When my older sister was shopping for a wedding dress a salesman told us about a common problem brides-to-be have. He called it "white out", when a bride has tried on so many dresses she starts to forget them and they all start looking the same. I am having a similar problem with churches I visit.
Isn't that the same fun and modern projected background I saw last week? Aren't those ultra trendy sermon slides familiar? Nice, "look I'm young and cool" polo every pastor is wearing. I swear I've seen this same worship team before, young stylish lead singer, older male guitar player, bald drummer, one young female backup singer, one plump female backup singer (to prove we don't care what you look like). Seriously, which church is which!?!
Good thing I've been blogging to keep them straight!
This brings me to church #... what? 5? Yeah, Church #5. This church is super close to where I live. So "whoot!" for that. I had heard that I wouldn't get a very deep sermon at this church, but chose to give it a go anyway. I loved it. I mean it was very similar to the other churches I've visited and the worship leader looked so familiar I think he may be following me around and leading worship at every church I'm visiting... or I use to serve him coffee when I worked at Starbucks.
However, the sermon wasn't shallow it was... homey and comfortable. I felt like it was a devotional time, like when I was growing up and us kids would get up early for “Bible time” with my dad. And though it was easy and simple it was profound. I felt like he had just started talking when he wrapped things up, I could have listened longer.
The whole church kind of gave me this feel, comfortable and easy. Though that doesn't make since becuase the church is really quite large. I enjoyed my time there. It is in the top 2 or 3 churches on my list.
Of course every church has flaws (like not talking to visitors), the most noticeable drawback I saw at Church # 5 was how quick the attendees (ha ha, there has got to be a better term for us) left the service! They closed with one last worship song, but since the pastor had gone over a little in his sermon (I didn’t even notice) the people just rushed out of there ASAP! Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open it up and--what the heck! It is like a stampede what’s wrong with these people?
A handful of others and I stayed and sang the last song. Then I got to the parking lot and saw why the rush. Getting out of that parking lot was like trying to get a 9 year old Meagan out of the Cabbage Patch aisle at Toys R Us… it ain’t happening.
Okay, so now I have a bunch of churches that I pretty much like and all seem very similar, so what now? I have to tell you Church #3/Church #3.0 (see blog entry "Detour") has a leg up on the competition. Their woman’s ministry type staff person sent me and email saying how happy she was that I visited the church and giving me a list of Life Groups near my home as well as the names and phone numbers of those Life Group leaders. She called me too and left a voice mail. I’m telling you if one of those Life Group leaders calls me this may be a done deal.
Anyway, next week visiting Church #1 again with a friend. Until then I’m going to try to sort out in my head what I liked about each church and really cover this with prayer. No church white-out for me!
Isn't that the same fun and modern projected background I saw last week? Aren't those ultra trendy sermon slides familiar? Nice, "look I'm young and cool" polo every pastor is wearing. I swear I've seen this same worship team before, young stylish lead singer, older male guitar player, bald drummer, one young female backup singer, one plump female backup singer (to prove we don't care what you look like). Seriously, which church is which!?!
Good thing I've been blogging to keep them straight!
This brings me to church #... what? 5? Yeah, Church #5. This church is super close to where I live. So "whoot!" for that. I had heard that I wouldn't get a very deep sermon at this church, but chose to give it a go anyway. I loved it. I mean it was very similar to the other churches I've visited and the worship leader looked so familiar I think he may be following me around and leading worship at every church I'm visiting... or I use to serve him coffee when I worked at Starbucks.
However, the sermon wasn't shallow it was... homey and comfortable. I felt like it was a devotional time, like when I was growing up and us kids would get up early for “Bible time” with my dad. And though it was easy and simple it was profound. I felt like he had just started talking when he wrapped things up, I could have listened longer.
The whole church kind of gave me this feel, comfortable and easy. Though that doesn't make since becuase the church is really quite large. I enjoyed my time there. It is in the top 2 or 3 churches on my list.
Of course every church has flaws (like not talking to visitors), the most noticeable drawback I saw at Church # 5 was how quick the attendees (ha ha, there has got to be a better term for us) left the service! They closed with one last worship song, but since the pastor had gone over a little in his sermon (I didn’t even notice) the people just rushed out of there ASAP! Here is the church. Here is the steeple. Open it up and--what the heck! It is like a stampede what’s wrong with these people?
A handful of others and I stayed and sang the last song. Then I got to the parking lot and saw why the rush. Getting out of that parking lot was like trying to get a 9 year old Meagan out of the Cabbage Patch aisle at Toys R Us… it ain’t happening.
Okay, so now I have a bunch of churches that I pretty much like and all seem very similar, so what now? I have to tell you Church #3/Church #3.0 (see blog entry "Detour") has a leg up on the competition. Their woman’s ministry type staff person sent me and email saying how happy she was that I visited the church and giving me a list of Life Groups near my home as well as the names and phone numbers of those Life Group leaders. She called me too and left a voice mail. I’m telling you if one of those Life Group leaders calls me this may be a done deal.
Anyway, next week visiting Church #1 again with a friend. Until then I’m going to try to sort out in my head what I liked about each church and really cover this with prayer. No church white-out for me!
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