ChurchSurfer @ New City Fellowship East Lake: There’s a Fire Down There

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Church Experience #47 – December 11, 2011

New City Fellowship East Lake – Chattanooga, TN

Community

Having a collective experience with a group of people is a very powerful thing that evokes very personal emotions.  We all know that.  It’s what the whole foundation of church is based on.  None of this was intended to be experienced alone.  Worship, prayer, fellowship, love, service, sacrifice…while they can (and should) be done alone, the coming together of a family or community of believers magnifies them exponentially.  Jesus even went so far as to say “…for where two or three come together in my name, there I am with them.” (Matt 18:20)  God wants us to come together and experience things collectively.  Collective emotional experiences are more powerful, attractive, lasting…they can warm you right down to your bones in a way that private personal experiences simply cannot.  Have you ever had a mind-blowing epiphany?  How about an extremely vivid dream?  Or maybe an amazing feat or accomplishment that nobody else witnessed.  The first thing you do is look for the closest person to share your experience with…am I right?  So it would stand to reason that when churches come along within a community that capture the essence of that community and people get engaged and engrossed, so much so that it births this growing and developing collective experience with each other and with God that begins changing lives…people talk about it.  Other people hear and want to be a part of it.  People may not even understand it but they can see that there is something to it.  It ignites internal fires that may have been long forgotten or even undiscovered, and when these fires are lit and have a source of fuel to keep them burning they jump out and light other fires and as the Spirit wind blows, the fires continue to spread.  These are the types of experiences that can envelop and impact a whole community.  These experiences become real life stories that we are compelled to tell and share with others.  I’m here to tell this story about the community of East Lake in Chattanooga…there’s a fire down there.

A Fancy Rhino? 

New City Fellowship East Lake sign

New City Fellowship East Lake sign

I’m not sure the exact sequence of events this year that led me to find out about New City Fellowship East Lake, but the two memorable things that inspired me to actually attend a church service there were:  1) attending the New City Fellowship on East 3rd Street and seeing the cultural and racial unity there, and 2) meeting Drew Belz.  Drew works with a few other fresh-out-of-college-guys at a video production company called Fancy Rhino.  After having met up for coffee earlier this year, Drew explained to me that after graduating from Covenant College, he had moved into the East Lake community and worshiped at New City East Lake.  I also lived in East Lake about fifteen years ago and was shocked to hear the passion with which Drew spoke about his beloved neighborhood (my recollection of living in East Lake was being approached to buy crack, weed, watches, or jewelry every time I stopped to pump gas at the little convenience store directly across from the housing projects on 4th Avenue).  So it more than grabbed my attention when Drew spoke about wanting to live there because he thought it was important to be a part of the community where you worship (which I assumed he was contrasting with those who prefer living on the “safe haven” of Lookout Mountain and driving down once a week for church in the “icky” part of town).  I instantly liked this guy…he actually reminds me a lot of me at his age, when I used to do crazy things like become homeless and drive around the country for six months living out of my car so that I could be accepted by street people and share the Gospel of Jesus with them on their level.  He cares about the East Lake community so much that he used his Fancy Rhino resources to produce a video entry (from which I stole the title for this article) for the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise “My Neighborhood Rocks” contest, and of course ended up winning the grand prize for the East Lake Neighborhood Association.  You can understand why, after meeting Drew and also another firecracker-of-a-person in Heather Jones, who works for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Greater Chattanooga, I would want to go to New City East Lake and experience it for myself.  Here’s how it went…

Rebirth of a Building 

New City Fellowship East Lake sanctuary

New City Fellowship East Lake sanctuary

Laura and I walked up the steep concrete steps ascending from the front sidewalk and through the front door of the large brick church that does very little to hide it’s age on the outside.  We entered directly into the sanctuary where we were greeted by the strong smell of woodwork and jazzy instrumental Christmas music coming from the musicians on the stage at the front of the room.  The sanctuary looked to be meticulously refurbished, with lacquered and polished natural wood floors and white walls that still had the old pastel stained glass windows embedded as reminders of a previous era.  Just like its parent church and namesake a few miles away, the New City Fellowship East Lake building serves as a metaphor of Christian rebirth with the way it displays its surface flaws as a sign of character yet has been swept clean by redemptive grace and is now full of jubilant life.  These re-purposed buildings shine with vibrancy and serve as a stark contrast to and argument against modern trends of building megachurch structures with all the latest luxuries and amenities.  This building didn’t even have central heat, but instead boasted old fashioned radiators up and down the aisles on each side of the sanctuary.  Was it shocking that nobody seemed to care or complain?  I spotted Heather among the groups of people spattered around the room and took my wife Laura over to meet her.  She welcomed us warmly and offered to show us around and take us downstairs to the fellowship hall where they were serving refreshments for the children’s Sunday School classes and their parents.  Each room we walked by had few creature comforts and pretty much looked exactly how you would expect a church in a low-income neighborhood to look.  There was a variety of mismatched chairs, chalkboards, old tables, children’s toys, and not much else.  One room had an espresso machine with two people behind it working feverishly to grind and brew cups of deliciousness for a line of eagerly awaiting jitter-junkies (what the room didn’t have was finished walls…their priorities are obviously in order here :) ).  Once downstairs, we looked on as a room full of children and parents fellowshipped over cookies and juice, and Heather introduced us to the Senior Pastor, Jim Pickett.  Pastor Jim welcomed us with the utmost hospitality and spent a short time getting to know us through conversation and listening with marked interest about the ChurchSurfer blog.  We talked until our internal alarm clocks began warning us that it was probably time for worship to begin, so we headed back upstairs for the service.

Cultural Christianity 

New City Fellowship East Lake espresso room

New City Fellowship East Lake espresso room

As worship began, the pews filled in to maximum capacity (much like they had at North Shore Fellowship), which always brings joy to my heart knowing that I am surrounded by a crowd of people who have gathered to worship the King of kings.  The contemporary praise and worship music was uptempo, fun, and joyful.  There was a full worship band with a keyboard, bass, electric guitar, and drums, and a female worship leader with a really big smile and an even bigger voice.  The music felt like it was there to facilitate worship, not be the worship…this is a phenomenon I am pretty sure I have tried to explain before but I can’t remember which article that explanation is in (sorry).  All I can say is that it feels like worship is happening…like hearts and minds are being poured out through song, not just people singing words.  All in all, that is also the feeling I got from the the whole church experience that day.  My exact notes in shorthand were:  ”Church felt like church. Not a production or event, but a gathering of a community to worship and hear the Word preached together.”  After worship, visitors were asked to stand up and be recognized (but not asked to say anything, thankfully), and then there was ample open greeting time for people to walk around and offer handshakes and hugs to the people all around the room.  There was also a time for announcements and a greeting in Spanish for the Spanish-speakers in attendance, which showed that this church was intentionally engaging the Hispanic population in the East Lake community.  We then sang one more hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul”, and then sat as Pastor Jim came to the front to give the sermon for the day.  He began with a few comments about communication and unity between the two New City Fellowship campuses, which included a prayer request for the congregation to pray against division and also against the spirit of “cultural Christianity”, which is so deeply ingrained here in the South and which seemed to be a specific battleground that New City East Lake has chosen to engage (as well as racial harmony).  Pastor Jim then delivered a pretty lively sermon (apparently his daughter offered some critique by telling him he shouted a lot this week), dealing mainly with Jacob’s wrestling match with the God-person in Genesis 32:22-32, and all of the spiritual-life-inferences we can pull from that scenario.  He gave plenty of insight and related much of it back to the issue of cultural Christianity and how we must boldly engage God with our lives rather than stand on the sidelines and “officiate”.  Good stuff!

