Antioch Pentecostal Church: Arnold, Maryland Congregation

Greetings everyone!  Today's post is going to be my first review of a church service.  Other atheists have done similar posts where they attend a church in their respective ares and reported on the congregation's beliefs (because some of us are that masochistic).  The church that today's post is about is the Antioch Pentecostal Church in Arnold, Maryland (a local church for me).  Although I am stuck on campus, this church provides an online live stream of church services that are conducted on Sundays at 10am and 6pm and on Monday at 7pm via a "Livestream" account.  You can access these live church services on Antioch's website at http://theantioch.com/PlayerPicker.html.  The service lasted from 10am to 11:48am.

Today's speaker was Joel Wright, Pastor of the Arnold Congregation.  Therefore, when I refer to "he", "his", etc. (not He and His), I am referring to Joel Wright.  I have some very basic notes below that I typed up while I was listening to the stream.  I will then elaborate on a few key features of this service I would like to highlight.

10:00-10:02= Introduction
                      Wright asked people to approach the front of the stage
10:02-10:07= "We've Come to Praise Him" song
10:07-10:14= "He is my God" song
         10:11-10:12= God will supply your needs, "sing with some faith"
10:14-10:17= Doesn't want church to be a ritual/predictable
                      World doesn't need another fake church/religion
                      Outside the intellect
                      If you want to see God, you have to sing with us
10:17-10:22= "Breathe on me" song
10:22-10:32= "Say the Name of Jesus" song
         10:30= Think out of your heart when worshiping, not out of your head
10:32-10:35= Offerings
10:35-11:15= Whatever happened to repentance?
                       Repentance is for everyone (not just first timers, but for those you come every week)
                       #1 characteristic of a repented heart = acknowledgement that you have sinned
                       If you have sinned you have no truth
                       God wants to do incomprehensible things to this congregation
                       Make things right with God first and not about those you have harmed
                       If things are bad in your life, God needs your repentance to help you

                       You know when you have sinned
                       America needs a church that falls on their faces and repent for the perversion of America's      doings

                       Benefits:
                               Newer and clearer vision of Jesus Christ
                               God will show Himself to you
                               Peace and Strength
                       Prayerlessness is sin
                       Repentance is a heart thing, not a brain thing
                       This is not brought up through emotions, but rather a supernatural experience in this room
11:15-11:44= Prayer
         11:37-11:44= "Give Us Clean Hands" song
11:44-11:47= How would you like so much blessing that you don't know what to do with it?
11:47-11:48= Some more prayer, shake people's hands and dismissal

To start off on a light note, I'll comment on the music.  Overall, disregarding the lyrics, the music was performed very well.  They had a live band (most notably an excellent pianist and guitarist) and four vocalists performing every piece except for the "Give Us Clean Hands" song at the end of the service (which I assume was played using a CD or a similar medium).  Most of the first half an hour was dedicated to music and singing.

To get into more serious matters, I would like to continue by addressing by first real note of substance, "Doesn't want church to be a ritual/predictable".  Wright said that he doesn't want his church to just be something you just do every Sunday and it's a similar service every night you attend.  This is completely understandable to me.  Churches across the United States are becoming more "modern/hip" to appeal to the masses.  I would assume that more people attend church when they find it to be interesting and enjoyable.  If the specific church's goals consist of having as many parishioners as possible, then making people's church experiences as enjoyable as possible is rational.

The second topic worth taking note of is when Wright said, turn off your irony-meters for a moment, "The world doesn't need another fake church or religion."  Over the rest of the service, there is one question I kept wanting to scream at my screen:  "Where is your proof?!".  Anybody can stand behind a podium and spout whatever nonsense they want.  Prove to me how your church and religion is any less fake than the thousands of other churches and religions across the world.  Prove it.  Why should anybody change their beliefs to your specific, denominational, narrow strand of Christianity?  What do you have to offer which other churches/religions do not provide?  Until you have solid evidence that is not testimonial, please inform me about how your church/religion is, in any way, not like those other fake ones.  It is just one large case of special pleading.

On to the third topic:  "Outside the intellect".  Wright said this when referring to knowing about God.  If He is outside our intellect I can't make any claims of your God, but neither can you.  If we cannot possibly fathom what God wants or how God works, all you are performing in is mere speculation and mental masturbation.  Again, if He is outside our intellect, what proof do you have that you, Mr. Wright, know about what God wants.  I think I already know what his apologetic is going to be.  Wright would probably reference the Bible in our knowledge about God.  My counter-point would be that 1) Prove the Bible is divinely inspired by God (he probably just takes that on faith and faith is not sufficient enough in influencing my belief) and 2) Even if the Bible were the actual word of God, the mere fact that we can understand, interpret it, and you can stand behind the podium preaching it is a testament to the fact that God is not outside our intellect.  Mr. Wright's fake response is just my opinion on what his apologetic argument might be.  If you are a pentecostal and you think I am putting up a strawman, please let me know in the comments below or e-mail me at brbailey@umd.edu.

The fourth note-worthy topic is, "If you want to see God, you have to sing with us".  I actually put this one to the test.  I was singing along (because of the catchy tunes and well performed music) and, sorry, I didn't see God.  I guess his response was, "Try again later."

What I am about to say will probably just cause some people to say that I am nitpicking, however I will defend myself by pointing to all of the other crazy beliefs Christian's hold.  Wright stated, "Think out of your heart when worshipping, not out of your head."  I am fairly certain that we can only think using our brains.  If what Wright means has something to do with a metaphoric heart that represents our soul, fine.  Just prove that a soul exists.

There was a brief amount of time to collect the offerings.  I do not understand why you would take money from your own congregation when you can just pray for your church to be financially secure, but that's besides the point.  The sixth topic I wish to address is about Joel Wright's 40 minute talk about repentance.  Personally, as an atheist, I do not believe that humans commit sins or are inherently sinful.  If there is no sin, then there is no need for repentance.  So, this whole 40 minutes worth of speaking is null and void until you can prove to me that some type of sin exists.  You can read some of my notes above from the 10:35-11:15am mark to get the gist of what Wright's talk on repentance was about.  However, there is one more point that Wright made that I would like to touch on; "Make things right with God first and not about those you have harmed".  If you actually did this in your life, you would be a horrible person.  I actually can't believe Wright said this.  I could have misinterpreted the point he was trying to make and correct me in a comment or e-mail if you believe that I am mistaken.  If you harm me in any way, I would be offended if you went off and prayed about it and not have given me any consolations.  From my perspective, talking to yourself doesn't do me any good!

The seventh and final topic addresses, "This is not brought up through emotions, but rather a supernatural experience in this room."  Wright was referring to the feelings people were having in the room (i.e. Glossolalia a.k.a. speaking in tongues, music, throwing hands in the air, feeling the "Holy Ghost", being "touched by God", etc).  It is funny how Wright said that these results were not from emotions, but rather from supernatural experiences, because I actually attribute those actions to emotional behavior.  I would like to reference the sociological field of group/herd behavior for how people's actions, beliefs, etc. can differ individually but reach a consensus when the individuals are in a group (search "mass hysteria","group hysteria", etc.), however this is completely outside my field and knowledge and I would be doing a disservice to the field by addressing it.

This concludes my first church service review!  Hopefully the next one I conduct in has more substance then this particular service.  This service was mostly praying, singing, praising, etc.  If you have any questions, comments, disagreements, or just want to talk/have a discussion, e-mail me at brbailey@umd.edu or leave a comment below!  Off to the Super Bowl party!