The past three weeks have provided me with the opportunity to worship with three bodies of believers other than the usual congregation of which I am very blessed and happy to be a part. Here are some brief reflections on what turned out to be three very different doses of good soul medicine.

Bright Side Baptist.
We arrived ten or fifteen minutes early and found a mostly empty parking lot. Once inside, we discovered that the singing had already begun, even with only a handful of people in the pews. There was no clear starting point of the service as far as I could tell. The pews gradually filled in, and little by little musicians, the choir, and various others took the stage, often walking out in the middle of songs, taking their places while shaking hands with those around them.

The highlight for me occurred nearly two hours into the service, shortly before the sermon, when a woman in the choir began singing in a voice that was almost uncomfortable to listen to being so quiet and restrained. But the song built and built, and something like fifteen repetitions later, we were all on our feet, clapping and singing with all we had in us:

There is none like You / no one else can touch my heart like You do / I could search for all eternity, Lord / and find out there is none like You

There was something heavenly about it; something very, very good for the soul.

During the assigned greeting time, we were inundated with hand shakes and welcomes, perhaps in part because we stood out as some of the only white folks in the place, but there was a noticeable warmth all around, all throughout.

Redeemer Presbyterian.
I was in New York City for the weekend, so I made it a point to check out Redeemer, since I had become familiar with the church’s pastor Tim Keller over the past year or two and have developed a great deal of respect for him and his ministry in that time.

There are five services every Sunday, between three locations in Manhattan, and I went to the first one, just west of Central Park in the Ethical Culture Society building.

The inscription up front read, “The place where people meet to seek the Highest is holy ground.” And it felt that way during the service, with the richness of the hymns, the reverence in the reading of Scripture and the communal responsive readings, the intellectually engaging and inspirational yet thoroughly practical homily on the second commandment, and then finally, communion.

In a way, the whole deal was no-frills - the singing consisted of a pianist and a female vocalist. The lights were static, and the pastor didn’t move around much. But in this case, I suspect that less truly is more.

The bulletin that is distributed at the door begins with quotes from Emerson and Pascal, and ends with a benediction, “Let us go forth proclaiming our Savior’s death until He comes,” and the corporate response: “Thanks be to God!”

NewSong Fellowship.
After the African-American Baptist church and the cosmopolitan Presbyterian church in Manhattan, NewSong felt a lot more like what I am used to. The service took place in the church gym, with movable chairs facing a makeshift stage adorned with fake plants. We sang familiar songs, taking our cues from the PowerPoint slides on the screen up front.

I already knew that part of the church DNA is that everyone who is part of the church is serving in some capacity. Having spent some time on staff at my church, I wondered how they pulled that off. The cause and effect is up for debate, I suppose, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence that when we sang songs, people sang loud, and when we prayed, we joined hands, and as part of the sermon on joy, we split the congregation down the middle and sang (yelled) a children’s song back and forth at each other.

A fly on the wall would feel very uncomfortable in this church, I think, because he or she would be expected to participate in what the church is doing, whether it is learning about joy, or expressing joy in any number of ways, from greeting visitors like myself to singing songs to picking up trash in the city.

All of that seems to be very healthy.