Generational Unity 

New City Fellowship East Lake church front

New City Fellowship East Lake church front

One thing of note from my experience at New City East Lake was that there was an abundance of young people in attendance.  My exact thought as I looked around the sanctuary at all the teens, twenties, and thirty-somethings in attendance was:  ”If you want to know where all the young people in Chattanooga go to church…I found them“.  The truth is, there are a few other churches that I have noticed this same trend in, and if you have followed this blog throughout the year you will remember reading about them.  My experience has been that young people are flocking to the churches who, like New City East Lake, are taking a stand against cultural Christianity.  Some of the churches are sort of unknowingly doing it without specifically calling it out, but my guess is that if they attempted to define the root issues that have provoked them to arrive at where they are, they would be one in the same.  Generations X, Y (Millennials), and Z (New Silent Generation) are not interested in maintaining the status quo of cultural Christianity in the South.  In fact, they are not really interested in maintaining any type of status quo at all.  They are more interesting in questioning why things are the way they are, and when necessary, exposing the dirty little secrets that they find.  The thing that I believe the younger generations lack, is the ability to create a consensus for actionable change when change is needed.  This is where the Baby Boomers come in.  They were better at enacting change, and this is why congregations like the one at New City Fellowship are gaining momentum…they have united the generations under a common purpose.  None of these people are buying into the complacency and staleness that has become Christianity in the South.  None of these people are satisfied with remaining lukewarm in their faith.  None of these people find fulfillment in simply believing in God and never serving Him.  None of these people will watch silently as the culture around us tells us that racism, sectarianism, bigotry, elitism, materialism, or narcissism can coexist in our hearts with the love of Jesus Christ.  So what is the moral of the story?  There is victory in Jesus!  Cultural Christianity is being exposed for the lie that it is.  If you want life, Jesus said these words:  ”I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).  The life that Christ intended for His followers is one of purpose, action, and power.  It is a full-contact life of wrestling, just like Jacob at the Ford of Jabbok.  I count myself blessed to have been engaged with this type of Christ-following church at New City Fellowship East Lake.

New City Fellowship East Lake fellowship hall

New City Fellowship East Lake fellowship hall

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church: Succession Without Division

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Church Experience #46 – December 4, 2011

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church – Chattanooga, TN

Bucket List

Everyone has things about themselves that they are disappointed in.  Things that you know you should have done, places you should have gone, subjects you should have studied, books you should have read, actions you should have taken, opportunities you may have missed…the list goes on and on.  We are all afraid (maybe to different extents) of coming to the end of our lives and saying the words “I should have ______, but I never did.  I wish I could go back and do things differently”.  Some of the things may seem small and insignificant to us in the present moment, so we keep putting them off thinking that we will have time to take care of them later.  The problem is, none of us knows how much time we actually have left before we move on to the next realm.  Today could be our last day here.  So how do we prioritize and get the things done that we actually want to do?  How do we even identify the things that could be those “Bucket List” type regrets?  I believe that I need to weigh things out by testing them against the Bible and the life that Jesus lived.  What would be a more likely thing for me to say with my last breath…”I should have gone skydiving,” or “I should have spent more time with my family”?  I personally believe the latter is more likely (for me at least).  That is an extreme example, but take a moment and scale that back to situations that are actually a part of your everyday routine.  What would you be more disappointed in missing out on…the latest episode of “CSI:  Miami” or an hour of time praying for the needs of friends and family who you know have major issues going on in their lives that could be healed or solved through God’s intervention?  I think about these things often, and feel pretty guilty about the way I use my time.  Time is one of the resources that we are given by our Creator that we are expected to be good stewards of…just like our physical strength, talents, wealth, etc.  So how can I use the ChurchSurfer blog project (which I believe is a pretty good use of time) to also help me do some other things that are important to me?  I have always had a desire to learn more history, specifically the history of the Christian faith and churches over the years since our Savior’s life, death, and resurrection.  Protestantism and Catholicism are two pieces of modern Christianity that I have already experienced first hand, but there is another that I have left out up to this point.  It’s time to fix that, so I decided to visit Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and begin to explore Orthodoxy.  Here’s how it went…

Breathtaking Beauty 

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church

Neither Laura nor I had ever been to an Eastern Orthodox church before (in fact, the extent of my experience with Orthodoxy was drinking coffee at the Alektor Cafe when I used to live in Nashville), so we really had no clue what to expect other than a notion that it might be similar to a Catholic service, which we had experienced earlier in the year on Easter Sunday.  So with that we showed up ready to see what we might bring away from this new experience.  Upon walking in the front door into the lobby, we saw immediately to our right a table where “prayer candles” were available for a donation, which could be lit and pushed down into sand (I think) that filled a small shrine…an act that was done with the purpose of offering prayers for loved ones.  There were a few people standing in the lobby and we could hear singing coming from within the sanctuary, so we hesitated a little, not sure if we should enter the room while something was going on.  A college student saw us and came over to greet us and ask if we were visitors, to which we affirmed, so he graciously took the liberty to begin explaining what was going on and how we could follow along with everything.  He explained that the priest, Rev. Stavros Ballas, was the one who was chanting Psalms inside the sanctuary, which served as the opening to the service.  The young man pointed out a red book that was inserted behind each pew (just like a hymnal) called “The Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom”, which would allow us to follow along throughout the service.  He welcomed us warmly along with another lady who was in the choir, and let us know that should we have any questions, Rev. Ballas would be more than happy to answer them.  We waited for a few more minutes inside the lobby, and as other people came in and entered the sanctuary, we decided to go on inside and take a seat also.  The sanctuary was breathtaking.  It was a large white monastery-style room with a large decorative dome at the front that was too ornate to even describe.  The inside of the dome ceiling was painted with angels and God the Father with Jesus in the traditional Orthodox style, and below the dome was a golden gate that separated the front of the stage area from the back (which I’m assuming only priests are allowed to enter).  The gate had a doorway on either side and a large opening in the center, through which you could see an altar table with a gold and silver cross and ornaments around it and then almost hidden further behind the altar table was a wooden cross and crucifix.  There was a painting of The Last Supper at the top of the gate, and a few poinsettias and Christmas wreaths adorned the white marble stage, which had golden lampstands, candles, the priests’ podium, and large ornate structures for various parts of the ceremonies.  I sat and thought to myself that I could probably be here all day looking at each intricate detail of the sanctuary and never get bored…it was beautiful.

A Little Hard to Follow 

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church sanctuary

Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church sanctuary

A choir singer began an a capella chant from the choir area, which was hidden from sight in the balcony behind the congregation, and the people in the congregation sang responses in unison.  The voices from the choir echoed around the room, which had architectural acoustics that eliminated the need for electronic amplification.  I breathed in the strong smell of incense and listened as the priest and his assistant (altar boy?) read a Gospel reading from Luke and then an Epistle reading from Galatians.  Laura and I struggled to find our place in “The Divine Liturgy” book so that we could follow along, finally figuring it out about halfway through the service.  What had thrown us off was that much of the service was done in Greek and then repeated in English.  The priest called all of the children to the front for a children’s sermon about Saint Barbara, and after dismissing them went back through one of the side doors of the gate and proceeded out from the center entrance with a golden incense shaker which hung from his hand by a chain with bells on it.  He ceremoniously waved the incense shaker three times toward a painting of Jesus on one side of the entrance and then three times at a painting of Mary on the other side.  He did this routine three times and then waved it at various angles toward each part of the congregation.  The priest then began a procession around the side of the congregation and back down the center aisle with the sacraments for communion.  Standing in front of the first pew, the priest, who was dressed in a ceremonial white robe with gold trimmings that completely hid his arms and hands anytime he lowered them down to his sides, gave a short sermon about how our society lacks belief in the spiritual realm and how most people do not believe in the existence of Satan.  He explained the difference between demons (which are evil) and spirits (which implies neutrality), and how fortune tellers and occultists may believe what they are doing is communicating with harmless spirits when they are actually being deceived by demons.  Rev. Ballas then made a pretty thought-provoking point that I was surprised I had never really considered before.  He said that there is no “source” of evil.  I guess he was saying that in the same way that there is no such thing as “cold” or “dark”, but rather only the absence of “heat” and “light”, the definition of evil would be the absence of good, or of God’s love and His will.  Interesting stuff…I’ll have to look into it further.  I would assume most of us just figure that Satan himself is the source of evil, but it makes sense that he only possesses the power that God allows him and that going against God is evil, which does not necessarily have a “power” or “source” behind it, so to speak.  Communion was served after the sermon, and just like our experience at the Catholic church, it was only offered to those people who were members of the Orthodox faith (which judging from the participation, was less than half of the congregation).  At the closing of the Divine Liturgy service each person in attendance was invited to greet the priest and receive a piece of bread as a gift, so Laura and I did and were able to have a quick conversation with him during that time.

