I've gone through a lot of churches in my day. I was raised in a Reformed (aka Calvinist) Baptist…read morechurch, attended Reformed/Christian Reformed schools K-12, dabbled with a few different denominations in college and graduate school, did some religious studies in Britain, married a woman with an Eastern Orthodox background, and, other than the church I was raised in, spent a big chunk of my early 20's attending a non-denominational contemporary super church. But I spent several years apart from any church community until last year when I started to attend Emmaus.
I was not unfamiliar with the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod, having a good friend who is an LCMS minister (he performed my wedding). Off and on I had attended Our Saviour in Rego Park, but after several months of not attending and a move to another neighborhood, I tried Redeemer over in Glendale. The irony was that on my very first visit, the pastor there announced to the congregation that he was moving on to take a position with a seminary. But he gave me a call a few days after I visited, and, after discussing my background and interests, he advised me to go to Emmaus and that Pastor Stoudt was right up my alley.
I'm now very happy to be a member of Emmaus. The worship is very traditional - the liturgy, the sacraments, and the old hymns that I've always preferred over contemporary praise songs, but I won't be drawn into the debate over traditional vs. contemporary worship and music.
It's a small and somewhat graying congregation, but everyone in it lives in harmony and love of each other. Being a small congregation, the activities are limited. In the Fall through the Spring, Pastor Stoudt holds Sunday morning Bible study before the service. There are services for several of the more noteworthy church holidays that don't fall on a Sunday, as well as Wednesday night vespers during Advent and Lent. Most non-Sunday and several Sunday holidays will be accompanied by a potluck meal, and I won't lie to you that one of the less lofty things I missed most about being part of a church was the church lady food, which the congregation at Emmaus provides wonderfully. ;-)
Pastor Stoudt is a very, very sharp and well educated man. His undergraduate education is in Classical Studies (Latin/Greek) and that linguistic and historical knowledge greatly enriches our Bible study time. But he doesn't weigh down his sermon with much extraneous knowledge - his preaching is the kind that C.S. Lewis compared to a hot, wholesome, well-cooked meal. Nothing flashy, nothing extravagant, just filling. It's an overused word, but I can only describe his preaching and guidance as "Christo-centric". I've known that word for a very long time, but I now feel like I really can say I've experienced that kind of preaching. Pastor Stoudt may reference current events and politics, but he never preaches on them. Christo-centric means many things, but from Pastor Stoudt, his message is never far away from the essentials: Christ as our savior, Christ as our example, Christ as our support, Christ to whom the Old Testament looks forward, Christ to whom the church traditions look back. I hesitate to use an earthy comparison, but given that the congregation is so strongly German, it's apt. When I first tasted good German beer in a good German restaurant, I finally experienced what I'd always imagined beer was supposed to taste like. Like I knew what it was before I tasted it, even though I never had. Through many churches, I had an idea what Christo-centric preaching was supposed to be, but I believe I've found it at Emmaus.
