Pathways to God. Thomas Wiltberger Evans

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СКАЧАТЬ God. In December of 2018, I attended an Episcopalian service at the Princeton University chapel. It was Lessons and Carols and, before it was over, I felt like I had been ushered into the throne room of heaven.

      I have listened to the readings, smelled the incense, and heard choirs and brass many times before. But on this day it came together in such a way that by the end when the procession walked out of the church, I watched them all the way down the aisle, wanting to see the crucifer until she walked out the door because something in that service touched my soul deeply, beyond intellect or reason and beyond human control and contrivance.

      After this service I reflected on the ways other traditions cultivate an experience of the divine in worship. The Baptists have their altar calls and testimonies, the Catholics venerate the host, the Orthodox kiss their icons, and the Evangelicals raise their hands and are slain in the Spirit.

      But since God is divine and active everywhere, I knew that God was and is powerfully and profoundly present in Presbyterian churches, too. In every congregation I have been a part of as a pastor or parishioner, I have known the love of God through that place. I have known people who have life-changing experiences in our churches that have knocked them flat.

      And so, I set out on a quest. I wanted to know what churches can do to cultivate the experience of God in the lives of their congregants and those beyond their walls. And too, since I knew that God was already at work in people’s lives in these churches, I decided to conduct twelve focus groups in congregations from South Carolina to New York to California. And for good measure I took the train across the country and decided to learn from fellow passengers as well.

      1. Augustine, Confessions, 1.1.1.

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