Sunday 12th June 2011 - Pentecost

I went to four churches today! I started at Abertridwr Community Church, but I was only there for half an hour – Owen was playing the keyboard for one song, and then he needed to get to Bethel, so I was there in the capacity of chauffeur. A very friendly welcome, as always.
Then I went to Elim, Caerphilly – a Pentecostal church for Pentecost Sunday. There were about 120 people in the congregation, and the sung worship lasted about an hour, and included communion. There was also a part I quite liked, which was a Pentecostal version of sharing The Peace, but between a couple of the songs. The preacher was the regional superintendent for the Elim churches, and a former senior pastor at City Temple, Cardiff.
He preached on Acts 2 (of course) talking about the ‘Suddenlies of God’ – The Holy Spirit came suddenly! He talked about the Holy Spirit as ‘a helper alongside, who will partner with you,’ which I liked, and it matched very closely something I wrote about the Holy Spirit here a couple of weeks ago.

The third church was right across the road – Wesley, who were hosting the Caerphilly Pentecost Picnic, due the the extremely heavy rain. At least we were in no doubt as to whether to hold the picnic inside or outside! A good atmosphere, with people breaking out of their own church groups.

Number four was the evening service at Heath Evangelical Church, Cardiff. The preacher was the pastor, Rev Wyn Hughes, who surprised me by being very young. Well, younger than me, anyway!
This was only the second church in the fourteen I have been to during the sabbatical not to have a band playing. Anyone care to guess which one the previous one was?
…Yes, Bethel, Penyrheol where the preacher doubled as the pianist.
Oh, also Mount Carmel had only one musician, but Terry pressed ‘play’ on the pre-recorded piano track and strummed along on the guitar.
But Heath Evangelical was the first where there was solo organ (an impressive pipe organ). Heath was also the first of the fourteen to use hymn books rather than a projector. And it’s a long time since I last sang from the EMW book ‘Christian Hymns’. All minor keys, of course, apart from the one to the tune of Crown Him With many Crowns.
One hymn included the line “Our bosoms with gratitude glow” (I wrote it down to be sure I had it right!). I confess, I didn’t notice many glowing bosoms.

It’s interesting that both Elim and Heath would say they are Evangelical, and place full trust in the grace of God for salvation in Christ. They both hold the Bible as of paramount importance, but the two services couldn’t be more different in style and emphasis.

At Heath the pastor preached on John 16: 1 – 15 (from the KJV – and prayed in King James language too). He said, “If you haven’t been wrought upon by the Holy Spirit, you are not a Christian,” which sounds like it would be interesting, if I knew what it meant!
Here’s another: “You may think you are free, but you are a pawn of the devil.”
He made a good point that when the Holy Spirit convicts of sin, there is no ‘torment’ in it – God never loses his temper. Scaring people about Hell and Damnation is not the way to lead them into the conviction of the Holy Spirit. I suspect some of his predecessors within the evangelical tradition would have taken a different view, but it was good to hear that.

The warmth of the welcome has varied considerably over the last seven weeks. The smaller churches are definitely better at making visitors feel at home. That’s not to say I haven’t been welcomed at some of the bigger churches I’ve visited, because I have. Just not all of them!