It is so rare I get to go back and attend the church I grew up in, that I was baptized and confirmed in and where I first participated in active ministry as a volunteer in youth and social ministry areas, even served on the church council. I was there this past Easter Sunday for the 9am service. We got there about 10 minutes early (its hard to get the boys ready any sooner) and knew we were in trouble by the lack of parking (compounded by the 9" snow fall and plowed drifts taking up 20% of the available parking to start with.
So we got inside and had to wait for the choir to process in at the start of the service (they filled the narthex to the point you couldn't get in). Once they were in, we got relegated to 2nd to last row of steel chairs in the back of the narthex. The was a pole blocking our view of the sanctuary, and also a glass wall and anyone wanting to use the bathroom blocked us as well as the bathroom in the narthex was actually closer to sanctuary than we were. The ushers managed to piece together a few bulletins for those of us relegated to the back of the narthex, and eventually found a few extra hymnals for us.
Keeping in mind we had our 3 and 4 year old sons with us, my wife and I and also my older sister who had joined us, tried to keep them still. This is a struggle even in a pew at our own church towards the front where all the action is, and we knew this wasn't going to bode well. The 4 year old actually did great. He even sat on my lap for most of the sermon and asked me questions about some of the words he heard like "What was a tomb?" The 3year old wasn't up to though. My wife saw in the bulletin that the nursery was availabe and she took him downstairs only to return with him a few minutes later. No nursery on account of no volunteers. The woman sitting behind us (in the very last row of chairs against the back wall of the narthex) said she didn't mind his squirming but if we wanted, she had a key to the nursery and could open it for us. She did so and my wife took the 3year old down and was soon joined by a few other parents in similar situations.
During some of the songs, the speaker in the ceiling above us was loud with organ and that helped us narthex participants to sing in the accoustical nightmare of the low ceilinged narthex, but every once in a while the speaker would short out or switch from stereo to mono or something that caused it to be much softer and our voices would likewise fade to whispers. We made it through and even managed to get communion about 20 minutes or more after they started serving. We then returned to our chairs for the conclusion of the service (benediction and final hymn) only to be blocked by several members standing in the narthex who had come in for the 11am service to make sure they got a pew seat (it started in 20 minutes so I don't blame them) .
In the end, we worshiped. If worship was all about me, I would say that was a horrible experience, but, worship is all about us coming together as a body of Christ to fear and love our God and hear His Word and sing praises to him. Whether I was in a pew in front of the lecturn or in a steel chair in the back of the narthex, I was able to worship, and my sons were able to hear "He Is Risen" and ask about it and hear some hymns of praise and in the end...we worshiped our Lord on Easter Sunday with the whole body of Christ and it was good
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