Church Experience #5 – Jan 30, 2011

Joyful Sound Church of God

Lively Up Yourself

It’s the end of my first month on ChurchSurfer and I thought it was about time to take the blog to one of the more…how should I say it…energetic or charismatic denominations – Church of God.  We all know the stereotype that all the variations of Pentecostal have earned over the generations, and I usually recall the movie “The Apostle” with Robert Duvall as the Pentecostal preacher, scenes of the rural South, roadside tent revivals, and sermons that resemble “pep rallies” that evoke the Holy Spirit, usually climaxing with people jumping, shouting, writhing on the ground, and speaking in tongues.  I mention this not because I buy into this stereotype, but because we all know it.  I personally believe most stereotypes of this nature begin with some amount of truth, but you never know how much gets exaggerated and fabricated over time.  So I don’t believe the hype until I experience it for myself…and in this case let’s just say I wasn’t disappointed!  Not that the stereotype was confirmed, but that I discovered where the truth of it began.  So here we go…

Don’t Judge a Book…