{"id":436,"date":"2008-04-15T13:27:00","date_gmt":"2008-04-15T13:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/04\/the-church-hopping-article.html"},"modified":"2008-04-15T13:27:00","modified_gmt":"2008-04-15T13:27:00","slug":"the-church-hopping-article","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/04\/the-church-hopping-article.html","title":{"rendered":"The Church-Hopping Article"},"content":{"rendered":"

The article on my church-going <\/span>immersion journalism<\/span><\/span> <\/span>experiment<\/a> for Relevant Magazine<\/span> is now available in the publication’s May\/June 2008 issue. The article is called “6 Denominations in 6 Weeks: Diary of an Intentional Church Hopper.” It’s accompanied by a photo of a guy in a white dressing gown (about to be baptized, I guess?) and wearing a bunch of “Hello, my name is…” nametags. The names of the different denominations are scrawled on the nametags.<\/p>\n

That guy? Is not me.<\/p>\n

But probably everyone will think it is. Let it be known that I am not a messy-haired, brown-bearded, smiley everyman with flip-flop tan lines on my feet. Here are the first two pages of the spread for reference<\/a> (PDF download). I won’t post the full article until the issue is off newsstands.<\/p>\n

I wrote a little about the experience already in this post<\/a>. Now that the issue is finally available I’ll toss out a few more teasers. Here are some direct quotes from the article…along with the denominational visits that inspired them:<\/p>\n

Week 1: United Methodist<\/span>
The pastor then quotes John Wesley, thus confirming the first of my three Methodist facts. At this rate, I can expect a spiritual awakening by 8:45.<\/span><\/p>\n

Week 2: <\/span>Presbyterian<\/span>
The Methodists prayed “…forgive us our trespasses.” The Presbyterians prayed, “…forgive us our debts.” I wonder if it has anything to do with the expensive cars out front.<\/span><\/p>\n

Week 3: <\/span>Southern Baptist<\/span>
I’m greeted by a Hispanic gentleman sporting a baggy FUBU shirt, gold earrings and heavily tattooed forearms. I’m also greeted by the frail elderly woman in front of me. Friendly <\/span>and diverse.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Week 4: <\/span>Roman Catholic<\/span>
Everyone does this routine — genuflect, cross, kneel, pray — before being seated. Me? I just plop down all Protestant-like. I might as well have been wearing a “Luther is my homeboy” t-shirt.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Week 5: <\/span>Episcopal<\/span>
We alternate between Scripture readings, hymns and prayers from the <\/span>Book of Common Prayer. It’s a challenge to juggle the worship-order handout, the hymnal and the prayer book. I need a third hand.<\/p>\n

<\/span>Week 6: <\/span>Assembly of God<\/span>
The service begins with 20 minutes — yes, 20 minutes — of video announcements emceed by a jokey youth minister who uses the word <\/span>awesome so frequently I wonder if maybe he’s being ironic.<\/p>\n

<\/span>For what it’s worth, my favorite service — by far — was the Episcopal service. My least favorite service was the Assembly of God one, with the entertaining-but-in-the-wrong-way Southern Baptist service a very close second.<\/p>\n

I won’t assume that everyone here is a subscriber to Relevant<\/span>, but if you are — and if you’ve read the article — I’d like to open up a dialog about it. Did my experiences with certain denominations (and an admittedly small sample size) match your experience of the same? What did I miss or get wrong? Care to defend or represent a certain denomination? Comment away…
<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The article on my church-going immersion journalism experiment for Relevant Magazine is now available in the publication’s May\/June 2008 issue. The article is called “6 Denominations in 6 Weeks: Diary of an Intentional Church Hopper.” It’s accompanied by a photo of a guy in a white dressing gown (about to be baptized, I guess?) and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,7,10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-faith","category-religion","category-shameless-self-promotion","category-writing"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Church-Hopping Article - O Me of Little Faith<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/omeoflittlefaith\/2008\/04\/the-church-hopping-article.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Church-Hopping Article - O Me of Little Faith\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The article on my church-going immersion journalism experiment for Relevant Magazine is now available in the publication’s May\/June 2008 issue. 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