The eighth visit this summer was to my friend Danny's church in Greenfield Park near Montreal. He attends the South Shore Community Church which is a member of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC). I was hoping he was still attending this church as it would really round out my tour of churches this summer and I was going to be in Montreal in late August (plus, Danny is a reader of this blog).
Blaise came along with me, Danny and his son. We were on time.
As with most of the summer services I've attended, the place wasn't packed. People milled around the sanctuary before the service. It started off with 3 or 4 worship songs which were not as rambunctious as I had hoped the charismatics would be, good though. There was a prayer time for the children before sending them to their class and a nice story about their summer kids ministry. Offering was brought by the members to the front of the sanctuary and a special song was shared by a member.
At this point I took note that no one had been slain by the Spirit, no one was rolling in the aisles, and nobody was speaking in tongues. There were a lot of "yesssss Jesssuussssss" and plenty of clapping, but nothing too caricatured.
The sermon was shared by a former member of the church who was visiting from China where he and his wife work. It was an interesting message and all very informal.
Following the message, there was an invitation to come for prayer and a team of ministry people received them at the front of the church. It didn't extend the service as it was afterwards and those who weren't participating were free to leave.
Blaise enjoyed his kids class and driving over the bridges back to Montreal and then Laval in the rain.
1 comment:
Was the absence of people being slain in the Spirit due to the "catchers" on summer vacation? ;)
I used to go to this church and the people are wonderful.
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