Petaluma United Methodist Church

This Sunday (July 10), I visited United Methodist Church at 410 D Street. About 70 members were in attendance. Most of the talk was about their new pastor, Rev. Amy Beth Durward, who just started the previous Sunday.

The Methodists have a long and proud tradition in America. At one time in the 1800s, about one in three Americans were Methodists. John and Charles Wesley started this movement after their awakening in the Oxford holiness club. They were Anglicans, and remained in the Church of England all their lives. The movement they started in the Anglican Church was derisively called Methodism, and their followers took up the term as a badge of honor. Following the American revolution, it was no longer kosher to be part of the Church of England, so their followers here officially became the Methodist Church, and after the Wesleys died, their movement became the Methodist Church in England as well.

Because they came out of the Church of England (Anglican Church), the Methodists have a liturgy, though it differs from what you would find in the Episcopal/Anglican chuch. They also have a bishop, who decides who the local pastor will be.

The Methodist church in Petaluma has a wonderful facility, and I have gotten to know several members there over the years, and so, I enjoyed my visit there.

Update 1

First Presbyterian Church - Resigning Membership

I attended First Presbyterian Church this Sunday (July 3rd) and enjoyed a wonderful 4th of July picnic where I wound up cooking at the barbeque grill.

However, I made a sad decision to resign my membership. Though I was sad about the dissolution of the relationship with their pastor, Dave Weidlich, my decision had more to do with the decision of the denomination to remove the standards for ordination requiring a faithful marriage or chastity in singleness. Though I am sympathetic with this move, and though I believe love should be shown to all, I believe this move displays an imporant move away from biblical standards. I also understand that the new policy will be applied to individual communities as the local congregation and presbyteries feel appropriate. Still, I cannot go along with it.

I am sad because I have gotten to know and love many members at First Presbyterian well. I will continue to visit them in the future, but no longer as a member of their church.

New Life Christian Fellowhip

I visited New Life Christian Fellowship this Sunday (June 26th), which Ron Hunt pastors. They meet at 1310 Clegg Street (though you approach it from Rand Street). That's because they meet in a tastefully converted wharehouse (which many churches now do in this part of California given current real property prices.)

Interior - New Life

New Life began about 10 years ago as a chuch plant by Petaluma Christian Church for the Eastside of Petaluma. It currently has about 500 members (a large membership for Petaluma) who usually all attend its two services. It associates with what is often called the seeker-church movement (or the seeker-sensitive church). This movement promotes reaching the "unchurched," those who have do not regularly attend any church, by avoiding language and customs only familiar to regular church going christians, and aiming sermons at that audience (the unchurched) by focusing on principles to help with practical living (by Christians or non-Christians). (I do know those at New Life who have not previously associated with a church, or who left a church for enough time, so as to be considered "unchurched."

I find many at these churches who previously attended other churches, but who are disatisfied with most organized churches for one reason or another. I find they seem to serve a very useful function in attracting those who are otherwise unsatisfied by churches they previously atteneded, as well as those who are unsatisfied by the churches they currently attend. Though some criticize them as not going in depth in their sermons as other churches do, they tend to in their small group settings, which New Life tends to emphasize.

Overall, I like New Life Christian Fellowship, and have many dear friends there.

Update 1

Petaluma Christian Church

I visited Petaluma Christian Church at 1160 Schuman Lane this Sunday, June 19 (Father's Day). This congregation of about 100 members with a weekly average attendance of around 60 boasts a lively worship and solid Bible-based sermons under the leadership of Pastor Bill Linton. In addition, they held a wonderful Father's Day breakfast which I immensely enjoyed.

Many might not guess this church is one of the oldest in Petaluma, with small groups meeting in homes starting in 1865. After renting some halls, they purchased a building bordered by Western, Post, and English Streets, and expanded it into a church building, and further expanded it over time. Eventually, Petaluma Christian Church sold the building and purchased the property at 1160 Shuman Lane. The old church building is in the process of fund-raising to complete the Poly Klass Theater by the City of Petaluma.

Petaluma Christian Church shares some roots with the Church of Christ in the Restorationist Movement. Starting in the mid-1800s, divisions began occurring within the Churches of Christ, sometimes over musical instruments and sometimes over other issues. Eventually some began using the name Disciples of Christ in preference to Church of Christ, and many started using the name "Christian Church," with the name of the town before it. Petaluma Christian Church comes out of this tradition, though, as I best understand it, it no has formal ties to the Disciples of Christ.