Due Diligence 

Rev Ballas after church service

Rev Ballas after church service

After the Divine Liturgy service, we were invited over to another building for coffee and refreshments (the college guy said “we’re Greek, so there’s always food involved”).  We were happy to accept and enjoyed some Greek cookies, which were some type of shortbread cookie hidden under a small mountain of powdered sugar…delish!  We strolled around the room and said a few quick hello’s and then decided to head home.  On our way out, we were stopped in the parking lot by the priest’s wife and the young college guy and had a pretty informative conversation about the history of the Orthodox church, the Great Schism between Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic, and other ditties of Christian history.  It became apparent very quickly that these issues were still a big deal to those in the Orthodox church.  It is their belief that they have never strayed, parted, or divided since the original churches founded by the Apostles and that they still strictly adhere to the earliest established church doctrine, the Nicene Creed, which was adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D.  While talking to them, it struck me that as Protestants, we (or maybe just me, I don’t know) often take for granted the history of the church and how we got to where we are.  We hear about Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Calvin, but we probably know very little about what, why, and how they did the things that made them historical figures.  As Protestants, we typically go free-wheeling along focused on the here and now,  without any real sense of connection with the original Apostles and the early church that compares to the doctrine of Apostolic succession which is held by both the Orthodox and Catholic churches.  I believe the widely accepted Protestant doctrines of Sola Scriptura (the Bible, not church traditions or interpretations, is the final source of authority for Christians) and Sola Fide (salvation comes from faith alone in Jesus as the Christ, not from good works), but I do not think I have done enough to explore the major differences between Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy as it pertains to church structure, leadership, worship, tradition, and other aspects of doctrine.  I don’t know about you, but I feel like these are things I need to explore and find out.  If I am going to claim to be a Protestant, shouldn’t I fully understand what makes a Protestant a Protestant?  So here’s to what I am sure will be a big part of my Bucket List, New Year’s Resolution, or whatever you want to call it for the year 2012…I will perform my due diligence in researching these things, which at the very least will give me concrete talking points for when I am faced with people who have questions.  May God give all of us the wisdom and understanding to lead searching souls in the right direction…towards Him through faith in His son Jesus.  Amen.

Prayer candles

Prayer candles

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Calvary Church of the Nazarene: Seedlings of the Spirit

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Church Experience #45 – November 27, 2011

Calvary Church of the Nazarene – Chattanooga, TN

There Are How Many…?

When trying to think of Christian denominations that I had not yet visited as part of the ChurchSurfer blog project this year (how many stinkin’ denominations are there anyway?  It is mind boggling!  Oh, and 40,000 is the answer I found, BTW.) my dad offered up the suggestion of Church of the Nazarene.  OK, I am sure I have seen the name before, but was not sure that I had ever known anyone who was a member of a church of this denomination (or anyone who admitted to it, anyway).  I fired up the Google search engine and typed in “Church of the Nazarene Chattanooga TN” and got a list back with a few different options, the very first of which was Calvary Church of the Nazarene on Bonny Oaks Drive, which is not far from where I live (and that always helps because gas is expensive!).  So without doing any research (shame on me) and not really knowing what to expect, Laura and I set out to visit our first Nazarene church.  Here is how our experience went…

Expectations vs. Reality 

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - Chattanooga, TN

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - Chattanooga, TN

Upon pulling up to the small, simple, traditional brick church building that could have been any denomination but in this instance had a sign out front for “Calvary Church of the Nazarene”, I began to fight off the various judgments and expectations that come along with seeing a building like this.  Small + brick + in Tennessee = old men in suits and ties, elderly women pinching my cheeks, and old school hymn music with piano and/or organ accompaniment.  Yes I know…extremely critical…but that was the expectation that had immediately popped into my mind and I did not want it there.  I prefer to go to church without expectations and to reserve the judgments until after the experience (and there is a good reason for that…just keep reading).  So we went inside, spent a few minutes exploring the empty lobby and hallways before heading on in the sanctuary where a few twenty-somethings were preparing the stage for worship.  To my surprise, there were modern instruments on stage and a young lady was sitting at a laptop, which she was setting up to present various slides including the worship song lyrics and Scripture passages to be used in the day’s sermon.  We sat down and I took a moment to survey the room.  It was a fairly typical sanctuary with red carpet and red cushions on the wood pews.  The ceiling had wood beam fixtures and the walls were lined with dark stained glass windows.  The small stage area had a recessed baptismal shielded by a curtain and there were modern instruments set up, including a drum kit, a bass guitar with a solid looking amp, acoustic guitars, and a violin.  My expectations had suddenly changed after seeing all of this, and as we sat and waited for the service to start, several people began approaching us to greet and welcome us.  First the pastor’s son, Andrew, who was in town for Thanksgiving from Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, spent a few minutes talking with us about Black Friday, the Nashville music industry, and college life.  Next, a man named Tommy came by, then the pastor, Mike Campbell, and then his wife Melissa, who told us to “make yourselves at home”.  Wow, friendly place!  Melissa continued to talk with us even after the worship music had started, and by that time the sanctuary had filled in a little and I could see a surprising diversity in ages of the people in attendance.  My “elderly church” theory had obviously been blown out of the water, and as the worship band on stage (which included Andrew) rocked through a few contemporary worship songs, I realized my “hymns and organ music” stereotype had been shot down as well.

Mary’s Example 

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - empty lobby

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - empty lobby

After two worship songs there was an official greeting time which allowed basically every member of the church who had not already welcomed us the opportunity to do so (like I said, these were friendly people!), and then two separate collections were taken up, first a special Thanksgiving collection, and then the regular collection of tithes and offerings.  Pastor Mike then came up to the front and announced that this Sunday was the first day of Advent, which is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition, and a couple from the congregation marked this event by lighting the first of four Advent candles.  Also, as part of the Advent ceremony, the congregation participated in a responsive reading which was then followed by a final worship song that incorporated an updated version of a traditional hymn that had been blended with a contemporary praise song.  Pastor Mike, who was dressed in slacks and a sweater vest and seemed to be pretty down to earth and “relatable”, began preaching in a plainly spoken voice from Luke 1:26-38.  Rather than holding an iPad or any type of new-fangled technology, Pastor Mike went at his sermon truly “old school”, referencing sermon notes on paper from a yellow legal pad.  His message was seeping with sincerity and mostly covered the topic of Mary being a pregnant virgin who was not yet married.  He drew conclusions about what that would have meant in the Jewish society of that time, the many risks involved in her acceptance of this responsibility, and the impact it would have on her life and the life of Joseph.  Pastor Mike then transitioned these points into life-applications for today’s Christians, which included the metaphor that we should be “pregnant with the presence of God” and reproduce into the world.  He then challenged the congregation to explore the entirety of what that looks like, claiming that it is not simply fulfilled with evangelism, but that it is fulfilled in becoming and acting as the body of Christ.  I don’t care who you are, that’s good stuff right there (spoken in my best “Larry the Cable Guy” country accent)!  It was a stormy Sunday morning, and as I sat and listened to the sound of the rain beat on the church roof in the background of Pastor Mike’s sermon, I had a vision of the Holy Spirit washing us clean and preparing us for growth like seedlings in rich, damp soil (which I liked better than the visual image of pregnant men when Pastor Mike was speaking of being “pregnant with the presence of God”).  Pastor Mike concluded his sermon by speaking out about how today’s society pressures Christians to hide their faith in so many ways and how there is a lie of “tolerance” that is demanded of Christians but at the same time not extended to us.  To me, it is like our society is asking for an olive branch under the guise of the “acceptance of alternative lifestyles” (whatever those may be) while handing us a thorn bush in return by quashing any opportunities we may have to pray or speak the name of Jesus Christ in public forums.  This ruse by our society is cowardly, it is unfair, and it is dead wrong, but unfortunately it is also the popular opinion of the day.  God help us!  What people do not realize is that true disciples of Jesus will offer unconditional love and support for people of any lifestyle, while at the same time standing firm that if they desire to be united into the perfection of Christ, it will require their total repentance and surrender to Him.  Here is a video I saw this week that I think sums up that thought pretty effectively and creatively.

