Old-style preaching
I've been good. I went to church on Sunday, and the Sunday before that.
And that's really the way I think of church, which kinda reveals a lot. To me church is still something you gotta do, if you're a Christian. That's the way I was brought up. You didn't get to miss church unless you were sick kinda like how you weren't allowed to miss school unless you were sick, too.
I used to look forward to Sunday service, so I'm not sure what has happened in recent years. Or rather, I KNOW what has happened, but I don't know how to go back to where I was... and maybe I shouldn't look back, but just press forward instead. Which I'm trying to do. But it's not as simple as that.
On Sunday I attended Trinity Methodist Church. I'd known it was going to be a traditional service, and boy, was it traditional!
The question that lingered in my mind after the service was: do all Methodist pastors preach in that emotional and detached day? Or is it only those Methodist pastors I've met? And if they all do, then why???
I grew up in a Methodist church, and, whilst I can't remember being discontented there, when I go back now I find myself dreading service there and looking at things with a jaundiced eye. Compared to the vibrant life and joy found in the charismatic churches I've been to in the city, my hometown church seems frozen in time, exactly the same as it was 15 years ago when I was 11 stagnant and merely going through the motions.
Still, I decided to attend Trinity on Sunday, thinking it might be a good idea to explore my roots. After all, charismatic churches may be vibrant, but all the activity can get wearing. It sometimes becomes an endless whirl, and the pressure to do more is often present. I wanted to see if the quietness of tradition would provide a resting-place for this soul who longs for peace.
As I listened to the sermon, I remembered something I'd told Mom awhile ago after one of the Sundays in my hometown church: We've got very solid sermons, very Biblical, but also very dull. And I wondered why I've not seen a Methodist pastor preach with passion and conviction, except Pastor Daniel Ho of DUMC, theDamansara Utama Methodist Church but that doesn't count coz that church is charismatic!
I wonder if there is something in the Methodist tradition that requires pastors to be stoic and expressionless. I don't mean they have to walk all over the stage and wave their hands and yell; I just mean they could sound as if they were "into" their sermon, believed it with all their hearts, and longed to convey that message to their congregations. The way they preach, it doesn't seem like they're connecting with their hearers at all. But then God does work in mysterious ways ;)