It has been three weeks, since I left CCGC, where I have left some dear ones to seek out new souls, the elects of God.
It has been seven churches I have officially visited thus far. Last morning, I visited the famous OCM of china town. There are two mandarin services and I visited the earlier one, 8:30am. It has become a habit for me to be a morning person on Sunday. Perhaps a habit worth keeping everyday. The service was conducted very similarly to CCGC, I wonder who copied who. Should have found someone and ask. They sang all the hymns from the hymnal, I love it. But somehow I was worried that this is only done so because the early congregation appears to be populated by the elderly. I did not attend the 11:15am service, because I had to rush out for the next service at a Japanese church in lower-mid town. Therefore I am not sure how the 11:15 service was like. Just as I didn't know how the 11am service at First Baptist Church which I visited two weeks ago was like. If the reason OCM has two services is to categorize one for traditional, one for modern style, then perhaps it is like the First Baptist Church (Chinese congregation), whose early congregation was more teenagers/youth populated. I shall find out soon. If this is so, I would be disappointed. Because, the only reason to split the services into traditional and modern is to attract more youngsters. Finding different ways to attract teenagers, youths of today's culture is good, but tolerating lack of discipline for entertainment, it is nothing short of inviting the lust of the world to desecrate your sheep. Even when Jesus preached, young and old gathered together at the same time. Why can't this be done in churches anymore? Overall, I love OCM. So far, I love the congregation, I love the pastor's sermon, I love the service.
The second church I have come to love is the Japanese American United Church. Perhaps the only Japanese church in New York City. There is one uniqueness to this church, its sanctuary architecture is a based on Japanese American, reminded me of one of Frank Lloyd Wright's works. Very beautiful. Very Clean. Giving a sense of Holiness from the Japanese culture. Service is conducted in both Japanese and English translated by whoever was giving the speech. They also sang good old classic hymnals from the Methodist Hymnbook, you can't really hear what's being sung by the whole congregation because it is sung in both languages simultaneously. I must admit, it is a little disturbing, but I supposed with 99% of the congregation knew Japanese, it didn't bother them as most of them would know both English and Japanese. I wish to revisit this church again.
And the last church I visited that day, isn't worth mentioning. This is the second church I've come across that does not take youth ministry seriously and treated Sunday Worship service so irresponsibly by allowing non-theologically trained ones to lead the service. Someone who has no theological background and sound biblical firmness is prone to all kinds of unnecessary trouble. I wonder how the older congregation was treated...when I asked for information on the Chinese Service, a lady brought me to this English youth group (which started only a few months ago) refusing to tell me about the Chinese service as if it didn't exist and as if she needed my support for their new youth group.
I noticed more than one Chinese reformed church in the city got big because of toleration, mainly in matter of worship style. The name "reformed" is perhaps used for ripping benefits off of RCA (Reformed Church in America).
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