Will Rogers once said he had never met someone he didn't like. I think I can nearly say that about churches. Usually, if I try hard enough, I can find something I like about any church I visit.
Some of you may think that if I'm on sabbatical I may be taking a sabbatical from going to church too. It's true you don't see Caroline and I in church but that doesn't mean I'm not attending somewhere. To the contrary, I enjoy corperate worship and miss it when a week goes by when I don't. Besides, I think a major benefit of a sabbatical is how it allows me to sit in the pew and be spiritually filled or recharged, and I'm taking full advantage of this opportunity.
I have attended six different church services so far. Let me describe these experiences for you. In most cases I will not mention their names (to protect the innocent) but if you try hard hard you may guess who at least some of them are.
The first Sunday we attended a small church in the country numbering about 20 people. We enjoyed the simplicity of the service very much. In some ways it reminded us of the first church I pastored with one glaring difference. While the church I had worked at back in the eighties was made up of mostly older people who had no vision to reach their community for Christ, this church was the exact opposite. This was a fairly new church that was doing everything it could to reach their community. They served a lunch after church and we had a chance to visit with the people. They shared their burden for their community and wished they could provide some sort of child care during the service. They even wondered about offering Sunday School during the service. They had been told by parents of the children who came to their Vacation Bible School that they would consider coming to church if there was something for their children during the service. This was somethng they presently weren't offering but were strongly considering doing in the near future. I hope they continue striving to reach the lost of their community.
The next Sunday we attended a church with about 70 people in attendance. We also enjoyed this service. They had about an hour of singing and prayer to start the service. Then they had a energetic message from one of their pastors. They also had a lunch afterwards. We didn't stay but the people were encouraged that we had come.
The third church we tried was in Winnipeg and was very large. It was Father's Day and they did it up in a big way including the pastor driving in on a "big hog." I think I still haven't fully removed the scent of exhaust fumes out of my nostrils. They had the stage decked out with everything from a Dewalt tool display to moose heads. There was hardly room for the band. They only did a couple of songs to start the service. I quickly discovered why. Right after the singing came a lengthy series of testosterone laced movie clips including Indiana Jones, Blazing Saddles, Rocky, Die Hard and Terminator I, II, III. I'm confident this church has a big budget to put on special effects like these and they seemed to be working, judging by the 2000 odd people in attendance (only one of three week-end services), but Caroline and I came away saying "We'll take the 20 over the 2000 any day!" No lunch was served after church and we walked out without anyone shaking our hands.
The next Sunday we visited another large church in St. Paul, Minnesota called Woodland Hills Church. I described our experience at this church in my first post so I won't repeat myself other than to say we enjoyed the atmosphere in this mega church over the previous week's service. We were impressed with the friendliness of the people in spite of its large size. There was a genuineness about the worship that was refreshing. And they spent a significant amount of time in prayer which we liked. The message was solid, meaty stuff. They showed us that even a purpose-driven church can still provide a service that is truly Christ-focused and edifying.
On another Sunday we visited a church in Steinbach to witness the baptism of Caroline's nephew and his wife. It was a thrill for us to be there to witness something for which we had been praying for many years. PTL!
Today Caroline and I and friends of ours drove out to visit our friend's daughter at a camp she is serving at. We attended the service there. It was very plain and youth orientated.
So there you have a rundown on some of the churches we have attended so far. We found that the people were quite different in each setting as was the style of service. We picked up a few things from most of the services that we thought were worth trying some time. That's a benefit of visiting churches, even churches that are different from what we are used to. We found, while we enjoyed some more than others, that we could worship God in each situation. We were blessed.
