All Is Continuity

One of my favorite things about the church I attend is the benediction at the end of the service.

I never experienced the benediction part of a service having growing up in two independent churches, one more independent than the other, both of which subscribed to Assemblies of God tradition. While some pundits point towards a certain liberalization of Scriptural authority within church function as the reasoning behind a resurgence in mainline denomination attendance, and I agree to a point, I think they are wrong to group all mainline churches into their opinion.

The Calvinist tradition is seeing a bit of a resurgence. The chance to connect with something bigger than the individual worshiper, for example, the extremely rich history of dogma and catechetical sermon structure, is quite alluring. The appeal towards spiritism, as a friend at my church points out, is rather tiresome and borders on heretical. Spiritism as in the search for a mystical union with God and his Spirit during song and praise, especially within the more avid Pentecostal-leaning churches, it almost borders on a search for some kind of spiritual sexual union. As my friend duly points out, some churches lean towards spiritism and others lean towards dogma when the two really ought to go hand-in-hand, because that is where they belong, as evidenced by the Early Church.

Today, Pastor read from Jude:

Now to Him who is able to keep
you from stumbling,
And to present you faultless
Before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy,
To God our Savior,
Who alone is wise,
Be glory and majesty,
Dominion and power,
Both now and forever.
Amen.