Fifty Acts 4. A Baptist Church.

This was another first for me.  I've never been to a Baptist church before.  I had been to this building before, for a Youth Fellowship service many years before, but I had never been anywhere besides their halls.

It was a warm welcome.  Alittle too warm, as I found myself sitting on top of one of the heating pipes.  I moved forward a row to sit with the hospitable people in the less temperate row in front.  Churches the world over seem to come in two temperatures, too hot and too cold. 

The church itself sits on a hillside, and the layout of the church is dictated by the terrain.  The sanctuary is upstairs, with the halls downstairs.  There is so much of a slope that I thought the two people that served me my cup of tea afterwards were unnaturaly short, before I realised that, once you are in the hall, there's another couple of steps down to the kitchen, so the serving hatch , from their side, is about chest height. I had a chat with one of the members afterwards, and they told me about the plans for making the building a bit more accesible, but it was going to cost a good seven figures for even minor modifications.

I wasn't sure exactly what to expect when I went in.  Perhaps I was expecting more modern music, but worship started with a familiar "Praise my Soul the King of Heaven" lead by the organ.  Later in the service the band lead the music, but they were playing as part of the service, slightly off to one side, and not dominating.  Their take on "Amazing Grace" was a slight reworking of the original, familiar but refreshingly different at the same time.

The regular pastor lead the service, however he handed over the pulpit to pastor from Brazil who was visiting his family in Scotland.  The fact that he didn't speak English was not a barrier to a well delivered sermon.  His daughter did an amazing job of translating, although she may have had a lucky escape.  The regular pastor told me afterwards that in Brazil he is known to go on for a couple of hours.  At 15 minutes or so, he was hardly breaking a sweat.

As I go around churches, I am telling people what I am doing and they are really supportive.  There is an agreement that we are all one church, so it's good that we meet up occasionally to share worship.  Every congregation is different, but we all worship the same God.

Oh, and they make a decent cup of tea.  Never let a tea bag die in vain.

I'm really looking forward to my Sundays now.  I'm meeting some amazing people, all with great talesof their own. I've no idea where I'll end up, next week.