Closing Thoughts 

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - sanctuary

Calvary Church of the Nazarene - sanctuary

After church ended Laura and I received as many greetings as we had when it began, including an invitation from Tommy and his wife Sherry to join them for lunch at Sticky Fingers (which I would like to point out is something that has only happened a couple of times this year).  We gladly accepted and had a great time breaking bread and fellowshipping with them and their two sons.  What a blessing to be welcomed so warmly as visitors into the Calvary Church of the Nazarene family and to receive a wonderful message of encouragement from Pastor Mike.  We also received several hand-written follow up letters and cards from the pastor and from others in the church the week after we attended there.  This experience served as a much needed example of how expectations can be so far off from reality, and how acting on premature judgments can prevent us from experiencing God’s blessings in our lives.  I thank God that we got to meet the people of Calvary Church of the Nazarene, and I lift up prayers that just as I had the vision of the rain washing and preparing the seedlings for growth, that God’s Word is received in their church and that through their faith and the work of the Holy Spirit, that many harvests will be collected and presented as holy offerings to the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Christ United Methodist Church: Construction and Instruction

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Church Experience #44 – November 20, 2011

Christ United Methodist Church – Chattanooga, TN

Shame On Who?

I drive by Christ United Methodist Church fairly often these days when I am visiting my parents who live nearby in East Brainerd.  I paid particular attention to a major addition that went on this year (which of course included the union protesters holding the “Shame On You” sign…now a Chattanooga staple) because it brought back memories of when Christ United Methodist was first constructed on the current property at the corner of Morris Hill and East Brainerd.  I was a kid at the time and have some great memories of playing with some of the other boys in the church when it was first launched.  Since then it has grown into a megachurch approaching 4,000 members.  The last time I attended there, the sanctuary served double duty as a gymnasium with retractable basketball goals and stackable chairs that could be cleared out of the way for recreation.  I was pretty sure that would no longer be the case, and the outside of the building (especially the new addition) looked to be more for appearance than functionality like the original design.  I was curious to see all of the renovations and to find out what the church had grown into over the years, so I decided to drop in for one of my ChurchSurfer visits.  Here’s how it went…

Alternative Gift Giving 

Christ United Methodist Church

Christ United Methodist Church

I pulled into the packed parking lot but found a space quickly and headed directly for the new addition to the building.  I walked in and was immediately immersed into a crowded hallway that was bustling with activity.  I saw a coffee station and decided to grab a quick cup to sip on while waiting for service to start.  I noticed a long hallway leading from the new part of the building to the main part, which was lined with display tables for various non-profits and other charitable organizations.  I later learned that this was an “alternative gift market” which was encouraging people to donate or serve for Christmas rather than spend excessively on typical Christmas gifts.  I cannot help but think that if people truly got in touch with the real purpose of the Christmas season that making these type of sacrifices would become more important than spending large sums of money on what our consumeristic culture has turned such a sacred spiritual holiday into.  I finished my cup of coffee while browsing the alternative gift market and then decided to go ahead and get ready for worship.  I had two choices for worship services…traditional worship took place in the main sanctuary, but I opted for contemporary worship inside “The Commons”, which was the new part of the building.  I was handed a bulletin on my way in the room, which was sparsely populated compared to the crowded hallway and lobby just outside.  The room was darker than I would have expected, and I noticed that everyone was seated near the back of the room, so I also stayed close to back also, hoping to engage some people in conversation as I waited for the service to begin.

To Be or Not To Be (Contemporary) 

Christ United Methodist contemporary worship band

Christ United Methodist contemporary worship band

 

I did not have my wife, Laura, with me this week, so I was forced to sit alone and I was not able to engage anyone in conversation.  Most of the people either seemed preoccupied on a destination or task at hand, or disinterested in socializing.  The people who were socializing were already engaged in groups and it would have been awkward for me to try to break in to the conversations.  I was pretty disappointed that nobody approached or greeted me on the way in and that nobody seemed to be on the lookout for visitors.  Since I did not have anyone to talk to, I changed my focus from people to worshiping the Lord, and stood up to praise him as the band took the stage and began to play.  The praise band consisted of two electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and a keyboard, and they produced a loud rock-inspired sound as they blasted through three worship songs with time for prayers and contemplation to absorb the message.  I do not want to sound critical here (and I know I will probably fail) but during this time I was consumed by a troubling thought about churches in our current society.  It seems like contemporary worship has been adopted as an “imitation” by churches who don’t really “get it” but feel like they have to offer it or suffer the consequences of not connecting with the younger generations.  I say this because I feel like the difference between “getting it” and “not getting it” is the act of worship.  At some churches, contemporary worship is expressive and connected.  You can feel it.  The Spirit is at work and compelling people to sing out with enthusiasm and emotion, people are usually moved to either dance or sway to the music and maybe raise their hands, and almost always you can see it in the facial expressions around the room.  At other churches, contemporary worship just seems like singing songs in a different style.  It is just music without worship.  This probably sounds judgmental, and to a certain extent it probably is…but my intent here is to just provide some commentary on what my experiences are like.  I am sure other people feel very differently than me and I would argue that neither of us are right or wrong.  I thought the praise band at Christ United Methodist displayed excellent talent and sincere effort, and I used the time to focus internally and open my heart to God in worship rather than do it externally with expressive worship (which is just a personal preference, not a knock on how they do things at Christ United Methodist).

His Love 

Christ United Methodist - The Commons

Christ United Methodist - The Commons

After worship was over a large projection screen descended and was used to pipe in the sermon from the main sanctuary.  This explained why everyone was seated toward the back of the room and also why it was so dark.  Senior Minister Mark Flynn, a young, hip, well-dressed, plainly spoken man who seemed to be able to connect with multiple generations and cultures, began his sermon with a Scripture reading from 1 Corinthians 12:12-30.  He talked about “holes in the Gospel”, which did not infer that it is lacking anything, but that there are places where we are called to “plug in”.  He used this passage and analogy to convey the message that Jesus Christ began a worldwide conspiracy in which we are also called to be part of something greater than ourselves.  Pastor Mark referenced verses 4-11 to reiterate that every Christian has spiritual gifts, which often go unused, many times because people do not even realize that they are special gifts.  He made a point that was groundbreaking in my mind, because I had never really thought of it this way…that because our spiritual gifts feel so natural and come so easily to us, we often think they are not important and that everyone has the same abilities.  This is obviously not the case though, as he pointed out several types of gifts that are often mistaken in this way.  He then hit the congregation with a few tough, self-reflecting questions that involved considering what happens when 25% or even 50% of a church body does not effectively use their spiritual gifts in service (and conversely, what would it look like if everyone did use them?).  After the service closed I slowly exited the building, hoping that I might be able to enjoy some fellowship and make some new acquaintances.  I was disappointed that it did not happen, but at the same time I was encouraged by the thought that I am not at a place spiritually where I need to feel welcomed and accepted by people to know that I am loved and accepted by my Savior.  I also know that there are others out there who are desperately seeking God’s love and affection and it is our duty as His children to make sure we are examples of His love to them.  I pray that we can look outwardly for opportunities to express His love so that we do not let any of those people down.

