St. James Catholic Church

This Sunday (Feb. 20th) I attended St. James Catholic Church, at 125 Sonoma Mountain Parkway, and played guitar at the 5 p.m. guitar mass, which I do about once a month. St. James is my other home church in a manner of speaking.

I am what is called a cradle Catholic. I was baptized in the Catholic Church soon after my birth, and I was raised in it. I went through First Communion and Confirmation, and served as an alter boy. In addition, I went to a parochial elementary Catholic school, Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Maternity BVM), in Chicago, Illinois, till I graduated from the 8th grade.

I drifted away from the Catholic Church about that time with my parents going through a divorce, and my starting to attend public high school. I later got saved in an evangelical-charismatic church when I was 19, and largely avoided the Catholic Church for many years.

Lately, I have started reconnecting with the Catholic Church, and enjoying many aspects of it, especially its long and rich tradition. As I will be regularly attending the Catholic Church on a regular basis, I will write more about St. James and the Catholic Church in future posts.

Elim Lutheran Church

This Sunday (Feb. 13), I visited Elim Lutheran Church (Elim) at 504 Baker Street with my friend Todd Martin, a member there. Elim organized in 1925, and has been in Petaluma for 86 years. It purchased the old St. Vincent's building (Catholic Church), dismantled it, moved it, and erected it on the current location. In 2008, it had 785 baptized members, with 528 confirmed, and a weekly attendance of 265 at three services at 8, 9:15, and 11:15.

Pastor Tim Kellgren has served at Elim since 1977, for 30 years. Petaluma Ecumenical Properties (PEP) recently decided to honor Rev. Kellgren by naming its next affordable housing project after him, the Kellgren Senior Apartments, to be located on Wood Sorrell Drive. He founded PEP with others in 1978 and currently serves as its President Emeritus. Pastor Kellgren has otherwise been known as an active member of the Petaluma community.

Elim is a member church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the largest Lutheran denomination in the United States, with about 4.5 million members.

After the 9:15 service, I went with Todd to a confirmation class for parents. Parents who have a young teen to be confirmed have to attend a confirmation class on Sunday which covers the same materials their son or daughter covers in confirmation class on Wednesday night. I have never seen this unique approach. Todd tells me it leads to many interesting discussions with his son.

I enjoyed my visit to Elim Lutheran Church. (If you are wondering, Elim is mentioned in Exodus 15:27 as an oasis with 12 springs of waters and 70 date palms.)

New Life Seventh Day Adventist Church

I visited the New Life Seventh Day Adventist Church (now Abundant Life Seventh Day Adventist Church) at 2695 Petaluma Blvd. N. this Saturday (Feb. 5th). Their pastor, Timothy Judson, also serves as the pastor of the Sebastopol Seventh Day Adventist Church, and rotates every other week between both churches.

I say Saturday because, for those of you who don't know, Seventh Day Adventists meet for church on Saturday, not on Sunday. (That is partly why I have not made it there before - I tend not to think of going to church on Saturday.) They meet on Saturday because, for those not aware, the Sabbath actually falls on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. (They consider Saturday to start on Friday at sunset, and continue until Saturday at sunset.) They believe in observing the Sabbath as it was initially instituted in the Old Testament, and, as they believe, it continued in the early Church. (Christians began meeting on the first day of the week, Sunday, the Lord's Day, because this was the day of the week Jesus rose from the dead.) [Other denominations who observe the Sabbath on Saturday include Seventh Day Baptists, the True Jesus Church, the Church of God (7th Day) - Salem Conference, Seventh Day Remnant, and the Logos Apostolic Church of God.]

Adventist history traces back to William Miller (1782-1849) a Baptist layman/preacher. His followers in the 1830s and 1840s became known as Millerites. The service at an Adventist church is similar to the order of service at a Baptist Church.

Christians ask me from time to time if the Seventh Day Adventist ("SDA") denomination is a cult. Though they were often classified as a cult early in 20th Century, they clarified and modified some of their doctrines so that by the mid-20th Century, they were no longer considered a cult, and accepted as being within evangelicalism, though the majority of Christian churches worship on Sunday instead. The SDA has about 16 million members worldwide, with about 7% in America, and fast growing numbers in developing countries.

The New Life Seventh Day Adventist Church here in Petaluma currently has an average weekly attendance of about 25. In accord with Seventh Day Adventist tradtion, they held a potluck supper following their service, which they warmly invited me to share in, and so I enjoyed a healthy meal (they are into healthy foods) and a good conversation with them.