A Visit to Bethany Chapel

   
     The worship service I attended was very similar to the one I am used to at my hometown church, which is CREC (AKA the PCA Part Two). Bethany Chapel is Plymouth Brethren. I had never heard of the Plymouth Brethren before; when I asked one of my friends who goes to the church what they were, he replied, "We're the church that doesn't allow women to speak." Flattering. I was only there for the sermon, so I did not experience what the singing was like, but it looked like they only used a piano and voices. The set-up of the building and the service seemed pretty similar to what I am used to. The preaching was expository, which I am also used to. The main difference was the kind of people there. Whereas the churches that I have usually attended have been mostly mono-ethnic, this church had a lot of international people from many different ethnicities. The other difference I noticed was the pastor. The churches I have attended in the past have all had pastors who were good speakers. This pastor seemed awkward and uncomfortable. Nevertheless, his awkwardness was endearing, and I was strangely riveted during the sermon by how real he was.
     One of the most interesting things about the worship service was how similar it was to my own context. I don't know where the Plymouth Brethren are theologically. They are probably different that I am. But there were many elements that I felt familiar with, both in terms of the outer trappings (the way the sanctuary looked) to the more important core elements (the preaching). It had the feeling of going to an unfamiliar place that had something familiar about it. It's good to know that whenever you go somewhere there are other Christians, you're with part of "the family" (or at least you should be). The other thing I found that was interesting was the international presence. It seemed to me that a third to a half of the people in the room were from nationalities other than White- or African-American. This was very unfamiliar to me. It was also interesting that the church didn't seem to be a self-consciously "international" or "multicultural" church. The people just happened to be there, for whatever reason.
     I can't think of anything especially uncomfortable about the church. I did arrive about thirty minutes late, under the impression that the service started at 11:00. This is especially embarrassing considering that I live about thirty seconds from Bethany Chapel. I also found myself feeling slightly uncomfortable when I found out about the Plymouth Brethren's (emphasis on their) position on women's authority. I myself am a "soft complementarian": I believe that the Bible forbids women from being pastors, but I don't have many other hard-and-fast rules about gender roles. Although the Plymouth Brethren's position is not terribly far removed from my own, there was something that raised my hackles when I learned about it. Perhaps it is just due to my own libertarian, individualist leanings, but I do find something very unappealing about people being denied things due to accidents of nature. Nevertheless, this did not bother me very much.
     This service showed the way that God uses mere humans who are not very glamorous to accomplish his mission. This was a very low-key church. The building was dinky, the congregation was weird mix of people, of which there weren't very many, the pastor was not a good speaker and his jokes fell flat. This was not the kind of church that you want to put in a video to show people what church is like. But I realized that God was doing work through this church. Yes, the building wasn't a multi-million dollar complex, but does that really matter? Yes, there weren't many people in the congregation, but these were people who needed to be ministered to. It's possible that if it weren't for this church, there would be no where for them to be.
Yes, the pastor wasn't a great speaker. But it was clear that he loved Jesus and he loved his congregation, and having evident passion is worth a little awkwardness. After all, Moses wasn't a good speaker either. So I think that God's power and his use of "earthen vessels" was brought home to me through this church visit.