First Contact – Part 9 – Full Gospel Church

Some of you may be asking, “What in the world is a Full Gospel Church?” Well, according to Wikipedia, it is synonymous with the Pentecostal, Charismatic Protestant movement that started in the 19^th century. Basically, I associate Full Gospel with churches that believe in the baptism of the Holy Spirit, spiritual gifts, divine healing, speaking in tongues, etc.

As I was growing up, I used to hear my parents talk about the Pentecostal and the Holiness churches around where they grew up in north Alabama. They were the ones being slain in the Spirit and dancing in the aisles. Some may have even handled snakes. It all kind of blends together in my head, but I think you get the general idea of what I am talking about.

While there are several charismatic churches in my area, the two I became the most familiar with over the years were Faith Tabernacle (now called Faith Church) and Christ Chapel. These are both independent non-denominational churches.

Shortly after becoming a Christian in the Church of Christ I started a quest to understand the differing beliefs of the multitude of churches. One of the earliest ones I investigated was Christ Chapel. At that time they were in a small building near downtown. My roommate, David, who had been a student at the local Bible College and was a part time preacher, decided to join me in attendance at the church one Sunday evening. The service was filled with music, prayer, and preaching. Not that radically different from the Church of Christ except for the use of instrumental music (the C of C sings a cappella) and the occasional speaking in tongues (the C of C services were all in English). Near the end of the service everyone was getting happy, standing up, and singing with all their might. We were told to join hands. This made me a bit uncomfortable, but I did it anyway, as did my roommate. Afterwards, David’s comment was, “My, those folks sure are friendly.”

You have to understand that for many in the Church of Christ the use of mechanical instruments of music is a sin. Also, many believe that the gifts of the spirit such as healing, speaking in tongues, and so on were no longer in effect. So, some would think that what David and I did—actually participating in the service where these things were being done—was sinful. But to tell you the truth, I didn’t feel like I needed to shower after the service.

A few years later, Christ Chapel built a new building north of downtown that served as both a church and a school. I can still recall my wife and me going to see Twila Paris, one of my favorite Christian musicians, at this building.

My son, Andrew, was born in 1991. When he was in K-5, he attended Woodmont Christian School, which was part of Woodmont Baptist Church. My wife, Kathy, had quit her job as a teacher when Andrew was born, but was now ready to start teaching again. She was offered a job at WCS the year Andrew was in K-5. Looking to expand the school the next year, they needed a larger facility. After much searching, Woodmont Christian School started discussions with Northwest Christian Academy, which was the school that met at Christ Chapel. This church was planning to build a bigger church building and convert its current building to a school only. After much talking and praying, the two schools decided to merge into Shoals Christian School at the Christ Chapel building. While there were a few doctrinal differences between Woodmont Baptist Church and Christ Chapel, it was decided that none of them was a deal breaker. Thus, a combined school ministry began and continues to this day. Kathy began teaching at SCS the following year, and Andrew became a first grader there. Kathy still works for SCS; Andrew graduated from there in 2009.

Shortly after Kathy started working for WCS, she decided to attend Woodmont Baptist Church. Andrew attended with her. I had deconverted from Christianity before Andrew was born and by this time I was only attending church sporadically. Kathy ultimately decided to join Woodmont. Andrew joined a few years later and was baptized.

Sometime after Andrew became a teenager, he became more interested in the charismatic movement and joined Christ Chapel’s youth group. He was not yet driving, so on Wednesday evenings I would drive him to Christ Chapel (only a few minutes from home) for the youth meetings and then pick him up afterwards. Later still he actually began attending some Sunday services there. Eventually, Andrew began speaking in tongues and had his own prayer language.

Occasionally, I would attend Sunday services with Andrew at Christ Chapel. I discovered that several people I knew from the Church of Christ were now members there. This was quite a radical change, but I guess not as radical as my change was. My observation was that Christ Chapel’s worship was very similar to Woodmont Baptist’s worship. The main difference seemed to be the preacher in the former breaking into the occasional tongue speaking. The people there were always welcoming and friendly.

Let me now switch gears and talk about Faith Tabernacle. The first contact I remember with this church was in the mid 1980s when Don Wildmon, the founder of the American Family Association and American Family Radio, came to speak one evening. Wildmon was a very outspoken United Methodist minister that was fighting a battle against the increasing immorality in the movies, on TV, and in music. His battle was known as the Campaign for Decency. Faith Tabernacle had decided to host an event where he could voice his concerns. Interestingly, a Church of Christ preacher was also supporting Wildmon and was at the meeting. In the spirit of cooperation, the music before the program was alternately led by a Faith Tabernacle member, then by the Church of Christ preacher. When the former led, instruments accompanied the singing. When the latter led, the singing was a cappella.

