Churches are like hydrangeas. With churches and hydrangeas, the place where they are planted affects their appearance. A church that is planted in Appalachia looks significantly different than one that is planted in Manhattan. A church that is planted in Eastern North Carolina looks different than a church that is planted in the Pacific Northwest. And hydrangeas, they look different, have a different color, based on the pH of soil.
May Memorial, just like every church, is planted in a particular place among particular people. And because of this place and this people where the Gospel took root, our life together as a church looks different than if it were planted in any other place among any other people.
And we are unique. We are different from every other church in the world, and we are distinct from every other church even in our own county. I’ve thought a lot lately about what makes us unique, and I’d like to share a few things.
One thing that makes us unique: our worship can be described as “traditional.”
We have a choir, use hymnals, sing hymns, have a choir anthem, begin with a prelude, have a benediction, and pray the Lord’s Prayer together. We use “traditional” instruments mostly, an organ, and a piano. We have at least one scripture reading each Sunday, and we loosely follow the Church Year (Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, and Easter). This does not mean that we are ruled by our “tradition,” because we do have variations on a regular basis. We include videos in worship from time to time, and it is not at all uncommon to hear someone sing a contemporary song in worship with a guitar. I like to say that we are “creatively traditional.” We are not afraid to include new or different things as they are appropriate, but based on the soil in which May Memorial has been planted, our expression of the Church is basically traditional.
There are many who prefer to worship in other ways than “traditional.” There are many who find God in modern-styled darkened auditoriums with a full contemporary band that wouldn’t recognize Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise if their life depended on it. And we should honor this expression of Church. But it is not us. And what is more, there are many individuals who still look for worship the way we do it.
We should never apologize for being “traditional.” We should never feel that we are somehow “less” and that we must change in order to be vibrant and fruitful. We should celebrate and lean into our uniqueness, understanding that God has called us together as a people and placed us in this place at this time.
We are unique in our community, and what is most important is that when we worship, God is in our midst. In scripture, in hymns. In anthems and preludes and sometimes even in the sermon. God honors our worship, not because of the style, but because it comes from the hearts of His people.
Thanks be to God for worship at May Memorial. I rejoice in the way God continues to work among us, and draw people to Himself through the faithful worship of God’s people.