Just Visiting...

I have friend that I've known for almost ten years. When I first became a Christian, our friendship started to fall apart. She didn't like my new friends. She didn't like that I wasn't the same that I was before. She didn't like that I didn't just ignore her racist jokes anymore... She didn't like that I was always at Bible study or just hanging out with my friends from Bible study. I invited her to join me, but she didn't really want to. She wanted to be her own separate part of my life, but I couldn't really separate my life into parts. We were still friends, but we didn't see each other much anymore. My last year at UNR, our time together had become especially sparse. I saw her probably 8 times that entire year. After my graduation party, things just fell apart, and we drifted apart for about a year and a half. When we came back together, she was more open-minded, more receptive to talking about her faith and what it meant to her, and why I had dove in so passionately. I will admit, I was probably too pushy with her sometimes, but it was only because I was desperately trying to keep her in my life, I was trying to get her to fit into the new life I was finding.
Over the last year, my friend has become a new person, too. She used to clam up when religion (or politics) came up in conversation. Now she starts the conversations. She has come to realize that faith doesn't have to be something that she experiences alone, but really can be something that she can share with others. This brings me to the title of this post.
I had shared with my friend that we were on sabbath break from church. She wanted to try out a new church, different from the traditional church that she was used to, and so she asked me to go with her. I really appreciated this opportunity since this was something I had always wanted to share with this friend. I agreed to go to this church with her, despite my expectations that I know it to be against many of my beliefs of what a church should be.
We entered the building and it instantly reminded me of the lobby of a high rise office building-- glossy wood walls, tile floor, rows of doors along both sides. The woman who had invited my friend took us on a tour. Tables were set up off to the left and a cafe type window was cut into the wall where people could place an order for the food and beverages they would like to buy. We proceeded along the left to the stairs where we moved to the second floor. The second floor was entirely offices except for one door. The door opened up to the balcony of the auditorium/sanctuary. She informed us that including the balcony they could seat 850. The seats were all theatre style, padded seats bolted to the floor--level after level after level of these seats. At the front where the worship was played and the message delivered was a stage with curtains and all. Not just a raised platform, but an actual stage. We proceeded back down the stairs, and she pointed out where the kids area was, but didn't take us over. She said that since we didn't have kids we probably weren't interested.
Once the service started, things got even more over-the-top. The worship was reminiscent of a rock concert with a full light show and fog. At this point I noticed that there were six video screens, probably 72 inches, placed throughout the sanctuary. There was a camera person zooming in on each member of the worship team individually and displaying them up on the screen. And during their announcements, they advertised their upcoming water baptism and barbecue. They reminded everybody to see x person to purchase their baptism barbecue ticket for $5.00.
The experience made me so much more grateful to be a part of a church that does not promote this culture of excess. I am glad to be part of a church that is not so big and so focused on the production that nobody gets to know anybody. I miss all you guys!