Christ United Methodist - Alternative Gift Market

Christ United Methodist - Alternative Gift Market

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Signal Mountain Bible Church: Sunday Morning with the In-Laws

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Church Experience #43 – November 13, 2011

Signal Mountain Bible Church – Signal Mountain, TN

Dun, dun, duhhhhhh……….the In-Laws

It is nearing the end of my year of “churfing” (a.k.a. church-surfing) and there was still one particularly important church that I had not included in my ChurchSurfer visits.  I think you will all agree that it probably would not be fair to visit my parents’ church (for Father’s Day) and leave out my in-laws’ church.  My wife’s parents, Speight and Trudee Overman, and her sister Karen, live on Signal Mountain and are members of Signal Mountain Bible Church.  I have visited there before (of course…gosh!), so this experience was not entirely new to me, but a “must” on my ever-shrinking list of church visits left for 2011 (can you believe it’s almost over?).  Laura and I did not tell them we were showing up…like all the other Sundays this year, we just sort of decided to go and went.  No special preparations or staged theatrics, we just pick a church and go and see what the Lord shows us through our experience.  One of the great things about the church experiences that I have had this year is that I never have expectations.  I may have suppositions about what or how things might happen at certain churches, but I never expect anything to happen a certain way…how could I?  I do not go to these churches regularly and therefore cannot make any presumptuous conclusions.  Why would I do that anyway?  Would that not be saying that God is predictable?  Or even worse, that He is not present and we have become predictable in our churches?  Think about this for a moment…if we are trying to be imitators of Christ, would we honestly be predictable about how we do anything?  It seems to me like the twelve who were closest to Jesus never knew what to expect.  That is why Jesus was always explaining His actions to them.  With unpredictability comes unexpected events, and with unexpected events comes misunderstanding.  If you were not expecting something and it takes you “off guard”, you usually get details wrong and miss the point completely.  Jesus made sure His disciples did not miss the details or the point of anything.  Can you say the same about your church?  Do you go to church each week expecting certain things?  Would you be open to the unexpected?  Do we purposefully create predictable churches out of fear of the unknown or the desire to keep everything “under control”?  Just some good introspective questions that popped into my mind…but now back to the point of this article – Signal Mountain Bible Church.

Completely Natural, Naturally 

Signal Mountain Bible Church

Signal Mountain Bible Church

Signal Mountain Bible Church is off the beaten path in Signal Mountain out on Shackleford Ridge Road.  The church shows a distinctly conscientious construction style that captures and blends with the natural beauty of this region by employing liberal use of stones, natural wood, and earth tones from the outside in.  The sanctuary is painted sky blue, and there are skylights throughout the room to allow whatever natural light is available at any given moment to illuminate and accentuate the wood beams and unique architecture.  There is a recessed baptismal in the wall behind the stage, and to further drive home the natural simplicity of this church, the full extent of their stage decorations were palms nestled on either side.  I found this to be pretty refreshing after visiting so many churches with the downtown Chattanooga “repurposed industrial” feel or the megachurch monstrosities in the suburbs.  Not that I’m a church architecture critic, but I just wanted to point this out because it felt like one of those days where you leave the city and go for a drive on a two-lane country road and suddenly feel the pressures of the world melt away…it was that kind of refreshing.  I know city dwellers love the look and feel of the city (and I do too), but an escape into the wilderness is always more than welcome.

The Fam 

Signal Mountain Bible Church sanctuary

Signal Mountain Bible Church sanctuary

Laura and I went in the church and found her family.  We spent some time in the lobby meeting some of their friends and fellow church members, and then went in and took seats in the back row of the sanctuary so that we could be close to Speight, who helps run the audio and video.  When the worship music started, I immediately noticed that the praise band consisted of more traditional instruments…a keyboard and piano, acoustic guitar, bass, and hand drums.  All of the musicians remained seated while playing and the only people standing on stage were a few praise singers who were leading the worship.  We sang mostly hymn-style songs with commentary and prayers provided by the worship director in between each one, creating a flowing narrative, which like most of the other things Signal Mountain Bible Church does, seemed to feel very steeped in tradition.  After reciting the Nicene Creed as a congregation, this video was shown for Operation Christmas Child which showed the impact this program has had on the children of Haiti.  The congregation was urged to participate and given directions on how to take one of the “shoe boxes” and fill it with gifts for a Haitian child.  What an amazing way to bring joy into the life of impoverished children and open the door to share with them the message of salvation in Jesus Christ.  You do not have to be a member of Signal Mountain Bible Church to participate, so if you would like to support a charitable and evangelical program, go here to “Build-A-Box” for Operation Christmas Child.

What Do Men Say? 

Signal Mountain Bible Church outside

Signal Mountain Bible Church outside

After worship, Co-Pastor Gary Phillips offered the Scripture reading for the day from Luke 9:18-27.  He then began speaking about a family in their church whose four-and-a-half year-old daughter had recently prayed to God for salvation through Jesus Christ.  Pastor Phillips offered up the often debated question about how old you have to be to really understand and be able to accept salvation.  People who are saved as a child often dismiss their decision by arguing that they did not really understand what type of commitment they were making.  Pastor Phillips wondered aloud how much Jesus’ disciples really understood at any given moment as adults.  What happened was that Jesus progressively unfolded His truths to them, which is what happens to a child as they grow and learn and gain perspective on the world and their place in it.  So who is to say at exactly what point you get to that mysterious age of accountability when you can understand salvation enough to accept or forego it.  I am not God so I don’t know, but these are very interesting things to contemplate.  Pastor Phillips spoke from the podium on stage in a suit with a red tie, and his soothing deep voice and point-by-point preaching style evoked the imagery in my mind that this sanctuary was a college classroom and he was the “spiritual professor”.  He further cemented that image as he talked through Jesus’ question to the disciples about “Who do men say that I am?”, and the fact that their responses were the majority opinions of common people rather than religious leaders.  What is interesting is that “Messiah” was not even one of the options they replied with.  Pastor Phillips explained that one of the reasons for this can be seen in John 6:14-15, which shows that the common people were expecting the Messiah to be someone who would become king and lead a war against Rome.  Obviously that person was not Jesus, at least in their worldly view of “king” and “war”.  Pastor Phillips also took the opportunity to research how religious leaders of our time would answer Jesus’ question about who He is.  He spoke about Jewish, Jehovah’s Witness, Mormon, and Islamic views of Jesus and how their opinions fall in line with the answers submitted by the disciples and what the people of their time were saying…that Jesus was a prophet or religious leader, but not God.  Pastor Phillips continued through several more teaching points on sacrificial atonement, what “Christ” really meant to the Jews, and about watershed moments in our own lives.  I felt like this was a church that really received the meat of Biblical doctrine and principles of the Christian faith in their Sunday sermons, which is important because that may be the full extent of some people’s involvement in church.  How will those people ever come to understand the deeper commitment they are called to unless they are introduced to it on Sunday mornings?