Though they share similar roots, there is a sharp contrast between the Petaluma Church of Christ, with no musical instruments in their worship, and Petaluma Christian Church, which embraces musical instruments in their worship.

Update

St. John's Episcopal Church

I visited St. John's Episcopal Church this Sunday (June 12). St. John has a long history in Petaluma, first established 1856, soon after the town was established. The current church was started in 1890, and dedicated in 1891, designed by Ernest Coxhead. It is an architecturally beautiful building.

I previously wrote that most of the conservative congregation followed Rev. David Miller in breaking with the Episcopal Church and reforming as part of the Anglican Church (St. John's Anglican Church). Those who remained, and others who joined, have reformed as the local Episcopal Church, and now are being led by a new local priest, the Rev. Daniel Green. On my visit, I would estimate the newly reformed congregation to be around 60 (about 30 at the first service and about 30 at the second service, though in summer, it is hard to know how many of the congretation are travelling.) Rev. Green was on vacation on this Sunday, so a visiting priest presided over the services.

Kayleen Asbo, who lead the music at the first service, a contemplative worship time, and who leads a class afterwards, also conducts several interesting lectures that combines art with the study of saints or biblical figures, and also leads Taize services, a candlelight contemplative nightime service preceded by her lectures preceding the service. She teaches at several San Francisco Bay Area institutions including Sonoma State University.

I wrote a small bit about the history of the Anglican/Episcopal Church in my post about St. John's Anglican Church (see the link above.)

First Presbyterian Church - Denomination

I attended First Presbyterian Church on Sunday (June 5th). This time I will focus on the denomination they are affiliated with, the Presbyterian Church (USA).

The PCUSA represents the largest, but not sole, Presbyterian denomination in the United States. Other U.S. Presbyterian denominations include the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA), the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC), the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), the Reformed Presbyterian Church, the Bible Presbyterian Church, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, among others.

The PCUSA has been in the news lately because by a somewhat narrow vote (55% to 45%), it changed language in its Manual of Goverrment which would effectively allow local congregations and Presbyteries (regional governing bodies), to ordain openly proclaiming homosexuals.

Specifically, the language that used to require "fidelity with the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman, or chastity in singleness," has been changed to "joyfully submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ."

Some of my friends have been a bit confused about the news of this vote. They think it means the denomination will start directly ordaining homosexuals. It doesn't quite work that way. As I best understand it, a local pastor has to both be called by a local congregation and ordained by the Presbytery, so that it takes both the approval of the local congregation and the regional Presbytery to ordain an openly homosexual pastor.

Many conservative Presbyterians may leave the denomination over the possiblity of a congregation and Presbytery ordaining an openly homosexual pastor condoned under the standards for the denomination. We will have to see how this turns out, and whether such departures will be offset by others attracted to the denomination by what they view as a more open stance in the denomination on this issue.

St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church

This Sunday (May 29th), I visited St. John's Evangelical Lutheran Church at 455 McNear Ave. They currently have an average attendance of about 35. They are currently undergoing a pastor transition, and thus have a transition pastor, Ted C. Mueller. (Their last pastor, Richard M. Gaub, is seeking a new calling.) St. John's last year celebrated 100 years in the Petaluma community.

Sometimes I am asked why there are more than one Lutheran church in town. (If you might remember, I wrote about Elim Lutheran Church in this blog.) The reason is they belong to different denominations. St. John's is associated with the The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod, while Elim Lutheran Church is associated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. To an outsider, this may not make much of a difference, but for a Lutheran, it can make a great deal of difference.

The Missouri Synod, the second largest Lutheran denomination in America, is generally considered more conservative than the ELCA. More importantly, they are part of the tradition of confessional Lutherans, who adhere to the creeds and other documents contained in the Book of Concord. However, other than that, when you attend a service at either Lutheran church, you would probably not notice any difference, since the services are very similar. In fact, I have many Catholic friends who find the liturgy at a Lutheran service to be very similar to the liturgy at a Catholic mass. Anyway, I enjoyed the service.

I am sure St. John's would appreciate your prayers as they will very soon begin their search for a new pastor to continue their ministry to the Petaluma community, and for Pastor Gaub as he seeks a new calling.