A Sunday in Birmingham
Looking at the itinerary for today, Sunday, I was really excited to attend a church service at the legendary 16th Street Baptist that we briefly got to visit yesterday. Coming into the day I had learned a lot about the history encircling the historic church and to finally having the opportunity to attend and actually listen to a sermon and interact maybe with those who were member of the civil rights movement had me eager to arrive at the church. Visiting this church service was more than just a different experience because it was a new place geographically but in the aspect of religion. I grew up in an African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AME Zion) in the south, but had never been a part of a congregation of a Baptist based church. I was very eager to see the differences between what is taught as well as the atmosphere of the church in itself.
Finally arriving at the church I was not surprised to hear the Gospel Choir singing very lively songs and the congregation being majority African American; this is something I am very accustomed to. One thing that was different was that the pastor did not wear a traditional robe, mainly traditionally worn in Methodist affiliated churches. The hospitality from the members of the church was nothing less than what I expected. I had a feeling that the members would be very accepting to our traveling group and even the Pastor made a point acknowledge that we were there to the congregation. As far as the sermon itself, I was very intrigued by what the Pastor had to say but more importantly, the delivery. I grew up in a church where a similar style of preaching was present, but being absent from service at my church recently made me forget a little about how it felt to be empowered by such strong speaker. The Gospel choir selections throughout the service were a very entertaining part of the morning. I love hearing traditional songs sung with a lot of passion such as the member displayed today in their performances.
After experiencing the 16th Street Baptist church in person made me really understand how powerful and valuable that particular church was in the civil rights movements. Listening to the Pastor preach the word and seeing the response he received made it very evident that their church was a very important element of the community members’ lives. I feel that the church is still important to many that were in attendance, but I feel that back when issues such as civil rights we present the church, with a much larger following, the members felt an even closer connection to the church and made it easier to bond together to fight the greater evil outside the church walls.