Event Parking | Previous Challenge Entry

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TITLE: Event Parking | Previous Challenge Entry
By Ingrid Forsberg
10/11/16
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When I saw the “Event Parking” sign at the parking lot entrance I realized the church I knew as a teenager wasn’t the same. I sighed and pulled my car into a vacant spot, turned off my Gather tape, grabbed my Bible, and went into the church.

Crash! Bang! Thump, thump, thump-i-de-thump, bang crash. Over and over the same thundering’s vibrated through my body, and I was still in the church foyer. The worship team was practicing tuneless imitations of rock concerts, but with Christian words that I couldn’t hear. The winey twang of electric guitars mingled with the pounding thumps and crashes of drums and symbols. A basket of free ear plugs for those with sensitive ears or frayed nerves was on the welcome counter. I took a set and entered the dark auditorium. After my eyes adjusted to the low light I found a seat at one of the many round tables. Each table was decorated with Christmas tree lights, which helped me find a place to sit.

Five others were seated at that table. The guy next to me was wearing flip flops, cut offs, and a tee shirt. He looked like he just arrived from the beach. The four others looked like they came with him. They made me feel out of place. I was wearing shoes and was dressed in the type of clothing I wear to work.

After five minutes of “worship music” my nerves were frazzled and my ears were ringing, so I put in my free ear plugs. Sitting in the now silent darkness I remembered the sweet worship, the soothing, uplifting spiritual atmosphere I soaked in decades before in that church building. Not hearing anything I decided to read my Bible, but it was too dark to read and I didn’t have a flashlight. I could pray silently in the dark, so I did.

Finally the young guy next to me got up and went to the platform. Much to my surprise he was the preacher. He preached about Cain and Able. This caught my attention. I knew what Paul wrote in Hebrews on the subject, “By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous.” And from Proverbs I remembered “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.” I also know that “without shedding of blood is no remission” of sin. So I was taken back when the preacher said God’s rejection of Cain had nothing to do with what Cain gave as a sacrifice. The preacher then informed us that the old views which were different from his were wrong. That hit me like an out of tune band playing two different songs at the same time. Was he saying that for 2,000 years Paul was wrong? Had the preacher read Hebrews yet?

When the service was over I was invited to one of the weekly home meetings where this sermon would be discussed. They called it “rewind.” Not feeling the need to be rewound on what I considered a good sized error, I declined the invitation.

I left disappointed, grieved, sad, and I felt like I’d been served a plate of cardboard to eat. “Lord,” I prayed, “is there someplace where I can worship You in spirit and in truth? I don’t fit here. My ears, nerves, and soul feel brutalized. I cannot endure this again. The early church wasn’t like this was it? I hope Heaven won’t be like this church.” I thought a minute then added, “If it is will there be earplugs up there I can use?”

“Maybe next Sunday I’ll find a better church,” I muttered as I drove off.

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