Saturday Night Field Trip

When you work for a church, visiting other churches is actually a treat. I mean, when you're on vacation, the "travel day" is usually Sunday, so you don't get to visit a church then. And if you do get to visit a church, it's when they're hosting a conference so you really don't get a chance to see their normal Sunday services...you only get to see a "special" conference hosting side of them, akin to when you have visitors over to your house: They see you after you've spent all day getting ready for them to come over, not when you're simply hanging out.

So, I got to see another local church simply hanging out tonight. They have a Saturday Night service that I'd heard good things about, and I had a free night with an hour and a half to kill. I don't know if what I saw tonight is repeated three times on Sunday or not, but I tend to think it's the same service.

I'd heard that this church had an excellent "worship atmosphere." It was true. After some brief announcements, the lights were dimmed which highlighted the candles and the atmosphere was certainly worshipful. I like this generational trend towards trying to recreate the cathedral-like atmospheres of early Christianity. It's difficult given that most of the church facilities in our area were built for more "seeker friendly" designs, but this church did it as well as they could in their surroundings.

One thing that I really liked ws when a young lady read the historical background of a classic hymn, followed by singing the classic hymn. Sometimes I think it would be best to sing the hymn the classic way, but the modern arrangement the worship leaders had was enjoyable as well. It was certainly cool to sing it having just learned the circumstances of the writing.

The pastor who gave the sermon had a lot of charisma, was young (as was his audience...I'm talking a ton of mid-20's folks. Lots of gotees and shaved heads and backwards caps and hemp necklaces.) and was passionate about his topic. My personal preference leans more toward "teaching" and less towards "preaching" and he was a better-than-average preacher. Easy to like, with lots of stories that related well to his audience, and a desire to motivate his congregation. He had a sharp reference about how Christians have built our own "Christian Hollywood" with celebrities and music stars who we look to to teach us instead of developing a personal walk with God. His main point was effective, too.

I also liked the (to me) new style of "altar call." You know, at the end of the sermon they used to sing a hymn over and over while people walked down an aisle to pray with someone should they have been moved by the sermon and wanted to respond. This pastor told us he was going to pray, and after he said "amen" that those who wanted to could slip out quietly and if you wanted to stay and pray and deal with whatever you could do that, and there would be people down front if you wanted to talk or pray with someone about something that was said. But you certainly didn't have to. It seemed to me to be an excellent compromise for those of previous generations who are comfortable with an altar call with those who are younger who have a different mindset. Young and old stayed. Me? Since I'm not given to the altar call having experienced the majority of my spiritual growth in Bible churches, I left the auditorium...as did about 80% of the crowd. Like I said, it was a nice compromise that seemed to be effective.

I'm glad I went. And I'm glad The Village Church is in our community, too. So, to pastor Matt Chandler and his congregation, it's cool having you as brothers and sisters in Christ. From my visitor's perspective, I think you're being effective for The Kingdom. Like that matters coming from me, but I thought I'd say it, anyways.