is really at work!
One of my original StepMolly posts on Facebook in 2015 still makes me laugh:
Pastor: “something-something-something…Jesus’ power.”
Yoseph, excitedly and definitely not in a whisper: “Did he just say Power Ranger??!!”
One thing we haven’t talked about that I suspect may be coming soon is the difference in worship styles. During the music part of a recent service, they looked around bewildered at the people with their hands raised. They just weren’t quite sure what to make of that.
On a different Sunday, they heard for the first time an “Amen!” affirmation from a congregant. Their heads snapped up simultaneously, shocked that someone defied my insistent instruction to only whisper in church. I nearly giggled.
But in all seriousness, they are really well-behaved in church and I’m excited by how much they take away from the sermon. I’m also excited that our church has a commitment to diversity and is actively looking for ways to increase and honor it; there are very few churches doing that on the northeast side of Indy!
