Haddonfield United Methodist

I'd like to introduce the most subjectively beautiful set of church pictures I've yet taken, the church where I first heard the gospel and received it. I realize that such a statement is all too often the preface to a narrative of one's "outgrowing" such a gospel, but no such luck here. The message stuck.

But the imposing pillars of Haddonfield United Methodist Church (above) are not what I associate with that gospel. Instead it is the nearby youth parsonage. The massive Methodist church was where the adults worshiped, but the youth group - we knew it and the adults knew it - was different. We were more enthusiastic, less compromising, more "Evangelical."

Still, it struck me as I took these photos on a quick drive through town, that as much as we in the youth group thought ourselves separate, it was only because of the "establishment" wealth and financial commitment of the adult church that the youth ministry could hire such a gifted youth pastor (Kris Perkins) and flourish. I'm thankful then not just to the youth group, but to H.U.M.C. proper as well. The debt I owe the "adult church" is significant. The debt I owe the youth group for putting me in touch with such a vibrant form of American faith as a teenager (and hence putting me in touch with Christ), is incalculable.

Dallas

I enjoyed a very quick trip to Dallas. The end of this post should make sense of the above picture, not to mention these signs and this statue.

The beautiful brickwork of the Guadalupe Church was one of the more striking cases of architectural witness that I've seen. Dwarfed, it somehow holds its own, whether day or night. Christ in the city again.

The Wren-Gibbs style church at the Perkins School of Theology had a very Renaissance interior. Just up down the road on the spacious SMU campus was the impressive pick your pleasure worship service at the Highland Park Methodist. Very nice woodwork/stucco Gothic inside. This is but a side chapel!