LYNDEN, WA (Day 2).  Drove to Bellingham again to attend Christ Church (PCA).  From the reviews we expected a formal service, and perhaps the early service is more formal, but the 11:15 am service was a sort of modified contemporary version.  The music was provided by a small group of musicians playing guitar, banjo, trumpet, trombone, violin (played like a fiddle), etc.  All done in good taste.  The music was mostly traditional hymns set to different musical arrangements.

The order of worship followed a liturgical format taken from The Worship Source Book of the Christian Reformed Church 2004.  All things otherwise were very informal.  Not a coat or tie in the room.  The pastor, Nate Walker, preached behind a pulpit, but wore only a long sleeve sport shirt and casual trousers.  The sermon, however, was surprisingly good, on the subject of the resurrection of the body, using I Cor 15:35-49 as text.  One of the best sermons on this subject that I have ever heard.  I actually took notes, as did Betty.  Nate is a graduate of Covenant Seminary.

After the sermon, The Apostles Creed was recited.  Some of the usual modernization of language was present, except it said "... descended into the grave" instead of "into hell."  Then the usual translation of The Lord's Prayer was recited.

At this point a hymn I had never heard was sung from music printed in the bulletin, which was a 26-page 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 inch booklet.  Again, producing the bulletin each week must be quite an undertaking.  This hymn was Eternal Weight of Glory by Wendell Kimbrough.  Perfect choice to follow that sermon, with many references to our current state vs our state to come on the day of resurrection.

This was followed by communion.  This was different.  The fencing of the table was addressed to ones who visit the church and show interest but have not made a profession of faith, so prayers are in the bulletin for them to use to come to faith.  I have never seen this before.  Then row-by-row we walked to the front of the room where the pastor held a half-loaf of bread and asked our name.  We then pulled a piece of bread as he said, [your name] "this is the body of Christ."  An elder next to him held out a tray of cups, the outer ring of which were real wine while the inner ones were grape juice.  He said simply, "this is the blood of Christ" as we selected a cup.  We ate the bread and drank the cup as others moved in behind us, a rather hurried affair.  Then, as we turned to go back to our row of seats, we noticed to our left a large urn into which people were casually tossing the empty glasses.  This reminded me of the rather clumsy service we had attended in Redmond, WA in 2014.  I found out later from the pastor that he had interned at that church.  The informality is disturbing to me.  Yes, I know the history of how the early church had communion as part of a larger meal of fellowship among believers, but this manner of participation, which we now observe as part of a worship service, distracts from the serious purpose of the sacrament, makes the person an individual participant by himself instead of partaking of the elements together in communion, which it is all about.  And it almost seems disrespectful to the Subject of the feast with so much interruption, walking around and seeing others chatting informally all along the way.

Then the bulletin has a section, AND SENDING US TO LOVE THE WORLD.  The "Sending Song" turns out to be the Gloria Patri.  So much focus on informality and loving the world that I was surprised to see the song to be about giving glory to God.  It would be helpful to put more of that into the worship service, since it is He that we worship.

The bulletin ends with a plea to come visit the church at least seven times to get to know them better.  It is entitled, "What story do you tell?"  So much focus on what we have to say.  Redemption is all about what God has to say to us, if we listen.