A Different Kind of Worship Experience

Friday, my son Kyle called asking me to attend his baptism service at the church he has been attending for the past month or so. Judy and I agreed and visited the Cornerstone Family Worship Center on the east side of Indianapolis.

Kyle had never been baptized and I had never pressed the issue as I have had doubts about his salvation over the years. Kyle could tell you intellectually what being a christian meant but there had been no evidence over the years of true salvation. Kyle has been making much progress over the past year as he has been wrestling with the problems which have drug him down and has been showing signs of a true committment to Christ. I wanted to make sure Kyle understood what baptism was about and he correctly stated it was a public identification with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit in a symbol of Christ's death burial and ressurrection. Importantly, he knew it was following God's ordinance and not a requirement of salvation.

Cornerstone Family Worship center is a, "Kingdom Church", part of the Pentecostal movement. It was an interesting experience. The people were all extremely warm and friendly. The service itself was less structured than most worship services. There is a great emphasis on song in the church and while individuals were singing praises people would mill around and give hugs and greetings to one another. I didn't hear anyone break into "tongues" but Judy and I witnessed two different persons being "slain in the spirit" where these women basically lost emotional control and flopped to the floor. People were dancing and shouting and singing throughout the service. Midway through the service, Kyle was baptized and it was an emotionally moving experience for him.

The Pastor's message was a performance as he danced, sung, shouted and preached his message with occaisional musical accompanyment. The message was on Mark 15:33-39. There is absolutely no way I would be able to have taken notes on the message as the pastor spoke very rapidly but I did get the gist of the message. What I like most came from Mark 15: 38 "And the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom." The point being that when Jesus died on the cross this opened the veil between man and God. In the temple there was an outer court, an inner court and the Holy of Holies and the veil seperated the inner court from the Holy of Holies. Great preparations and formalities had to take place for the high priest to enter the Holy of Holies lest he die. Christ's death tore asunder the veil enabling man's sin to be forgiven and giving him access to God.

I found myself on occaison disagreeing with some of the biblical interpretations I heard but I was impressed with the Pastor's ability to recall scriptures and preach his message without notes.

It was certainly a lively service, the music was a little too loud and I personally see no scriptural evidence for some of the experiential reactions of those in attendance. Raisng your hands in praise and adoration is one thing. Uncontrollable gyrating and falling to the floor in what could be mistaken for as a seizure is another.

I'm glad I was able to attend the service and I now have a better understanding of a type of worship service I have heard of but haven't witnessed first hand.