Application for Employment

After the sermon, the service was concluded with a traditional hymn and benediction.  As Laura and I spent some more time greeting various people and saying our farewells to the family, I was taken off in thought about the Scripture reading in Luke 9 from the day’s sermon, and specifically verses 23-26.  I had recently been fired from my job (not because of anything I did, but because the company I worked for was bought out by another company who then fired all the remaining employees) and had begun the process of submitting resumes and applications for several job openings.  During this process I applied for one position which said that “applications which disclose religious affiliation will not be considered”.  Wow.  Since when does “professional” mean that we have to leave our personal identity at the door?  I don’t know about anyone else, but I am a disciple of Jesus Christ first and foremost, and being requested to hide that information just doesn’t sit right with me (needless to say I did not follow instructions and also did not get the job).  As Christians should we submit to the world and hide our faith, or should we submit to Christ an proclaim our faith?  I don’t expect everyone to agree with me on this, but I choose to proclaim my faith at every opportunity whether it is deemed “appropriate” by society or not.  So from now on I think the “objective statement” on my resume will read something like this:

My objective is to bring glory and honor to my savior, Jesus Christ, by fulfilling the requirements of Ephesians 6:5-8, which calls me to work for men as if working for the Lord, knowing that whatever good I do will be rewarded by God.  To this end, I will do my best to serve my employer faithfully and wholeheartedly, applying all of my God-given skills and knowledge to perform the requirements of my position to the very best of my ability and without any expectation of acknowledgement or distinction.  If given the opportunity to work for this company, I will treat people with respect and do my very best to show love and compassion to my co-workers and supervisors in all circumstances.  In all aspects of my work and personal life I will seek to display self-control, patience, understanding, and honesty, and to conduct myself with modesty and humility while also seeking to help train and assist others to elevate their work performance through the same commitments that I have made.

So if you are reading this and you are an Executive at an awesome company who would like to have an employee like me, feel free to contact me at josh@churchsurfer.com (shameless plug for a dream job).  Now if I can only live up to that objective!

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Christian Family Church: A Long Overdue Dinner Invitation

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Church Experience #42 – November 6, 2011

Christian Family Church – Rossville, GA

Mass Gatherings

I first met some of the fine folks of Christian Family Church at Jfest 2011, an annual Christian music festival put on by the local Christian radio station J103.  If you are in or around Chattanooga and have had a tough time committing to a local church (and my blog hasn’t helped you out? Gosh!) then I would highly recommend spending the day at Jfest 2012.  I volunteered at a booth at Jfest for a local non-profit ministry, Men’s Ministry Network, and throughout the day I had the opportunity to meander through the rest of the booths, many of which were occupied by various local churches (side note…this was also how I met the people of Harvest Bible Chapel).  Along with Faith and Family Night at Riverbend, these are the best two opportunities (that I know about) to meet and interact with people from multiple local churches all in one place (wouldn’t it be great if we all gathered together more often?).  I have also become acquainted with Clark Thompson this year, who works as the Ministry Relations Director for J103 and also serves with me through Men’s Ministry Network.  Clark is a member at Christian Family Church and spoke so sincerely about serving at that church that I decided to drop in on them to fellowship and worship the Lord together.  Here is how it went…

A Double Dose of South Africa 

Christian Family Church lobby

Christian Family Church lobby

Tucked away in a small commercial center just off of Mack Smith Road heading South from East Ridge is Christian Family Church.  Laura and I pulled up to the storefront that could have easily been missed had it not been for the various banners and signs directing us.  As we walked up we were immediately greeted and engaged in conversation only a few steps inside the front door.  I always like churches where people take the initiative to engage you rather than just offering quick greetings in passing.  Some churches seem like everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere and they do not have time to stop and talk (don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about), so it is nice when people show an interest in actually finding out a little bit about who you are.  While conversing with the first group of people we met in the lobby, Clark spotted me and headed over to welcome us and join the conversation.  He also introduced us to the Senior Pastor, Mark Aitkenhead, who invited us to enjoy some coffee and snacks before the service.  Pastor Mark spoke with a watered down but still distinct South African accent and my first impression of him was that he seemed very humble and kind.  We filled up a cup of coffee and then headed in to the worship area, which was in the adjacent room through a set of double doors.  The worship area was a large open room with white walls and a black exposed ceiling.  Blue industrial carpet lined the floor up to a cleverly built, multi-tiered stage that held a drum kit in the center, a keyboard off to the right, and an electric guitar and bass on either side.  The morning worship kicked off with some well known contemporary praise songs and a few songs that were new to me sprinkled in as well.  The worship was sincere and most of the congregation of around fifty or sixty people seemed engaged in active worship with lifted hands, plenty of swaying and moving to the music, and singing out without reservation.  When worship ended, a man wearing a decorative African-print shirt who also spoke with a (I’m assuming) South African accent presented a short “sermonette” before the offering with references from 2 Chronicles 16:1-9 (which he read in reverse order) and Malachi 3:8,10 with his main emphasis being a rhetorical question, “…are you doing with your money what God expects of you?”  Food for thought.

Hammer or Nail 

Christian Family Church stage

Christian Family Church stage

After the offering had been collected a barrage of jungle sounds and drums accompanied flashing green lights as the children were invited to “Jungle Town”, which is the theme for their children’s church led by the Senior Pastor’s wife, Colleen Aitkenhead.  The kids all headed into the lobby, and could still be faintly heard laughing, talking, and singing in the background as Pastor Mark began his sermon in the main worship area.  Pastor Mark was dressed in an all-black suit with an American flag pin on his lapel, which he referenced more than once, affirming that he was proud to be an American citizen.  He used the term “family” often to address the congregation and I could tell he enjoyed finding creative “real world” illustrations for his sermons as he began preaching about “The Hammer or the Nail” (and he also gave us a CD of a previous sermon entitled “A.N.T.S. in the Brain”).  He began teaching from Mark 10:17-27 and 2 Corinthians 4:8-9 as he formulated his various arguments about how we can either be the hammer or the nail as it relates to God, the world, and the devil.  One particularly convicting and introspective inference offered up by Pastor Mark was about the arrogance of Christians, and more specifically those in the American culture who, compared to so much of the world, can be seen as lacking any sense of humility.  He reasoned that within this American-Christian culture, many of us seek to be the “hammer” to God in order to “construct” the kind of life we desire.  This would be in direct opposition to the Biblical relationship we are called to have with God in which we would offer ourselves as a holy “nail”, or item of use set aside for God to employ for His service.  Pastor Mark blazed through several more important teaching points including backsliding versus eternal security, physical deformity, spiritual gifts, and the armor of God from Ephesians 6:13-20 (at which point Colleen came in with all of the children marching behind her wearing self-decorated paper bag armor and singing “We are the army of the Lord”).  He ended his sermon by presenting this video, which provided a very “get real” moment that visibly touched the people in the congregation.

Invitations

After the service we were engaged just as warmly as we had been on our way in, which confirmed to me that these people were sincerely interested in getting to know us.  It never seemed as if they were “putting on a show” in hopes of attracting some new members, which I have to admit I have felt in several churches I have attended in the past.  Unfortunately some churches can be likened to casinos…they “lure” you in with the pretty lights and entertainment, but once you are inside it becomes less about making sure you leave with more than you came, and more about keeping you busy so that you won’t go somewhere else.  In these churches, relationships and engagement never progress beyond superficial habits into real transformational experiences that lead to a life of committed service.  These churches have no real “equipping process” (I stole that from Men’s Ministry Network, by the way) to send seasoned spiritual warriors out into the world, and instead focus more on inviting the newly enlisted to join their ranks.  I do not mean to be overly critical here, but unfortunately the “competition” among churches for attendance numbers is a very real thing (if you don’t believe me, ask your pastor) and only serves as a distraction to sharing the Gospel outside of the church and serving the local community.  I was impressed that Pastor Mark invited us to come back to Christian Family Church, while also making sure to offer his prayers that we would find a church family period, whether it was theirs or not (at this time he didn’t know about the ChurchSurfer blog and the required regimen of weekly visits to different churches).  One final invitation that Pastor Mark extended to me and Laura was the one that meant the most.  He and his wife Colleen invited us to their home to have dinner with them (she even followed up with an adorable email invitation to make sure we didn’t have food allergies or preferences).  It was not something special just for us…Pastor Mark said that this is something they do for all new visitors to Christian Family Church (or at least as often as possible).  I cannot believe that this was the first time Laura and I have been invited to someone’s home out of all the hundreds of people we have met from 42 different churches this year.  How is that possible?  Just to clarify, we were actually invited over to the home of C’Na Raines (love you C’Na!) for an Abba’s House small group gathering, but this was the very first time anyone had invited just the two of us over for a personal meal together.  To me, it is both disappointing and telling of the society we live in.  People no longer open their homes to others, especially new acquaintances.  I am so glad that there is someone out there in Chattanooga who still thinks it is important to spend time getting to know people on a personal level inside the home.  So “thank you” Pastor Mark and Colleen, and we look forward to breaking bread together!  I hope everyone reading this will consider extending a personal invitation to have someone over to your house for a meal.  A new acquaintance, a close friend who you haven’t been able to spend time with lately, someone you need to get to know better…whoever it is, I am sure it will mean a lot to them, just as Mark and Colleen’s invitation meant so much to me.

