Our latest Sunday adventure

We all went as a family to the meeting of the Allen County Christian Fellowship yesterday. Very interesting meeting, quite a bit different from any other meeting we have been to. As I mentioned we live in an area with a dense population of Amish folks and the gathering at Allen County Christian Fellowship is made up largely of people who have left the Amish after embracing a more evangelical, faith based justification but they retain many of the mannerism of the Amish. I might have been the only, or at least one of the few, adult men without a beard (mostly with no mustache as is traditional with the Amish). Every woman in the place and most of the girls covered their heads and all wore dresses. A few of the men greeted one another with a holy kiss, which is perfectly Scriptural but is a bit odd to see. I know the German Baptist Brethren practice the kiss, so maybe some of the men there are from that tradition.

A quick excursus if I may (and since it is my blog, I may!). The holy kiss is one of those things that shows up frequently in Scripture (four places I believe, Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20; 2 Cor 13:12 and 1 Thess 5:26) where Paul exhorts his readers to greet one another with a holy kiss. It is not practiced in the church in any places I know of outside of the most conservative Anabaptist traditions and I am not sure when the practice died out. Certainly it seems odd in our culture for adult men with beards to kiss one another and the connotations are a big stumbling block, but I wonder if the holy kiss is like foot washing, something that Scripture models but that we have abandoned because of our culture. I need to think about it more, it is an easy thing to make light of but since it appears in Scripture I think we need to be very careful with mocking the practice. Does a handshake replace it? I am not certain because we do see handshakes elsewhere in Scripture (Gal 2:9) and this seems different. Most people greet one another with a handshake, believers or not, so does it fulfill the same purpose? The ESV Study Bible notes kind of dismiss the practice:

Like some other practices with symbolic meanings that change from culture to culture (such as footwashing, or head covering for wives; see note on 1 Cor. 11:5–6), a “holy kiss” would not convey the same meaning today that it did in the first century, and in most cultures it would be seriously misunderstood. Such commands are best obeyed by substituting an action (such as a handshake or hug or bow, varying by culture) that would convey the same meaning in a modern culture.

Meh. When did we start modifying our practices because the culture would misunderstand them? I recall that the early church was accused of cannibalism because of the Lord’s Supper but that didn’t lead them to stop observing it. I guess we could argue that a lot of things were culture. After all, wine was a cultural drink in that time, why not use beer for the Lord’s Supper? Baptism resembles ceremonial washing, so maybe we can replace that with something more cultural appropriate like slathering hand sanitizer all over a new convert? Silly? Of course. There is a meaning involved in the Supper and baptism that are specific and transcend culture so I have to wonder why some practices are dismissed as “cultural” and that we are free to replace (or completely ignore them) like the holy kiss, headcovering, footwashing, men raising their hands in prayer (1 Tim 2:9) while others are more sacrosanct. Just another example of a lack of consistency I think. Anyway, back to my report….

We arrived at 9:30 and were in session until a little after 12:30. No Sunday school, no children’s church and there were a TON of little kids in the place. The parking lot must have had a dozen 15 passenger vans parked somewhat haphazardly. We got blocked in and couldn’t leave until someone moved their van from in front of us (the someone was a maybe 11 year old boy moving his families 15 passenger van, which was kinda scary!). We sang for about half an hour, no piano or anything else for accompaniment, and the songs we sang we selected by brothers from the assembly. In other words there was not a prepared “worship” line-up selected ahead of time. I don’t typically enjoy singing but I loved the time of singing simple songs at a deliberate tempo. I can’t recall being as blessed by singing as I was yesterday for a very long time.

One of the brothers brought all of the kids up front and did a children’s lesson. It was on the idea of filters that we use around the house and then taking that idea and showing how the Scriptures are the filter we use in our lives. It took him a very long time to get to the point but he isn’t a professional and was clearly not super comfortable. Nevertheless he was trying and his message made a lot of sense. Then one of the elders got up and kind of went through the order of service. He was acting as a “moderator” which is a term I haven’t heard before. That also took a long time. There was a noticeable lack of smooth orators in the building and since most of these brothers came from the Amish, English is something of a second language. Since they grew up speaking Pennsylvania Dutch they tend to speak very slowly and pause often, probably translating a bit in their heads. At about 11:00 one of the brothers, not an elder just one of the men, came up and spoke for almost an hour. It would not have gotten a passing grade in a seminary homiletics course but he stayed in the Scriptures and spoke from the heart. When he was done, the moderator came up and commented on some of what the speaker had shared and then they opened the floor for anyone else. Several brothers made some points or comments which was a refreshing change. The speaker also made a point of asking others to correct him if he misspoke at any point, a sign of humility that runs contrary to what we are used to. This group of Christians has a meal together three Sundays at month in their modest building ( there is a serious lack of parking with all of the big vans and a similarly serious lack of restrooms, hence the porta-potties outside!) and then on the fourth Sunday they invite one another to homes to fellowship. It is a wonderful group meeting in a simple fashion, kind of big for a true participatory meeting (there were well over 100 people, perhaps 150 or more with the little kids) but there is a great deal of emphasis on fellowship and on smaller groups meeting in homes as an integral part of the community. There is a noticeable lack of professionalism or polish but I think that would certainly have been true in the first century as well. There is also a real zeal for evangelism and mission, perhaps a symptom of a regenerate body that came out of a very insular Amish culture. They are heavily involved in evangelism and service, making regular mission trips to Chicago as well as mission work in Ghana, South America and Haiti. So we liked it a lot.

We also had visitors stop by our home Sunday afternoon. The Miller’s (a pretty common name around here!) are part of Cuba Mennonite Church in neighboring Harlan and we met them last week. What a great family and an encouraging visit. I like that we are meeting lots of people in the area and that many of these brothers and sisters feel welcome to stop by our home. Wherever we end up formally meeting with the church, it is my hope and prayer that our home will constantly have visitors and that many people will feel encouraged to spend time with us. Hospitality is a lost art form in the West and especially in the church. We desire to see that change, at least in our home. So that is what this last Sunday brought. We met lots of other Christians, we spent time together as a family, we were uplifted and encouraged and edified, we spent time in fellowship in our home with another Christian family. All in all a pretty great Sunday!

Tomorrow I am having lunch with one of the leaders of a local house church network, I am hoping to learn from him and start to make contact with Christians in our area who are struggling with trying to find Biblical fellowship and community. We have had coffee before and I was blessed by our time together and expect more of the same tomorrow. I am not sure what this will lead to. Will we have an actual “house church” or will we have fellowship with other Christians in our house as well as in more traditional settings? I am not sure but I am looking forward to finding out. I am really trying to stay open to what God has planned instead of mapping out what I want and then expecting God to provide the rest. I guarantee this, it will be exciting and a blessing no matter what. How can spending time with my adoptive brothers and sisters in Christ be anything else?