Well, cue the mission and possible theme track because John Fiper went undercover, not really.

No disguises were used, but Pastor John, you recently attended a mainline church service

here in the Twin Cities.

And I'm curious, and I'm sure there's many others who are curious out there to get a debrief

of your experience and what you saw.

So tell us about it and tell us the circumstances which led you there in the first place.

Since our church has a Saturday night service and my wife was out of town, I was feeling

perhaps especially Vendorsum a couple of weeks ago and decided to go to our church on Saturday

night and then go to a mainline Protestant church downtown Minneapolis.

I think with the goal of education, it is I wanted to know firsthand how those in the

progressive, that's the word they would use, progressive, inclusive, open, mainline churches

actually do their services and partly curiosity because Noel and I had visited this church

years ago and heard the pastor say about Jesus walking on the water and feeding

the 5,000.

He just said flat out in the pulpit.

Of course, we know that those are early, childlike, pre-scientific days and we have grown

beyond that and understand that what was understood to be miracles once upon a time from a more mature

and progressive standpoint are seen as symbols and pointers to God's love and power, not

something that actually happened in history.

So that's what I wanted to see.

Do they still talk that way and how do they do service if they do?

So let me give you six snapshots and the reason I have this here in my mind is because

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