People get ready

Macedonia AME Church
Camden, New Jersey
December 16, 2007

 It's raining this morning. For the first time during this Church Visiting Project, Neil has decided to come with me; he is both curious about the church and also a little worried about my safety - Camden is not a great place for an unaccompanied woman to walk around, even on Sunday morning.

We pull up in front of a squarish red brick building that seems to be sitting in the midst of an almost deserted area, but not far from downtown. It is surrounded by empty lots. A few blocks down the street you can make out the outline of an enormous pile of scrap metal, or some other sort of waste. On our way here we have passed blocks of row houses, some of which are only blackened shells - they were destroyed by fire but have not been torn down or replaced. The area does not look promising.

A large parking lot surrounded by metal fencing is next to the red brick building. I don't see a sign on the building, but there is a small street sign in front that reads "Parking reserved for pastor." I look at the building more carefully, and realize that it may have stained glass windows on the second floor, but they are covered with cloudy storm windows or plexiglass. The building may have had a steeple in the past, but at present the roof is flat - very flat. In fact, from a distance it looks as though the roof may be missing.

Frankly, this church has the most forbidding appearance of any I've seen so far. We are still not positive that it is even a church, or if it is, that it is open. Neil offers to walk inside to see if it really is a church while I wait in the car. In a minute he steps out and gives me the OK signal, so I pull the car into the parking lot.

Once inside the doors, everything is better. People smile and motion us upstairs - yet another one of these second-story sanctuaries! (This still seems like such an odd design to me.) We walk up a couple flights of carpeted stairs, and a woman with a welcoming smile offers us a Bible and hymnal, with program materials tucked inside. We find an empty pew, and I have a chance to look around.

The sanctuary probably seats 200-250 people comfortably. The walls are covered in pale wood paneling, and the front wall features organ pipes - although one pipe is missing, which gives it a sort of gap-toothed appearance. In the center of the pipes a cross featuring glowing light bulbs has been hung, and Christmas wreaths hang on either side of the pipes. The pulpit has been hung with purple Advent paraments, and a short wooden rail circles the front. There is a piano to the left, as well as a baptistery and a table holding an Advent wreath.

The sanctuary is not very full when we arrive, but people keep coming in, and by the time the service is going there are probably 65-75 in attendance. I think that Neil and I might be the only white people in church, although I'm not positive. (We discussed this later; I said that I thought there were a couple other white or Latino people, and he wasn't so sure. Do other people have trouble identifying the ethnicity of others the way I do? It's a much more fluid concept than people sometimes think.)

I see in the bulletin that this is Youth Sunday, so I expect that some of the younger members of the church will be leading prayers, taking offerings, and so on. A woman begins to play the piano. Two women in black robes walk up the middle aisle. One steps into the pulpit and says in a loud, cheerful voice, "The Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth keep silence."

We sing a lively version of This is the Day. Then we sing the Doxology, and do a responsive Call to Worship.

The first hymn is Silent Night! On a Sunday morning in Advent! Again! As I indicated in the post about last week's service at the Cherry Hill Seventh-Day Adventist church, I'm firmly in the camp of those who believe in saving Silent Night for the Christmas Eve service. However, I'm sure there are plenty of good reasons for wanting to sing it throughout the season.

The woman in the pulpit announces that the Praise Dance Team will perform. It turns out the team is only one girl, Angelina, wearing a long, flowy white skirt and an interesting blue sweater, with winglike lengths of material attached to the arms. She performs a very energetic and heartfelt dance to a loud, jazzy number. The Scripture reading, Mark 13:28-37, is read very well by a teen-aged boy. He has a terrific voice and good delivery. There was dance at the black church I attended on my first Sunday of this project, too.

There is more singing, more reading, the Gloria Patri, and then a Missionary Offering. Announcements include mention of the two special upcoming services - a Watch Night Service on December 31, and a Martin Luther King Day service. At some point the senior pastor enters, wearing dark robes, kneels in prayer near the pulpit, and takes his seat. That's when I realize that I've met him before, at a conference; he is also a trustee at New Brunswick Theological Seminary in New Jersey, and he was part of panel of trustees talking to us about trustee responsibilities at the conference. This is Dr. Mark Tyler! This is the first time during my year of visiting churches that I've recognized the pastor from somewhere else.

There is an altar call, and more than half the people in church walk up and kneel around the altar to pray, while the pianist plays Have Thine Own Way, Lord. The woman who has been leading most of the service prays eloquently. So many people want to come up front for the altar call, in fact, that they have to take turns.

Pastor Tyler asks visitors to stand and introduce themselves. Neil and I do so, as well as a woman who is visiting from another AME church. The woman who has been making most of the announcements tells us that this is the time to shake hands and welcome people, and that this church likes to hug visitors, if we don't mind. Everyone, and I do mean everyone, walks around greeting everyone else. I have never been hugged so much in any church, even my own! Even the children are not shy about hugging - one of my first huggers is a cute little girl who skips over to give me and Neil big hugs.

When we are all assembled in the pews again, Angelina, the praise dancer, reads an original poem on the topic of striving and succeeding with God's help. Then the Praise Dance Team (this time there are three girls) performs another number. Then comes the regular offering (we have already had the Missionary Offering), which is a little unusual. Instead of ushers walking around with baskets or plates to collect the offering, people walk up front to place their envelopes and money into plates held by volunteers (one man and two children today).

It's 12:10 by the time Dr. Tyler begins his sermon, titled "People Get Ready." The gospel lesson was the story of the wise and foolish virgins, and the point is that you need to be absolutely sure that you are ready to go to heaven.

I can't do justice to the sermon in a short summary. All I can tell you is, it was a humdinger. He made us laugh (lots), he made us cry, and he made us want to come back for more. It was the best sermon I've heard so far in my year of visiting churches, and I have heard some really good sermons. It was a long sermon, by modern standards - about thirty minutes. But it didn't seem too long. And at the end, when Dr. Tyler stepped out of the pulpit and walked down into the center aisle to deliver the conclusion, it was electrifying. The sermon was Biblical, sensible, funny, thought-provoking, and very tightly constructed.

To sum up, I really liked the sermon.

During this year of visiting churches I have been watching for any mention of the upcoming Presidential elections, and Macedonia AME is where I first hear this topic mentioned. It's an interesting reference, too, in the section of the sermon that is about not making assumptions about who is and is not going to heaven. The pastor notes that candidate Obama has admitted to experimenting with recreational drugs in his youth, and says that many people automatically assume that any black man who uses drugs is a drug dealer.

After the sermon, there are a few more announcements - the one that catches my attention is that everyone is invited back next week for a pre-service breakfast, which will be either chicken and waffles or fish and grits. Both sound wonderful to me.

Church members continue to greet us and shake our hands after the service. Neil and I chat briefly with Dr. Tyler; Neil did his field education work in New Brunswick at Reformed Theological Seminary, on whose board Dr. Tyler sits, so they have something in common.





Later I found that Dr. Tyler is now pastor of Mother Bethel AME church in Philadelphia, the oldest church owned by African Americans in the United States. Its history is well told on the church's website.

I'm not surprised to learn that he has this wonderful pastorate. The congregation is fortunate to have him.