Church in the Round

Today we worshiped at Church in the Round, 784 Griffith Street, Aliquippa, PA 15101, 724.375.5528, www.bishopclark.com, Bishop Melvin E. Clark, Pastor.

Scripture (King James Version):
Jeremiah 1:4-12 –

Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.

See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree.

Then said the Lord unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it.

2 Timothy 3:3-12 –

Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.

Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.

2 Timothy 1:1-5

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,

To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day;

Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy;

When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also.

Bob’s thoughts:

We had looked forward to visiting a Pentecostal church and after a late night (for us) the night before, the later service made sense.

We were welcomed as we got out of the truck and likewise inside. I thought we were being genuinely welcomed, but most of those that greeted us didn’t want to hear anything we had to say and a few tried to rush us to seats without regard to our hearing issues. We had to move a few times to find an area that wasn’t too close to the speakers and even then we still had to use our earplugs throughout the service. It was a big relief to get away from the bass speaker.

Some of the windows are geometric bright colored panels that were beautiful with the sun behind them. There are plenty of comfortable, auditorium-style seats with ample legroom.

I didn’t understand that all the balloons and decorations were for the Bishop’s birthday celebration, which is all the service was about while we were there. The only cross I could find was etched in the glass of what looked like a communion table, stored in the back. I wondered if the man who was escorted in for a short while might have been Bishop Clark, but the photo on the program didn’t fit.

There was great enthusiasm shown by all, but I wondered if it was for the video they were recording. I don’t believe any of the “greatest man of God,” “holy woman,” etc. was meant the way they came out, but I didn’t understand, as a first-time visitor, how much of what we experienced was normal.

There was Scripture read and an offering taken, but don’t know about a sermon or message. There was little way for a visitor to know what was being sung, and no idea of an order of worship to know what would follow.

In my foggy memory, I have worshiped somewhere in a church with similar architecture on a larger scale that was referred to as the Church in the Round or something similar.

On our one visit there were many things left to the imagination…probably much the same as for other first-time visitors. I hope that God will lead us back to a Pentecostal worship service that we might experience Christ’s presence there.

Jan’s thoughts:

I was looking forward to our first visit to a Pentecostal church. How strange that our visit fell on the day the congregation was celebrating the birthday of their pastor. There were purple and gold balloons everywhere and a purple and white mock cake probably 5’ tall in the narthex along with signs on the walls. It was a sight to behold.

Upon arrival we noticed the restrooms were well marked but the rooms were closed due to frozen pipes, so one of the girls escorted me to the ladies room and Bob was given directions to the men’s room.

As we entered the sanctuary a woman was conducting what looked like a Sunday school class. I was impressed to hear her teach that if a believer had a problem with someone, we should pray for them, and I couldn’t agree more.

The biggest thing for us, as is so often the case, was the volume. We switched seats twice in search of a place that was out of the direct range of the huge speakers, but to no avail. We finally gave in and used our earplugs and were able to hear everything much better.

The happy birthday portion of the service involved singing the song of course, along with testimony as to the pastor’s influence on those whose lives he had touched. Several young ladies, the Kingdom Dancers, presented a liturgical dance.

Next time I hope to be able to stay for the message, but my blood sugar was giving me problems and we had to leave after a little more than an hour.

Our prayer for this church:
Lord, we pray you will direct the enthusiasm, that this church might have a powerful worship experience and that they will be drawn to go into the community to serve with that same passion. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.