If you did not click to watch the video “The Chisel” above, here’s another chance…CLICK HERE.

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

Bonus Photo - Josh & Laura at the MTSU/UT football game w/ mixed emotions

Bonus Photo - Josh & Laura at the MTSU/UT football game w/ mixed emotions

ChurchSurfer @ Living Stones Ministry: Freedom to Worship Freely

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Church Experience #41 – October 30, 2011

Living Stones Ministry – Chattanooga, TN

Don’t Read This

Race is an interesting topic in society today.  It can be controversial, a cause of hate and anger, a story of love and acceptance, or a complete non-issue.  You can look at different races and point out scores of differences and then just as easily come up with an equal number of similarities.  Within the realm of Christianity we are called to a higher standard than society in general when it comes to our view on race.  Our calling is one of unconditional love, just as our savior, Jesus Christ, provided us with the ultimate example.  My point of view is that race does not exist, but culture does.  No matter what pigmentation a person’s skin contains, they will more than likely be a reflection of the culture they have been exposed to for the majority of their formative years.  Of course there are innumerable factors at play here, and probably just as many exceptions as there are inclusions, but for the basis of this article I want to be very clear about how and why I formulate my thoughts and hopefully avoid any offense.  For me, race is not a sensitive topic and I fully believe God has given me the ability to see people as people regardless of their race.  I do see differences in cultures and I will be commenting in this article about my experiences and observations of these differences.  My comments are not meant to be stereotypical or come from any type of bias or discrimination.  They are simply my experiences and observations.  Sorry for the long “disclaimer”, but this week’s church visit brought out some pretty powerful feelings and emotions in me that a lot of other people probably will not agree with.  My wife did not agree with some of my sentiments and became frustrated with me when we were discussing them.  Hopefully I do not frustrate even more people, but instead, my hope is that anyone who reads this will consider why I felt these things from my point of view without interjecting your own point of view into my situation.  In fact, if you would like to get some real honest insight into how you really feel, I would recommend putting yourself in the same situation and make your own observations from your own experiences.  In the end, that is really the purpose of my blog anyway.  It is not for Chattanoogans to live vicariously through my experiences…this blog is an encouragement for you to get out there and have some experiences of your own.  I am just pointing out the obvious…that interesting things are happening all around us in church every week, you just have to be present and open to experience them!  OK, sorry about the rant (not really…but I kind of am…but no, not really).  So if you are still reading, here is how my church visit went this week…

Smooth Vocals 

Living Stones Ministry lobby

Living Stones Ministry lobby

Back at the beginning of 2011 I visited Metro Tabernacle, where I was introduced to a musical group called Sounds of Destiny.  One of the members of this group told me about attending Living Stones Ministry, a local church located on Benton Drive, just off of Highway 153 and Bonnie Oaks Drive in Chattanooga.  I tried to look them up online, but only found a Facebook page, and the extent of their description on there was “Purpose. People. Now.”  Hmmm…doesn’t really tell me too much about what to expect.  The only other thing I could tell about the church was that from the looks of the pictures, it was a mostly black congregation.  I can only assume that black nondenominational churches are as much of a toss-up about what goes on there as the predominantly white nondenominational churches are, so I was looking forward to showing up at Living Stones Ministry to find out.  As we walked toward the building we could hear music already emanating from inside and the entrance doors were pushed open by a gentleman who welcomed us in warmly.  We were greeted several more times on the way through the lobby and as we turned into the sanctuary my eyes were drawn immediately to the stage where they locked on the worship leader, a young man with thick square-framed glasses and a suit.  He constantly remained in motion, crossing from one side of the stage and back to the other while both singing and speaking a flow of praises and prayers.  On the right side of the stage was a trio of musicians on the keyboard, bass guitar, and drums, offering amazingly funky and soulful accompaniment that looked effortless for them.  The song leader’s voice was silky smooth and reminded me of Q-Tip from A Tribe Called Quest.  While the intro worship music was going on we found our way to a pew near the front and sat down and were greeted by a few more friendly faces.  After a few minutes everyone stood for a Scripture reading from Psalm 119:81-88 and then an invitation to take a few minutes to greet people around the room.  We were received very graciously and were given quite a few hugs, handshakes, and words of encouragement…it was definitely a more heartfelt “visitor welcome” than I am used to receiving.

Cultural Freedom 

Living Stones Ministry Chattanooga

Living Stones Ministry Chattanooga

After the greeting time was over the stage filled up with an additional eight or nine praise singers (including a boy who looked maybe twelve or thirteen) and the real worship began.  The music was up-tempo, gospel-based, call and response style singing with the same funky instrumental accompaniment as earlier.  As we clapped, sang, and moved to the music, I could feel my spirit lifted up and an immense joy well up inside me.  I could not contain my smile as I worshiped the Lord alongside the people of Living Stones Ministry, and as the music flowed from song to song without ever pausing, I realized that this was exactly what I needed.  Not that worship has anything to do with what I need.  It is and should be all about God, but when I feel really “connected” in worship and begin to feel the joy and peace of the Lord, I know it is good for both of us.  I am just so thankful that worshiping my God makes my heart glad!  I hope He gets as much out of it as I do.  During this time I began thinking about the differences in worship styles between black churches and white churches (and this is where my opening disclaimer paragraph comes into play).  I personally feel like black churches have a sense of freedom in their worship that few white churches ever attain.  The people (speaking culturally) have no concern about what others might think about them if they raise their hands, dance around, stomp on the ground, clinch their fists, jump up and down, twist and shout, or whatever else they feel like doing.  They just have an unabashed freedom of worship where they can do what they feel like doing.  I rarely see this in white churches and it bothers me.  This is also where my wife and I disagree.  She feels like she gets to that same place in her worship without the outward expression, but she will agree that at white churches people are more concerned about their actions and appearance and feel less “free” to worship expressively.  Isn’t Christ all about freedom?  If we are offering praises to our Savior, why would we care what others think about the way we do it?  He made us who we are.  No matter how bad our rhythm is, how uncoordinated our dance moves are, and how out of tune our singing might be, you can’t tell me they do not mean just as much to God than if they were completely graceful and pitch-perfect.  Heck, our worship might even be more pleasing to Him when it is bad because He knows how much harder it is for us to overcome our fear of ridicule and do it anyway.  I just really enjoy the worship at black churches and wish that same freedom could be experienced at all churches of all cultures.

Closing Thoughts 

Living Stones Ministry sanctuary

Sanctuary - Notice the guy waving goodbye :)

After the worship ended, the pastor stepped up onto the stage and gave a message about leading disciplined lives.  Even though there was a podium at the front of the stage, the pastor rarely stood behind it and instead walked from to side to side on either side of the podium as he delivered the sermon.  He spoke with a pleading voice that fluctuated from soft to shouting and was full of emotion and encouragement at all times.  He pointed out that knowledge was only one tool that is gained from education, and that you usually only retain information for the moment when it is needed such as for a test.  The real benefit of an education is the maturity that is gained from the discipline required to complete it.  He taught from John 11 and offered the illustration that there is a “cave of a dead Lazarus” in each of us, which requires us to do as 1 Corinthians 15:31 states and die daily so that we may be made alive.  When the service ended, Laura and I were quickly engaged in conversation by several people and were invited back to Living Stones Ministry with enthusiasm.  We said our goodbye’s and departed, and I brought up the cultural differences in worship as a topic of discussion on our way home.  You may not agree with my views and may not have any issues with freely engaging in expressive worship, but I know there are people out there who do.  It is my hope that as Christians we are all able to nurture a culture in our churches where no person is more concerned with how they may be perceived by others than with whether they are worshiping God in spirit and in truth.  And on that point I will leave you with a pretty funny take on this topic from Tim Hawkins.

