Megachurch!

My old office and I (I should explain I recently transferred offices on campus) went on a field trip today. We went to Mariner's Church in Irvine, California to go over what we will be doing for the upcoming graduation.

I've never been to this church before or any non-Catholic church in a while and I did not know what to expect. I'll just say, "This is a church??" My views on how a church should be clearly differs from the picture above. I am used to a church that preserves the sanctity and the holiness of Jesus Christ. I would say with several Protestant practices this sense of humility and humbleness before God is lost. The Protestant approach in praising God is sought in other ways compared to the Catholic tradition and it has been an eye opening experience for me to see how non-Catholics worship.

Working at a Christian university, I think one of the biggest concepts I've had to learn and accept is that even though Catholics and Christians* generally believe in the same ideas, our practices differ from each other. Coming from a very strong Catholic family, this notion of different practices is a tough pill to swallow. For the most part I don't really like talking about religion since it can be such a provoking subject to discuss. Though it seems like I just can't escape not talking about religion. Religion has become a very integral part of my life and talking about it and learning about other practices has become like learning new cultures. However learning about other countries culture's is a lot more fun.

*I should note: when I say Christian I refer to non-Catholics since Catholics are Christians too. It seems to me a lot of people don't view Catholics as Christians, hence I need to make the clarification.