I’ve written before about how doing this column/review
takes on kind of an otherworldly feel—even mistakes feel somehow
guided or fortuitous. It’s an occupational hazard of dealing with
the metaphysical, and it happened again this week.
Hunter and I headed out to visit the Living Waters Christian
Fellowship, 155 E. Glendale Ave, Suite 19, Sparks, and ended up at the
New Beginnings Christian Center, 155 E. Glendale Ave., Suite 14,
Sparks. I’ll admit it; we were rushed because of a clothing
malfunction, arriving about 10:29 a.m. for the 10:30 service, so I
guess I was distracted. We were cheerfully greeted by a young lady,
Monica, at the door, and headed straight into the sanctuary. It
wasn’t until Monday morning that I realized I’d ended up in
the wrong church.
The room was fairly small, no décor on the walls, about 100
purple padded seats. There was a projection-styled screen at the front,
a drum set, keyboard and saxophone, a few potted plants, a medium-large
bouquet and a lectern. Elegant in its simplicity, it looked
new—it actually opened on Sept. 16, 2007. About the only thing
that stood out was the fact that there were boxes of Kleenex at the end
of every other row of chairs. I’d done a cursory investigation on
the web of Living Waters, but the vibe of this space didn’t
really match up with my image from the site, which perhaps
should’ve clued me in to my mistake.
Then Associate Pastor Mike Glenn introduced himself to me,
explaining that the senior pastor, Mark Dawkins, would not be there. I
attributed my surreal, fish-out-of-water feelings to the fact that some
of the people I was expecting to see from the website weren’t
there that morning.
The service’s organization was typical non-denominational
Christian: A few songs, performed by the keyboardist and a visiting
saxophone player (who may have been Glenn’s son) rather than by
the congregation, followed by announcements, leading up to
Glenn’s sermon. I’d call the music “smooth jazz
spiritual,” mellow, relaxing and soulful.
Glenn’s sermon focused on the innate authority born-again
Christians have to order their spiritual lives through Jesus’
name. He used Ephesians 1:15 as the jumping off point. The passage
discusses the powers bestowed upon Christ by God, which are in turn
given to Christians through Christ’s death and resurrection as
long as those powers are used in Jesus’ name: “Don’t
think you can run amok and still walk in the authority of
Jesus.”
He made the point that this power refers specifically to the
spiritual realm, drawing from Revelation 12:7-10. “You
don’t have authority over other people,” he said. You have
authority over the spiritual enemies of your soul. I don’t have
authority over Trish to say, ‘Trish, go do this.’
That’s witchcraft.”
There were a few other points. He talked about one-third of the
demons falling into hell after the battle with God and one-third still
living on Earth, and he talked about the husband having authority over
the wife—that led me to believe this is a traditional and
fundamentalist congregation.
Finally, he spoke about the powers inherent in Jesus’ name.
“What’s in a name? What’s in The Name?”
Authority, power, boldness, righteousness, deliverance, salvation and
healing were among the attributes he listed.
“You have all the authority in the name of Jesus resident in
you,” Glenn said. “You have to speak in your authority,
people.”
I consider myself lucky to have stumbled into this small
congregation. This group would have passed totally unnoticed through my
radar if not for the guiding hand of fate. From what I saw, people who
like a fundamentalist view of Christianity and a Bible-based,
charismatic spirituality would enjoy this group.
MUSIC
none
mellow
traditional
rockin’
SERMON
none
thought-provoking
informative
inspirational
FELLOWSHIP
cordial
friendly
welcoming