So I’ve been picking back up on my exploration of spiritual communities in San Francisco lately. I’ve still been trying to get to my church in Oakland at least twice a month but I don’t always feel like doing the drive, especially getting stuck in traffic on the way home. Plus I just feel like I want to expand my spiritual community to the city where I live.
So as recap, so far I’ve visited a Catholic church, the Unitarian church, and a Quaker meeting. None have called out to me as a place I want to continue going to. There was a spiritual community (I’m trying not to use names since I don’t really want this blog coming up in google searches) that I went to a few times that I did really like, but they actually decided to close down because they didn’t have enough attendees or money. They were Christian, very open to incorporating other traditions, Open and Affirming, not very ethnically diverse, but both gay and straight. They met on Saturday mornings (the pastors used to be 7th Day Adventists), and the gathering consisted of a lecture, small and large group discussion, and one or two songs to close. In addition to the Saturday meetings, they met once a month and shared a meal and sang worship songs together. I only got to go once before they ended, but it was fun singing old praise songs that I hadn’t sung in awhile. “Shout to the Lord” brings up feelings of familiarity and nostalgia just like “The Old Rugged Cross” and other old hymns do for my dad and his generation. Also, every new moon they met and made vision boards together which I also loved. It was unfortunate that they had to close their ministry, but they might start some other kind of organization in the City so I may see them again.
So then a couple of Sundays ago, my mom was in town and we decided to try a new church. Dan knew a guy from our songwriter’s collective who leads worship at an emerging-type Christian church in the Castro so we decided to check it out. It was in a music venue and the place was packed- probably 300 or 400 people. I was surprised at how young they were- most of them seemed to be in their early 20s (maybe 70% white, 25% Asian American.) After I got over my initial triggering feelings that I was back at Campus Crusade for Christ in college, I was able to enjoy myself. They sang a lot of new praise songs that I mostly didn’t know, but they all sounded kind of folky because of the acoustic guitar and violionist so I enjoyed that. No one was dancing, but there were several people raising their hands. The preacher was funny and didn’t try too hard to be “hip” which is a temptation with all those youngens in attendance. He mentioned a few things that stuck out in my head including, “if you want to use Jesus to back your political party, then please don’t tell anyone about Jesus.” And if you want to use Jesus to keep this City in check, then please don’t tell anyone about Jesus.” So I know the emerging churches are trying to do things different than our parents did, but being Open and not Affirming to the LBGT community is mostly likely a deal-breaker for me so I’d have to ask around to see what their actual beliefs are. Although I definitely didn’t feel like, “oh these are my people!” I could see myself going back there if I needed a place to sing some praise songs every once in awhile.
The next Sunday, I went with Meghan and Cole to the Religious Science church in SF. Meghan had gone several times before since her sister and her partner attend there. It was a pretty small congregation- maybe 30 people in attendance. A simple service mostly revolving around a longer sermon, with a few songs lead by a singer and a keyboardist. The preaching was very good. He preached about many of the “new thought”-ish ideas and ways of living that I am currently reading about (Eckhart Tolle, Florence Scovell Schinn, Abraham Hicks, etc.). He actually reminded me of my old pastor Lynice and even preached on similar topics but with a slightly different vocabulary since it was a religious science and not Christian. They are Open and Affirming, mostly older folks, mostly white, although the pastor is African American. They were all very nice, and overall I think I could go back every once in awhile to hear a sermon to help integrate what I have been reading and trying to practice in my life. But I would need to find an additional place to actually praise God. It felt like more of self-help community than a place of worship.
I don't know if I'm looking for an additional church home that I attend semi-regularly, just exploring for exploring's sake, or if I'll just find little communities that may not fulfill every need (obviously), but that I may pop in every once in awhile to get a specific need met. But I'm having fun and meeting good people, and really didn't know that there were so many church-goers in San Francisco!
