1: The Prayer Palace

When I saw that the man sitting next to me in the pew was holding a tambourine, I knew that today's experience would be quite different from my expectations.

The Prayer Palace is Toronto's version of a megachurch: with a capacity of 3,000 people, there are larger churches in the US, but it's one of the largest - if not the largest - in Canada.

I always assumed that a church this size would have an impersonal feel, much like the Ikea, Wal-Mart and factory outlets of the large commercial area just up Highway 400 from the church: "Big Box Religion" to go along with the big box stores.  However, it didn't feel that way once I actually got in it.

The second thing that happened once I arrived (the first being that I got lost getting from the parking lot to the entrance to the main area of the church - it IS a big building) was that I was greeted personally by one of the pastors.  After I went in, while I was waiting for the service to start, I watched how people shook hands or embraced each other as they came in.  There was a real sense of community; the atmosphere wasn't that different from smaller churches I've been in... there was just more of it.

I didn't know what to expect in terms of the tone of the service.  The Prayer Palace broadcasts their services on television, but not on a channel I get, so I had never seen one before.  For starters, I didn't realize that the music would be all Gospel.

This was my first time hearing an actual Gospel choir in an actual church service in person, and all I can say is... wow.  The choir and band were crisp, tight and powerful.  For me, the music was the highlight of the service, especially the choir and lead singer.  And it's good that the music was the strong point, because there sure was a lot of it!

Now... as I mentioned in one of my earlier posts, most of my religious exposure in recent years has been to my wife's Catholic church.  But at the Prayer Palace, 45 minutes into the service - when a Catholic mass would be wrapping up - the choir was just finishing the opening hymns.

This led into the first of two sermons by the senior pastor, Paul Melnichuk.  For me, this is when the tone of the service changed.  I don't know how much of it came from what the pastor said and how much came from me reading things into his actions based on what I've heard of him, but the sermon felt much less genuine to me than the hymns and musical worship.

His two half-sermons were fairly heavy on motivation and light on theology (the Bible reading of the day consisted of only two verses, Zechariah 13 verses 1 and 6), but he still seemed well-received.

This turned out to be communion Sunday, so after the sermons, things took a different - and for me, rather disturbing - turn.  I have trouble with atonement theology and imagery, so when they launched into hymns like "There is a Fountain Full of Blood", mentally, I took a step back from what was going on around me.

After several hymns, the pastor spoke again, leading the congregation in communion.  It was then that I witnessed something I'd never seen in person: as the pastor announced that he felt the Holy Spirit was present, a man in the front row started speaking in tongues.  This was followed by a woman who apparently started speaking spontaneously in something that seemed to almost be channelling the voice of God.  For me, someone who's used to staid, dignified Catholic masses to the extent that he's used to Christian worship at all, this was all very strange.

After the sermon, the congregation was invited to "visit" with each other.  This was another time that I was struck by the feeling of community in the place, as a steady stream of friendly people came by, shook my hand and wished me well.  I realized again how mistaken I was that this "megachurch" was a place where a person could rely on the anonymity of crowds.

The "visit" finished, the service turned to the offertory, which was another part of the service that didn't sit well with me.  The pastor encouraged the congregation to "show their love of the Lord" through their offering, and made allusions that their tithes were part of how Jesus' prophecies of a "prosperous church" would come to fruition.  Again, the stories I had read of the pastors may have coloured my perception of this, but I found myself taking it more than a little cynically.

The service closed with an altar call... something else I had never seen before in person.  People streamed down to the area in front of the stage from the pews, and the choir and band launched into another song... one that turned into a medley that lasted for a full hour!  At least, I think it was about an hour - it seemed to be wrapping up when I finally decided that I had to go, scarcely 3 hours after the service started.

All in all, I was struck by the contrast I saw in the Prayer Palace: it was a place full of real, enthusiastic worship from the congregation, but this was set off from what I felt was something possibly less than genuine from the pastor.  The (IMO) macabre and negative emphasis on suffering, blood and atonement was counterpointed with the life-affirming and the aspects of the service that were expressions of (from what I could tell) real joy.

But even with this contrast, none of it was what I expected.  Especially not the music: that surprise alone made the experience worthwhile for me.  While I have mixed feelings about various aspects of the service and the underlying theology, I'm not conflicted about one thing: their choir is a treasure.