When my son was a teenager, he would occasionally attend a once-a-week fellowship at Faith Tabernacle called Hebrew Café. There young people could listen to music, play games, and have snacks and beverages, all within a safe environment.

While I always found the members of both Faith Tabernacle (Faith Church) and Christ Chapel inviting and friendly, I just couldn’t get into the emotional element that was present at their services. I guess I am just a mental type person that is convinced that our beliefs should be based on reason, not emotion. That is why I was intrigued by the Worldwide Church of God and the Church of Christ. Both took a rational approach to understanding the Bible. I liked that. Of course, I eventually came to realize that the Bible was not the reliable source of information I once thought it was. Necessarily, I had to deconvert. I vow to always follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Speaking of evidence, a few years ago Shoals Christian School was contacted by Josh McDowell’s ministry. They were going to be on tour and needed to fill a speaking gap one day. They were going to be near the area, so wanted to know if SCS wanted to host an event. Of course, they jumped on it. McDowell spoke at the school during the day, and then spoke to the community that evening at Christ Chapel. One of the things that endears me to McDowell is his position on faith, reason, and evidence. As you probably know, Josh McDowell is the author of the world famous books on Christian evidences entitled “More Than a Carpenter” and “Evidence That Demands a Verdict”.

At that meeting, McDowell asked the audience why Christian evidences was so important. He answered his own question with words like these, “Anyone can believe anything by faith. All you have to do is choose to believe it, whether it’s true or not. In order to be sure our faith is in something that is true, we must have evidence of its validity.” I almost stood up and shouted, “Amen, brother!” even though I was no longer a Christian at that point. I totally agreed with him. Only believe in that for which the evidence supports. The problem is that when it comes to something like the Biblical text where we can’t go back in time and actually observe the events reported therein, evidence can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Also, different people require differing levels of evidence to be convinced of something. That is why we sometimes have hung juries. Anyway, Josh McDowell has found the evidence he requires to believe the Bible; I have not.

A short time after McDowell spoke at Christ Chapel I was there for a Sunday morning service. The pastor of the church was preaching about faith. I do not remember his exact words, but basically he told the congregants that he didn’t need any evidence for his faith because he could feel it inside. I guess he didn’t agree with Josh McDowell like I did.

An American Band

This is sort of an addendum to my last First Contact post about Jews. In that post I mentioned a musical band I was a part of in college. This got me thinking about other events that led up to that point in my life. Here I share some of those thoughts.

My first serious musical instrument was an electric guitar. I was in middle school, and my parents bought me a Silvertone guitar from Western Auto along with a small cheap amplifier. It was quite nice. I learned a few songs from some books I bought.

Later I took an interest in classical guitars after hearing a good friend play. One Christmas in high school, my parents bought me a Federico Garcia classical guitar #3 built in Spain. It was quite a fine guitar considering it only cost $78 on sale. I learned to fingerpick on my own for a while and later took lessons. I joined the Louisville Classical Guitar Society and began performing at our monthly meetings which were open to the public. My teacher was the president of this society.

At the very first meeting where I actually played, I was sitting next to a longtime classical guitar teacher in the Louisville area named Basil Gural. As it turned out, the person who performed just before me was Dale, the best classical guitarist in the area. Needless to say, this was a bit intimidating. Once Dale finished, I was introduced. I sat down on the stage, propped my foot onto the foot stand, set my guitar on my leg, and introduced my song.

“And now after that wonderful performance by Dale, I would like to play for you ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.” Laughter. Ice breaking. That was what I was after. However, a few seconds into the actual song I played, I flubbed it. Not letting it get the best of me, I started again and made it through, albeit a bit shakily.

When I returned to my seat, Basil leaned over and said, “I believe you should have stuck with ‘Mary Had a Little Lamb’.” I couldn’t help but laugh. But over time, I became more comfortable performing in front of people and would sometimes play two songs at the meetings.

I was also a big fan of bluegrass music, especially the five-string banjo. I found a cheap Harmony banjo and bought it. However, since I was only used to using my fingernails for picking on my guitar, I was having a hard time converting to fingerpicks for the banjo. Using my fingers was fine when performing solo about the house, but not when playing with other musicians.

