3 Churches
We started our hunt for a new church a few weeks ago. So far we hit three churches in as many weeks.
The first church we went to was an international church. It was small, this will be a recurring theme for our church hunt. A helpful lady showed us where the boys would go for their class and Matt and I made our way up to the main meeting area. They had a live band, complete with drums, bongos, guitars and a few singers. This was a good sign. Worship was an attempt at the modern worship we were used to at Fairfax. The songs were familiar, but the talent was lacking. I know I'm not supposed to judge, but I'm just saying, it was very different from the skill level we are used to. The very cool aspect of worship was our multi-cultural approach to songs. Some songs were in English, others in German and one was both. It was cool to worship in German. I'm sure we destroyed the language but it was interesting to worship in a different language. The regular pastor wasn't there this week, so we heard a message from a sub. He wasn't very good but he did speak to me and I walked away with something to think about and apply to my life. The pastor spoke English and the message was translated into German. This made for a long service. Sentence by sentence was translated before the speaker would move on.
Week 2 we hit the post chapel. Now this was a trip. We walked in and heard great worship songs with a fabulous leader. But there was nobody up front - the worship leader was on CD. This service was a mix of every protestant religion I've ever heard of. We had the doxology, standing for the reading of the word, contemporary worship, hymm worship, candle lighters, and a good old fashioned baptist depression song at the end. If you are Baptist I don't mean to offend but you have to admit the Baptist hymnal has a whole lot of songs about sinning and dying. The service felt like they were doing their best to make everyone get a little taste of their own denomination. The message was just odd. I can't explain it but it wasn't really biblical based and I'm not really sure what I was supposed to walk away with. The kids loved it because it was "back to school Sunday" and they got school supplies and candy.
Week 3. An international Baptist church. This one is in English but people may come from all different places aside from the US. The guy in charge of the closing prayer sounded like he was from Scotland, I couldn't help but look over at Matt and say "is that William Wallace?" Matt had a good chuckle and later on we were yelling "FREEDOM" to each other. It was a young congregation that met in an old Audi car dealership building. That little fact is irrelevant but it looked cool and I thought it was interesting. The pastor was really great. He preached a great message that was really interesting and relevant but not fluffy and topical. He did his homework and it was a great time of learning. Worship was interesting. We sang a hymm or two, and some more modern songs but we sang "Thy Word" by Amy Grant and that was a little odd. That song came out in 1980 -something, but OK. The people were friendly and it turns out that they have a small group that meets at our post every other Wed for dinner and bible study.
All of the churches were small. All of them had some quirky thing about them that made Matt and I look at each other with those eyes that say "really?" but it is a start. Now we just need to decide what we want most in a church and go from there.
The first church we went to was an international church. It was small, this will be a recurring theme for our church hunt. A helpful lady showed us where the boys would go for their class and Matt and I made our way up to the main meeting area. They had a live band, complete with drums, bongos, guitars and a few singers. This was a good sign. Worship was an attempt at the modern worship we were used to at Fairfax. The songs were familiar, but the talent was lacking. I know I'm not supposed to judge, but I'm just saying, it was very different from the skill level we are used to. The very cool aspect of worship was our multi-cultural approach to songs. Some songs were in English, others in German and one was both. It was cool to worship in German. I'm sure we destroyed the language but it was interesting to worship in a different language. The regular pastor wasn't there this week, so we heard a message from a sub. He wasn't very good but he did speak to me and I walked away with something to think about and apply to my life. The pastor spoke English and the message was translated into German. This made for a long service. Sentence by sentence was translated before the speaker would move on.
Week 2 we hit the post chapel. Now this was a trip. We walked in and heard great worship songs with a fabulous leader. But there was nobody up front - the worship leader was on CD. This service was a mix of every protestant religion I've ever heard of. We had the doxology, standing for the reading of the word, contemporary worship, hymm worship, candle lighters, and a good old fashioned baptist depression song at the end. If you are Baptist I don't mean to offend but you have to admit the Baptist hymnal has a whole lot of songs about sinning and dying. The service felt like they were doing their best to make everyone get a little taste of their own denomination. The message was just odd. I can't explain it but it wasn't really biblical based and I'm not really sure what I was supposed to walk away with. The kids loved it because it was "back to school Sunday" and they got school supplies and candy.
Week 3. An international Baptist church. This one is in English but people may come from all different places aside from the US. The guy in charge of the closing prayer sounded like he was from Scotland, I couldn't help but look over at Matt and say "is that William Wallace?" Matt had a good chuckle and later on we were yelling "FREEDOM" to each other. It was a young congregation that met in an old Audi car dealership building. That little fact is irrelevant but it looked cool and I thought it was interesting. The pastor was really great. He preached a great message that was really interesting and relevant but not fluffy and topical. He did his homework and it was a great time of learning. Worship was interesting. We sang a hymm or two, and some more modern songs but we sang "Thy Word" by Amy Grant and that was a little odd. That song came out in 1980 -something, but OK. The people were friendly and it turns out that they have a small group that meets at our post every other Wed for dinner and bible study.
All of the churches were small. All of them had some quirky thing about them that made Matt and I look at each other with those eyes that say "really?" but it is a start. Now we just need to decide what we want most in a church and go from there.
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