Redeemer Presbyterian Church

I'd like to apologize for being a little late with my post on Redeemer. Going forward I'd like to do the review a little bit sooner after we go to a service, but I was really lazy this week and didn't get around to writing down my thoughts until now. Christian's post was fairly comprehensive, so I don't have that much to add except for some minor thoughts.

I liked Redeemer. Part of the reason for this, I suspect, is that the church seems to be geared towards people like me. By that I mean professionals in their twenties or thirties who may not have a whole lot of experience with Christianity and who might not feel totally comfortable just walking into a church.

Because the service was held in a college auditorium, I felt a lot more comfortable walking inside. It can be intimidating walking into a house of worship, especially when it's not for a religion that you are a member of or if you are like me and don't have a whole lot of experience going to any houses of worship. Since the service was in a college auditorium and filled with people my own age, it felt like I was back in college and was going to see a speaker on some random topic. While not all of Redeemer's services are at Hunter College, having that option made it a little easier to visit.

For the service itself, it seemed to me to be a fairly standard Christian service. The Eucharist, a reading of the Apostle's Creed and a reading of portion of the Bible all played a role and made it very difficult to mistake this for anything but a very Christian religious experience. The other members of our group, who were all more familiar with Christianity that I am, thought there was something missing. I was unable to pick up on that while I was there. Thought, I will admit that I know no more now about Presbyterianism and how it differs from other branches of Christianity then I did before I went to Redeemer.

I do agree with Christian that Dr. Keller's sermon would have worked just as well as a motivational speech without the religious components. It was partially because of this that I enjoyed it as much as I did. In my limited religious experience, sermons in any religion can often feel very forced and dull. I'd prefer a sermon with a coherent and interesting moral or life message to one that forces a connection to God and doesn't flow well. This is one of the few sermons that I have heard that was interesting enough that I would feel compelled to go back again just to hear another.

The events that Redeemer listed in their bulletin also seemed much more likely than a typical Church to draw me in. In addition to the more typical volunteer and counseling events, I noticed a number of professional and social activities that I would be interested in checking out, if only for the networking opportunities. Based on the size of the church, I would also imagine that many of these events get a sizable number of people. Perhaps that's not the best reason to join a religious group, but if the idea is to create a community, Redeemer seems a lot more effective in creating an environment that fits Manhattan professionals and caters to their needs.

Something that also probably draws a lot of people to Redeemer is the chance to meet someone of the opposite sex (I can't seem to find any reference to homosexuality on their website or in their materials so I don't know how accepting they are for people trying to meet someone of the same sex to couple off with). There were hundreds of people at the meet-up after the service and there seemed to be a lot of individuals that weren't in groups that were probably looking to meet people and make new friends.

In a city like New York, a place to meet relatively sane and well adjusted people in their twenties and thirties is very rare and is very much a good thing. Just based off numbers alone, I'm sure hundreds of people have met their significant others there and I wouldn't be surprised if there have been more than a few marriages that resulted from meetings at Redeemer.

Redeemer might not be for everyone, but it seems to succeed in its efforts to cater towards a specific demographic. If you are a member of that demographic (young professionals) and are interested in religion I would definitely recommend checking it out. At the very least, as I said above, the sermon is more interesting than most that I have seen.

Redeemer Presbyterian Church

I like my churches to look the part. I want to see crosses, iconography, paintings, statues, arches, stained glass, etc. I'm sure it has a lot to do with my Catholic background and now Lutheran adventures. So, I'll get that part out of the way: Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC does not look like a church because it doesn't have it's own building.

Adam and I had the pleasure of being accompanied to church this Sunday by two good friends. There we were, a Jew, a Roman Christian, a follower of Meher Baba, and a lapsed Catholic sitting in the Hunter College Auditorium, all chuckling like Middle Schoolers at the graffiti some college student had left on the back of a seat. Let's just say they didn't like calculus.

The auditorium filled quickly to what I imagined was a little over a thousand worshipers. According to pre-visit research, Redeemer gets around 1,000 people at each of it's five worship services on Sundays. Incredible numbers for New York City, I think.

Once the service began, it was clear that this was not the liturgical, traditional stuff I love. The worship leader barely mentioned that historically Christians celebrate the Epiphany around this time before moving on to songs of praise. The music, I must say, was beautiful and the worship singer was pretty amazing. After three songs, though, I was longing for the meat.

And that's what I kept waiting for. There were a few spots that reminded me that this was an actual Sunday service: the Offertory, the Apostle's Creed, proclaiming the mystery of faith. But, even the Sermon lacked the meat and potatoes I sought.

Tim Keller, the pastor of Redeemer, appeared minutes before the Scripture Reading, and disappeared soon after the sermon. The Scripture Reading itself was from Genesis 2, the creation of Eve. In his sermon, titled The First Wedding, Dr. Keller identified three things that are necessary for the success of marriage: An eye for idolatry, patience, and humility. He went on to give a rather captivating sermon, intelligent and, at times, funny.

Dr. Keller reminded me of the college professor everyone loves. I can see the appeal of going to a Keller service. The young professionals in the crowd seemed enthralled by him. But, for me, the sermon seemed like a motivational speaker's presentation. It was good, but you could easily remove the Scripture and still have a good speech. Although we did hear about God's humility and Jesus dying on the cross, I felt like it wasn't the center of the sermon. Maybe it was supposed to be, but I simply didn't hear it that way.

This was the very first Presbyterian service I'd been to that wasn't a wedding, so there's a lot I still don't quite understand about Presbyterianism and their theology. I wonder how much of the service reflected the theology.

