Sunday 22 June – Calvary Church, Albuquerque

Charla, her husband Marco and son Micah, pick us up from our hotel at 9.00 am to take us to worship at their church in Albuquerque. Kaileah, their 14 year old daughter, whom we met with Charla on the “rail runner” train to Santa Fe on Friday, is already at the church. She needed to be there early, as she helps to teach the 4 and 5 year olds.

We know that the church will be big, but we are still totally unprepared for the size of the congregation - somewhere between 1500 and 2000 people attending; and the membership is actually several thousand. It's what's called in America a “mega- church”. There are 4 services every weekend – one on Saturday evenings, and three on Sunday mornings. Charla and her family usually come to the 11.00 am service, but because we need to catch a train at 12.10 (lunchtime), they've kindly brought us today to the service which starts at 9.30 am.

The car park is probably the size of the large Asda carpark at Cribbs Causeway retail park on the outskirts of Bristol – it's huge. There's a whole row of spaces marked “VIP – for newcomers only”.

There's a huge modern extension to the “older” part of the church, which was originally used for playing Soccer– Charla tells us that when the church moved there, the astroturf was still down. The church was started in the 1980's in a disused shop, but soon outgrew those premises. The church now owns the present building and the carpark, plus extra land where marquées can be erected for special events, and where they can have fireworks on special occasions. There's also a skatepark for young people (an interesting, innovative way of encouraging young people onto the premises!), another building, a cafe and a huge retail shop selling Christian books, CD's, Christian cards, and gifts (I could have spent several hours in that shop if we'd had the time).

The weather is glorious, very hot, and as this area has a great climate, there is a lot of outside seating in the shade; Charla tells me that on most Sunday mornings, she and Marco usually grab a coffee and then listen to the service outside, where it is relayed on speakers. Interestingly, inside the cafe there are screens – Charla explains that there are bible teachings and services relayed onto the screens during weekdays evenings – so you can come and have a meal in the café and watch the screens at the same time.

“We'll go inside the church today, though,” says Charla, “So that you can see the band.”

Charla is sorry that their usual pastor, Skip Heitzig, is away with Franklin Graham (Billy Graham's son) on a “crusade” in various countries of the world, including Poland and the Ukraine. A lady whom we meet after the service thinks that the crusade may extend to the Middle East as well – an area which is an exploding firebomb at the moment. Skip Heitzig (and the Holy Spirit!) has been driving force in growing this church from its humble beginnings.

“He must have a lot of charisma,” I venture.

“Yes, he has” says Charla, “He simply has a wonderful gift of preaching and teaching. We can spend several weeks of Sunday services concentrating on just a few verses of scripture. Skips's wife is very involved in leading women's groups in the church, too.”

Marco explains that he attends two mens groups each week; he enjoys the fact that he has the opportunity and freedom to discuss issues such as marriage and fatherhood and other topics pertinent to men.

Many people sit outside, to enjoy the service relayed on the speakers; as we enter the church I am totally overwhelmed by the size of the congregation. I am sure Charla is right in her estimate of the number of people here; at least 1500 – 2000. The age range is the whole adult spectrum, including many, many people in their 20's and 30's, and quite a few older people too. There are no children in the congregation, as they have their own separate teaching.

The band of about 5 people, including a young woman singer, are playing on a stage at the front of the church, and the activity on the stage is relayed onto three huge screens; one overhead, and one at each side of the stage. The overall impression, as far as size is concerned, is of a rock concert.

I don't know any of the modern worship songs at all; even the sung version of The Lord's Prayer is to a tune I don't know. Some of the songs are beautiful though; but I feel more like a spectator at a concert rather than a worshipper. In fact, after the service I tell Charla and Marco that the singing from the congregation was mostly very soft; you would expect a huge volume from that number of people if all of them were singing! I think many of them were just listening – but of course that doesn't mean that they weren't worshipping.

Carla tells me afterwards that the service, with a well-known preacher/speaker giving his testimony/sermon, is very different to the type of service they usually have with their own pastor, which would normally involve an in-depth sermon and bible teaching. There are no bible readings in this service, and no spoken prayers at all. There's also no offertory; there are boxes around the church for this purpose. The congregation stands for the whole first part of the service,which involves a welcome, notices, then continuous worship songs, one after the other. After the singing, we are all asked to greet the people around us – now this is familiar to me! The pastor doesn't say

“The peace of the Lord be with you,” and we don't reply

“And also with you,”

and we aren't asked to “pass or share the peace”

but the idea is the same.

The guest speaker/preacher, Victor Marx, begins his testimony. He is very entertaining, with lots of humour, and he obviously has brilliant people skills; he is giving a clear message about the importance of marriage, and of not having sex before marriage, as, in his view, a major component for a stable, violence-free and rape-free society; he explains how he visits young people in prison and in the American equivalent of Young Offenders Institutes and talks to them about this subject. I'm sure he does this well, because he knows how to relate to people, and comes from an extremely troubled past himself ,which enables him to empathise with these young people.

I reflect that the subject of sex before marriage, and of marriage being good between heterosexuals only, is one we would be unlikely to hear spoken about in a Methodist church sermon – perhaps because it's too much of a “hot potato”; is that a good or a bad thing? I'm not sure, but I am left wondering about those who don't fit into into the traditional box. How would a gay/lesbian person feel listening to this service? I guess they just wouldn't attend an evangelical church of this kind.

After the service, Marco and I have a short discussion about a couple of contentious issues for the Christian church. I mention a book I've found helpful, called, “Why bible believing Methodists shouldn't eat black pudding” - a book which helps us to think about these issues,such as women preachers (they don't have them in Calvary church) and gay marriage. We wish we had longer to talk about these important matters; but we do agree on one thing; the most important thing is to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “Love your neighbour as yourself.” as Jesus taught us to do. (Matthew 22: 36 – 40).

Reg says he really enjoyed the service, and the down-to-earth, easy-to-understand testimony of the preacher/speaker. This church has obviously got what it takes to bring people to Christ – enthusiasm, dynamism, ample financial and human resources, an environment which appeals to young and older people alike, songs which young people enjoy singing and listening to, a music group, a preacher/leader who is loved and supported by his congregation, bible-based teaching – and, above all, the Holy Spirit.

Of course, it's not possible to get to know everyone in a “mega-church” in the same way as you can in smaller churches; but there are small groups you can join where you can get to know some of the people really well.

My overall impression? I can't knock this church, because whatever it's doing, it's working; it's a living, growing church. I find it strange that there are no bible readings or formal prayers, but, as Charla and Marco explain, this isn't their usual type of service. Would I personally attend a church of this size? I think at first I would feel lost here, because I am so used to a smaller church – but sometimes it does us good to be outside our comfort zone – and I can't say whether or not I could belong here, unless I tried it for a while. I do feel though that we can learn a lot from churches like this one, on how to grow and change and be a vibrant community, reaching out to others in exciting new ways.

A big, big thank you to Charla and Marco and their family for inviting us to their church, and for delivering us and our luggage to the Amtrak station afterwards. We get there in good time to catch the train to Chicago, where we will arrive tomorrow (Monday) afternoon.