Wesleyan

This past Sunday my dad and I attended a Wesleyan church. (Dad came up for a visit) It was a much smaller church, with a pretty good balance between kids, middle-aged and younger adults, and older adults. The service started with announcements and then a few hymns out of the hymnal. Then there was an offertory and we sang the familiar doxology that I've sung in many Methodist churches. The pastor then read the scriptures as he delivered the sermon, which happened to be about Peter's first sermon. It was interesting, there was a "pulpit" on the "stage," but the pastor brought a music stand down on the floor and delivered the message from there. Then we received communion, which entailed everyone getting up at the same time and filing though, dipping a piece of bread in the juice (my dad thought it might have been really weak wine, but we weren't really sure), and eating it as we walked directly back to our seats. We then stood and greeted one another, sang a few choruses off of an overhead, and the pastor gave us the benediction. The order of having the greeting time and choruses at the end of the service was definitely different. Everyone was very friendly, and several people told me they wanted me to come back, and one lady even said I should come to dinner at her house sometime! One thing I don't think I've mentioned yet - in every United Methodist church I've been to and grown up in, they always have a time where all the kids come forward and the pastor talks to them, called a "Children's Moment" or Children's time. They also light two acolyte candles. I was once told the flame of the candle signified the Holy Spirit - it was brought in at the beginning of the service to be in the midst of worship, and then carried out at the end of the service, signifying the carrying of the Holy Spirit out into the world. So far in all of the churches I have been to, I have yet to see either of these two practices in a service. I'm beginning to wonder if it's only a United Methodist thing.