Quick impressions:

Relative Size: 8 - BIG

Architecture: Who Cares?

Amen Factor: 8+ (would have been a 10, but no talking in tongues. Note: A '0' would have been a high mass).

Choir: 10+. Best, kick-butt, stompin', loud mass choir in this state. Real Blackatude Attitude. Loved it.

Slickness Scale: Off the scale. (Backwoods cabin-type church = 0). Services taped and broadcast worldwide via TBN. Huge connected video monitors, guys toting network TV-type videocams around, motorized cameras on robotic rails.

Diversity: 4 (0= All one color; 10=total rainbow)

Order of service: Pretty standard - Singing, scripture, sermon, altar call, prayer mixed in.

Impressions:

This is a faith-healing church, or at least it's one of its distinguishing features. More about that in a moment.

Humorous moment: Big foot-in-mouth deal, the kind of thing any of us could do, except we wouldn't be so unlucky to do it on worldwide TV.

Pastor: Jose, would you and your wife come up here, please, and give us your testimony.

[Jose and his wife ascend the stage]

Pastor: Say, you don't look like you're Mexican, what's with the 'Jose'?

Jose: I'm Philipino.

Oops.

Anyway, Jose's wife had a mole thingie surgically removed from her left earlobe. Then it came back. She said 'no more surgery', and a few days after attending New Beginnings for the first time, prayed for the mole to go away. It went away the next day. She felt really blessed. The pastor's sermon focused on the idea that if your faith is strong enough, you can be healed of sickness and poverty. He specifically said there was too much cancer that could be healed by faith, .and who am I to argue? What do I know?

But, I can't wrap my brain around this stuff. OK, Jesus said that people could heal and do 'even greater things' in his name. But, you know, aren't there people who have just as much faith and

who God chooses not to heal? If the one healed is blessed, is the one who is not 'cursed'? Is the one who survives a plane crash have greater favor with the Lord than the church full of people who had a roof dropped on them during a tornado? Maybe God lets some things just happen according to the forces of nature, for purposes we can't comprehend? Does faith always equal healing sickness? Or, does God more often give us the tools to cope with said illnesses?

What I would like to see is someone stand up and say something like, "I have cancer. I have great faith. I prayed for a year to be healed, but it's not happening. That God did not cure me is a miracle because in spite of my illness and apparently unanswered prayers for healing, my faith is greater than ever. This is a blessing worth more than my body getting well." Is this idea NUTS? It can't be an original thought - come to think of it, isn't this the whole point of the book of Job? I think I need to check in with the Jesuits; they're sharp as razors and spend their lives figuring this stuff out.......

Final note: God didn't switch off our brains as a precondition of spiritual faith. Again, I am in no position to judge anyone, but you've got to pick the people you listen to with great care. This pastor considers Benny Hinn [puh-leeze] one of the greatest spiritual leaders on earth. My internal compass starts to spin crazily whenever I see him while doing a channel-flip.

But, that choir - man, it's the best.