Berry UMC

After a somewhat bitter hiatus from the church, I have, shall we say, returned to the flock. Over the last year or so, I'd thought about trying to find a church in the city and I visited a few but it just never stuck. For a few reasons:

1) I'd gotten out of the habit of having Sundays available to go, and I would forget or just had things pulling me in other directions.
2) Urban churches tend to have a skewed demographic of young people. I really like having a mix of ages and generations because I think that's where the wisdom comes from. Most families with school-aged kids and mature adults live in the suburbs.
3) I visited a few, but came away feeling so so.

A few weeks ago, I visited a church called Berry about a 15-20 minute walk from my house, where I had previously been to see a play in the basement. Amazingly, on my first visit someone actually came up and introduced herself to me. She invited me to coffee hour and introduced me to several other people. The church is smallish and old--celebrating 100 years next week, and when I came back the next week they remembered me.

The pastor is a grandmotherly woman with kind eyes and a warm heart, and she started this week's sermon by saying, "I want everyone to just take a moment and think about the deepest desire of your heart this morning. That thing that your heart is just wrapped around right now." She paused and then continued, "sometimes we lose touch with that because we are so busy defending ourselves from being let down." BAM! Hit the nail right on the head for me this morning.

Her husband is a drawing and painting professor at a University in the neighborhood. Considering that, the fact that the Lincoln Square Theatre Company is housed in their basement, and that the music during the service is played by a motley rotating ensemble--guitar, piano, viola, violin, harmonica, and hand drum, it seems to be quite a creative congregation.

At the conclusion of every service there is a hymn that serves to send people back out into their lives. They pause while the ushers go to the front of the church to collect the crates of percussion instruments and walk down the aisles letting everyone take their pick. This morning I reached in and pulled out the first thing my hand touched. It was a plastic shaker in the shape of a cucumber. I was feeling a little self-conscious until I saw the lady in front of me was shaking a banana. The harmonica and the rest of the music wailed as we all sang, and shook, and the pastor and kids danced with tambourines in the front. It's hard to maintain a sour attitude with all that joy smacking you right in the face!