About the time I had learned to play the banjo with my fingernails, several friends decided to form a band. These guys were Mike (guitar and vocals), Billy (guitar and vocals), and Roger (keyboards and vocals). They also wanted me (banjo and can’t sing worth a flip) to join. One day we all got together for a practice session. You could barely hear my banjo above the other instruments. Billy finally spoke the obvious, “Randy, you’ve got to learn to use fingerpicks.” He knew it. I knew it. All God’s children knew it.

Well, anyway, I began donning fingerpicks every time I practiced at home. Lo and behold, I actually started sounding pretty good in short order. Our band was officially underway. Now we just needed somewhere to play.

There was a small bar on Bardstown Road named New Philosophy. Unfortunately, their philosophy seemed to be to hire musicians to play for about five people each evening. This was not good for the business, but a great place for a new band to start. We talked to the owners, two brothers, and they told us we could play on Friday night. Saturday night was reserved for the better bands that brought in larger crowds of 10 to 12. Ha! Interestingly, I don’t believe we had a name for the band. I sure don’t remember having one and neither do the other members that I am still in touch with.

Each of us in the band began inviting our friends to our debut performance. None of my friends came. I don’t know about Mike’s and Roger’s friends. It was Billy that saved the day. Somehow Billy knew A LOT of people. Many of those friends were Jewish. Billy’s friends were like a field of dreams. Ask them and they will come.

Well, opening night finally came and the place was absolutely PACKED with people. They were mostly Billy’s friends and their friends. I didn’t know any of them, but I was glad to see them. You know, job security and all.

We played many sets that night, jointly and individually. We were actually quite eclectic. We played soft rock (on which I played bass guitar, which I had to borrow since I didn’t own one, or even play one that well) and bluegrass (on which I played five-string banjo). For my individual set I played classical guitar.

Throughout the night, the bar owners kept offering me and the other band members any free drinks we wanted. I didn’t drink, so I would ask for a soda. The owners were beside themselves and giddy with excitement. They kept saying, “We just can’t believe it. We never have a crowd like this on Friday night, or any night for that matter.” I kept thinking you need to thank Billy.

At the end of the night after all the customers were gone, our band met with the bar owners to get paid. They told us how they wished they could pay us more, but couldn’t because most of the customers were drinking beer rather than liquor, and there was a smaller profit margin for the beer. We were fine. We mainly just wanted to play. The money was more of a perk than a necessity.

Anyway, we were immediately upgraded to Saturday night and continued to bring in good crowds each week. Yet, we had to endure the “we wish we could pay you more” speech after each concert. I thought we were being paid well. I just wanted to go home and go to bed.

In addition to playing regularly at the New Philosophy, we occasionally played other venues. The most memorable one was a house warming party that Billy set up for us. He had some friends whose house in the East end of town had been blown away in the April 3, 1974 tornadoes that wreaked havoc throughout Louisville. They were rebuilding. When they got the house to the point that there was a roof and electricity, they decided to have a house warming party. We had to plug our equipment into electrical receptacles hanging from the rafters. It was a big deal; lots of people were there. The hosts had set up several long tables just loaded down with foods of all kinds. It was all I could do to stay with the band rather than graze at the trough. All went well. We even had the obligatory drunk insisting we play some song we didn’t know how to play.

I remember another gig we had at a large apartment. There were a lot of weed-smoking young people there. The highlight of the evening, for me, was when we were playing a bluegrass song that had a particularly hard banjo run in it. Sometimes I would nail it and other times I wouldn’t. Well, I nailed the first half of it and the crowd went crazy. This threw me off causing me to flub the second half of it. Oh, well, as a boss of mine used to say: “More Fun!”

I remember finding a seat on a crowded couch during a break. The next thing I knew a joint was being passed to me from my left. Since I didn’t smoke, I took it and immediately passed it to the person on my right. Interestingly, this is exactly what I now do when I am at church and the Lord’s Supper is passed to me. Hmmm.

I had always heard about the peer pressure that would be applied if you didn’t join in on the vice everyone else was engaging in. But you know, I don’t recall ever being pressured. I was in a number of situations where booze was being drunk and marijuana was being smoked. It was the way of the day. Yet I don’t remember anyone ever urging me to partake. Perhaps all the people I was around understood that just meant more for them.

Muse Comes to Nashville

A few years ago my son, Andrew, started listening to and enjoying the rock band Muse. He had me listen to some of their music, but I couldn't get into it. So, when he asked me to attend a Muse concert with him in Atlanta back in 2010, I was hesitant. But I decided to go anyway. Well, lo and behold, just a few songs into the concert, I converted to a fan. Now I love the group. So, when I heard that Muse was coming to Nashville on September 6, 2013, I immediately asked Andrew if he wanted to attend. Unsurprisingly, he did. Well, that concert took place last night and it was a dilly-whopper.