I can say that I appreciate what Redeemer Presbyterian is doing here in New York City. They've managed to build a church for young professionals that seems to draw growing numbers and do a lot of good in our community. Their post-service fellowship had hundreds of attendees and their bulletin listed numerous groups and missions serving a wide range of individuals and needs. It really seems like a great place to find a spiritual home and it seems like many have found it there.

It was my first Sunday attending two services, my own and our Worship, Gotham! visit, and I look forward to many more to come. It always helps to bring friends along to share in the experience and bounce ideas off of afterwards.

So, if you're reading this and want to join Adam and I on our Worship, Gotham! visits, let us know. I've created an "Upcoming Schedule" box in the right hand column so that you can join us.

Worship with us!

So it Begins!

To kick off Worship, Gotham!, Christian and I thought that it would be best to start with a place that was familiar to at least one of us. We decided to go to Trinity Lutheran Church, a Lutheran Church in Astoria, Queens that Christian and his wife regularly attend. Part of the thinking in choosing this church was that since we already had a network of people that we knew around us, hopefully I would feel somewhat comfortable even as I, the religiously ignorant Jew, found myself in the middle of a traditional Lutheran service.

Since we are still trying to figure out the scope of Worship, Gotham! and what exactly we are trying to do, I was a little unsure how to approach writing a summary of the experience. I thought it would be best just to give you a short description of my thoughts on the service, highlight things that stood out during the experience and give you description of what I learned about the Lutheranism even if it's not all that much. I would have liked to have been able to give you a good overview of both Lutheran theology and the Lutheran liturgy, but I think that's way too ambitious a task and is something I have neither the time nor training to do. So here it goes:

The main thing that struck me was how Roman Catholic everything seemed (I have gone to Mass once or twice at Roman Catholic Churches, so I have some frame of reference). The building itself, both outside and in, looked very much like a Roman Catholic Church. The Pastor was dressed in robes that looked similar to those that a Roman Catholic priest would wear and there was other imagery, including the presence of an altar, candles, a choir and that guy that brings the cross down the center aisle (Crusifier? Cross-bearer?) that would have made it difficult, if not impossible, for me to know that it wasn't a Roman Catholic service if I didn't know otherwise.

As for the actual theology that was expressed in the service, to be honest, I am just as confused about Lutheranism and Christianity now as I was before the service. In terms of general Christian Theology, I am still confused about the basic idea of the Trinity. Shortly before the service began, I had the opportunity to read the Athanasian Creed (which is accepted as truth by all Lutheran Churches and by many other Christian Denominations) for the first time and this only confused me more. Apparently, Lutherans, and Christians generally pray to three distinct concepts that are in fact one. The Creed states:

We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.
For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.
But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

It goes on to say:

Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit: And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty.
Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God: And yet there are not three gods, but one God.
Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord: And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.
As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.

I assume the idea of how three beings are actually one has been flushed out by countless theologians. The general idea seems to be that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are all distinct, but yet at the same time are one. How this actually works out is still confusing. This might seem like basic Christian theology, but my knowledge of Christianity leaves a lot to be desired (the correction of this problem is one of the main points of Worship, Gotham!).

As for Lutheran specific theology, I wasn't able to learn much more of Lutheran theology than the basic outline that is on Trinity Lutheran's website. For me, the most interesting aspect of what I know of their theology is their belief in salvation by grace instead of by good works. As they put it: "we do not save ourselves with good works, or by right doctrine. We are saved by God, as a gift of love." This seems to be a large departure from Roman Catholic teaching, which, I thought, stresses the importance of doing good deeds on earth and believes that simply belief alone is not enough.

After the service, I had the opportunity to talk a little bit with Pastor Michael Church, the Pastor of the Congregation. We didn't get a chance to discuss the real differences between Lutheranism and other sects of Christianity, but he was able to briefly outline the history and organization of Lutheranism in the United States. While I can't remember a lot of what he said (I really should have been keeping notes), I do remember some of the more basic organizational aspects of the Lutheran Church in America.

Apparently, the Church is split into two major denominations, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and a bunch of other minor denominations. Of the two major denominations, the ELCA is the more "progressive" and the Missouri Synod is the more "conservative". As examples of the progressive attitudes of ELCA, Trinity Lutheran, which is a member of ELCA, has a few openly gay congregants and the communion (where they eat the wafer and drink the wine) was open to all "baptized Christians" and not just baptized Lutherans. According to members of the congregation of Trinity that I spoke with, both of these are not "kosher" at Missouri Synod churches.

Pastor Michael seems to have an encyclopedic knowledge of both Lutheran theology and Lutheran history inside and outside the United States. He offered to sit down and discuss religion in more detail with Worship Gotham! sometime soon. He is probably going to be an invaluable resource in learning more about Lutheranism specifically and Christianity in general through the course of this project and I am looking forward to meeting with him again.

In all, even though there is still a fairly large amount I don't know about Lutheranism, I think today was a success. First, I got to meet a bunch of good people. Everyone at Trinity was amazingly welcoming and friendly. Before I even entered the Church, when I was standing outside trying to figure out if I was in the right place, a member of the congregation came up to me and made sure I was OK and assured me that the doors were open and I was welcome. When I got inside, this friendliness continued. Within minutes after I walked in and sat down three people came up to me, introduced themselves, and welcomed me. Secondly, I got to experience my second Lutheran service and my first traditional Lutheran service (the first involved electric guitars and a rock band and was a totally different experience).

Lastly, I managed to get out of bed before 1 pm on a Sunday, which is amazing for me. All in all, it was a good Sunday.