Finished up two more chapel services. The first one was a highly liturgical service which was closer to my tradition with some noticeable differences. For instance, they used wine in communion, drank from a single cup, knelt in the pews, burned incense, etc. None of these facets of their service gave me any problems, it was just different. Again, like last week, overly simple message: go be a good Christian (whatever that means). A vanilla sermon.
The second chapel I went to was an African-American service. Very lively, very different than what I'm used to. People yelling, dancing, shouting, running, etc. My tradition is much more structured (I'm not saying one is right or wrong, they're just different). The service was to last 2.5 hours! I didn't stay that long. 45 minutes in and they were still doing announcements (no exaggeration). What I heard of the message was actually pretty good. The woman was speaking on the need to step out in faith when you've been called and embrace that fact that God just isn't going to reveal the whole plan to you in fell swoop. However, there were a lot of "God will get you through anything if you plant the seed" moments sprinkled through the sermon.
I'm trying to remain positive, but I'm spiritually on 'E' at the moment. I'm used to an academic environment with world-class speakers that challenge your mind as much as your soul and don't delve into the cheap, "God is my buddy and wants me to be happy", bit. Am I being too critical? Perhaps. But it seems to me that these homileticians are afraid to give these soldiers real meat because they're afraid they won't "get it". Perhaps we've forgotten that God's word is powerful and can cut through all barriers. These men and women are preparing for a protracted two-front war, we'd better be giving them meat and not milk. Just my thoughts. Once my observations are complete, I'll likely try to find a civilian church to attend off-post.
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