The concert was opened by a group named Cage the Elephant. They are a somewhat local band since they are originally from Bowling Green, KY, a mere 65 miles away. The musicians and the lead singer were quite good. However, I did not care for their style of music or the lead singer's spastic movements on stage. But most of the audience seemed to love them. I even heard one girl say they were awesome.

For unknown reasons, there was almost an hour intermission before Muse began, but when they did, they didn't disappoint. Raw power emanated from the stage from the beginning and never let up. The crowd stood up when the music began and never sat down until they got to their cars after leaving the arena. With lead singer Matthew Bellamy on lead guitar and piano, Christopher Wolstenholme on bass and harmonica, Dominic Howard on percussion, and unofficial fourth member, Morgan Nicholls, on various instruments, the band brought showmanship and excitement to an arena full of eager fans.

This concert was a part of The 2nd Law tour. The 2nd Law is the band's sixth studio album in their almost 20 years of existence. The music on this album is tremendous. Muse's music is like a bottle of wine that only gets better with time. Of course, they also played a few songs from earlier albums. Luckily, they were some of my favorites.

I have been to a lot of concerts where the band simply performs their songs without actually putting on a show. For softer music or more intimate settings, this can work, as it did at a Dan Fogelberg concert I attended many years ago. However, for a power band like Muse, I don't think it would. Muse apparently understands this, so spares no expense with the lights, lasers, projected live and recorded video, and all the props needed to implement them. Hey, they even had people manning some of the equipment from seats hanging from the ceiling. Not only do all these things add visual excitement to an already exciting show, it helps make the audience at a distance feel more included in the event. When you are far enough away that the band members look like Munchkins, it is sometimes hard to feel a part of the show. Muse makes it easier by filling the stage and the area above it with visuals; synchronized to the music, of course.

Muse has some interesting song lyrics. Being a libertarian-minded person, I particularly like the lyrics about standing strong against the oppression of others. One example comes from one of my favorite songs, Uprising, which in on The Resistance album.

Paranoia is in bloom,

The PR transmissions will resume.

They'll try to push drugs that keep us all dumbed down

And hope that we will never see the truth around.

(So come on)

 

Another promise, another seed.

Another packaged lie to keep us trapped in greed.

And all the green belts wrapped around our minds,

And endless red tape to keep the truth confined

(So come on)

 

They will not force us.

They will stop degrading us.

They will not control us.

We will be victorious.

So come on.

 

Interchanging mind control,

Come let the revolution take its toll.

If you could flick the switch and open your third eye,

You'd see that we should never be afraid to die.

(So come on)

 

Rise up and take the power back.

It's time the fat cats had a heart attack.

You know that their time's coming to an end.

We have to unify and watch our flag ascend.

(So come on)

Check out some of their other lyrics at http://www.azlyrics.com/m/muse.html .

Andrew and I had seats about two-thirds of the way back from the stage. This was a bit too far to get good photos with the camera I had with me. However, I did get a few decent shots of the overall show. You can see them here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rcfinch/sets/72157635429762828/

If you have never listened to Muse or have only heard them occasionally, I would highly recommend you check them out. I would personally recommend The Resistance, their fifth studio album, released in 2009. I fell in love with all the music on this record and still consider it a favorite. Andrew recommends his favorite song, Follow Me, from The 2^nd Law album. Also, don't miss them in concert if you have a chance. Matt Bellamy has a wide vocal range and does a pretty intense falsetto. Hopefully he will be able to maintain his vocals for many more years, but many people with that kind of range start losing it in their later years. You need to hear him while he's at the top of his game. If you’d like to hear some radical falsetto singing, check out Micro Cuts on the album Origin of Symmetry. The entire song is sung in falsetto.

In closing, I wanted to mention that, at the concert, Matt Bellamy performed a version of our national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, on his guitar. It was very reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix’s version at Woodstock in 1969. I wasn’t at Woodstock since I was only 14 at the time, but I did see the movie. Concerning Matt Bellamy’s version, I’m sure he would make John Stafford Smith and Francis Scott Key very proud. Well, once they got used to electronic music.

Wild Horses

If you haven't yet heard Susan Boyle sing "Wild Horses," you are really missing out. I just couldn't believe how clear her voice was and how well orchestrated the arrangement was. It brought tears to my eyes! My son said that he believed the angels in heaven would sound like her. WOW! I think I could listen for quite a while if that is true. Below is Susan performing the song on the finale of America's Got Talent.