Living Stones Ministry and Bridal Center

Living Stones Ministry and Bridal Center

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ River City Church: Art, Worship, and a Punch in the Gut

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Church Experience #40 – October 23, 2011

River City Church – Chattanooga, TN

Google It

The end of the month of October is upon us, which means there are only two more months left in 2011.  Each time I sit down to write a new blog article now, I think about how many churches I have visited this year (forty!) and how few I have left to visit.  Knowing that I only have ten church visits remaining (yes, I realize that looking at the calendar my fiftieth church will actually be on 1/1/12, so technically I will not visit fifty churches in 2011) makes each decision on where to go more difficult.  My desire is to experience something unique, something special, something completely “of God” each week, which means that just like every other decision I make in life, I must truly seek His guidance and trust in His direction.  I am already thinking about all the writing I will have on my plate after all fifty of my blog articles have been completed…there are a ton of reflections, lessons learned, and discoveries made that I can share (if anyone is interested) which will certainly keep me busy for an unknown portion of 2012.  But without looking too far into the future, I still have an immediate task at hand…church visit number forty.  While searching for a church to visit this week I used Google to do some online browsing.  This is something that I have (surprisingly) done very few times this year, and instead I have usually selected churches by word of mouth, personal invitation, or drive-by.  Google search is, however, a relevant tool that most of us use for finding pretty much anything in today’s world, so I would feel remiss if I did not use it for discovering potential churches to visit.  While browsing search results looking for churches that I had never heard of, I came across the website for River City Church and was immediately intrigued.  It wasn’t that the website was something spectacular (not to pick on them, but there is actually a ginormous blank white space dominating the visible part of their home page), but what grabbed my attention was the place where the church meets…Mosaic Arts Venue.  I work on Market Street in downtown Chattanooga, so I spend a lot of time down there and for me Mosaic is one of those businesses that I always see and am always curious about but never go in the door to find out what is inside.  So I decided to go to River City Church and find out what it and Mosaic, were all about.

Young and Hip 

Mosaic hallway of art

Mosaic hallway of art

Laura and I parked on the back side of the Mosaic building and went in the rear entrance, where we were greeted by a few friendly folks who seemed to be enjoying the morning sunshine.  It did not take long to get a feel for Mosaic…after our first steps inside the doorway we were immersed into a world of art.  A long hallway leading to the main meeting room was lined with paintings and had I taken the time to stop and fully reflect on each piece I would have missed church entirely.  It was definitely a cool way to make an entrance into Sunday morning church, and after taking a few photos Laura and I proceeded down the hallway slowly, appreciating as much of our surroundings as we could.  At the end of the hallway we took a left turn through a doorway into the main room.  The building was exactly what you would expect out of a hip downtown Chattanooga art gallery…exposed brick walls and ceilings, black concrete floors with chalky pastel pink and blue highlights, and a painted black stage that looks like the backyard project of a neighborhood garage band.  The wall behind the stage looked as if Vincent Van Gogh had added his signature “Starry Night” swoops and swirls to it and in front of the stage were rows of chairs with various pieces of stained glass art hanging from chains overhead.  Yeah, it was cool.  In the rear corner of the room was a small bar area with coffee and donuts surrounded by a gathering of twenty-somethings socializing in small clusters.  We helped ourselves to some coffee and were greeted by Jane, who was keeping everything stocked from behind the bar and engaged us in conversation with some questions about who we were and where we were from.  Jane seemed spunky and personable and after a few minutes chatting with her I learned that she was the pastor’s wife.  We told her a little about the ChurchSurfer blog and had a few laughs about whether her coffee and donuts service would increase the chances of a positive “review” in my write-up about River City Church (yes!).  We were offered a few more warm greetings as we made our way toward the front and grabbed some seats, which were filling in quickly.  As I glanced around, it dawned on me that besides the super-cool artsy atmosphere and the amazing coffee and donuts service offered by Jane, what struck me the most was the collective age of the congregation.  I am thirty-four years old, and there may have been five people in the room who were older than me (and no, there weren’t only five other people in the room).  It is a pretty awesome thing to see a room full of young people gathered to worship the Lord!

Dedicated Friends 

River City Church - coffee corner

River City Church - coffee corner

In a place like Mosaic, I would not have been surprised to see the lights go down, the fog machine crank up, and some hard rockin’ emo-style worship kick in, but instead the four people on stage began playing acoustic praise music with an acoustic guitar, a muffled bass, keyboard, and hand drums.  The worship was sincere and powerful, and many in the congregation lifted hands as they sang along with the melodic and soaring choruses that typify modern praise songs.  After a few songs Pastor Martin Scott welcomed everyone and began stalling from the floor in front of the stage.  He was dressed casually in jeans and a plaid short sleeve shirt, and seemed very grounded and amiable, and maybe a little scattered (which I think is common among pastors, but also endearing) as he clipped on his microphone and gathered himself before launching into his sermon.  He taught from the Scriptures in Mark 2:1-12 and began with a juxtaposition of the “real” Jesus versus a “fake” Jesus.  He explained that a fake Jesus is a thing which we ask God for in prayer and then ignore Him when we receive it.  Our root desire of a fake Jesus is normally money, power, or sexuality, and though we may fully believe or convince ourselves that God wants us to have these things (or even worse, that we deserve these things), they quickly become our idols when we get them and God falls into the background of our lives until we desire something else.  As a side note here, I was recently reading Psalm 115, which gave me a great reinforcement to this sermon and had me contemplating what the truth is of the “blessings” and “increase” that are mentioned, but I’ll save that discussion for another time.  Pastor Martin continued to teach through Mark 2, with the most poignant subject being the dedication of the paralytics’ friends, who would stop at nothing (even digging through the roof of the house, in verse 4) to get their companion to Jesus.  His next question came like a punch in the gut when you’re not expecting it…”what does it take to stop you from bringing a friend to Jesus?”  Ouch!  I will be the first to admit that I have been too quick to back off from unbelieving friends, making excuses like “I’ll just continue to love them and try to attract them to Christ through my example,” which if I’m being honest with myself, really means “I’ll just continue to hang out and have fun with them and hope for the best.”  Not sure how I can justify that one, when Romans 10:17 pretty plainly states “So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ”.  Had God left it up to me to seek Him, I would be sitting here today a dead man.  Thank God He continued to pursue me and did not stop when I ignored Him the first time.  Oh, that I might be His faithful servant and do the same for my friends by serving them and continuing to share the Good News with them often, for that is the love and the example of Christ.

Closing Thoughts 

River City Church - stage and seating

River City Church - stage and seating

After the sermon we sang a couple more worship songs and then prepared for communion with an exhortation from Pastor Martin for everyone in attendance to examine their hearts before taking part.  The communion experience at River City Church was very unique.  Two communion stations were set up at the front and people were asked to come up in small groups (ten or so per group), and then form a circle.  The bread and wine were passed around the circle and each person broke off a piece and then dipped it in the chalice.  After everyone in the group had a piece of dipped bread in hand, they ate it and then the circle drew in close so that everyone could place their hands on the shoulders of the people to either side while the pastor or church elder prayed over them.  I enjoyed the group focus of the communion and I still had the opportunity to pray silently from my own heart when I returned to my seat.  After the service ended, Laura and I hung around for a short time for more conversation with Pastor Martin and some other people we had met.  I left the service with joy in my heart for the new friends I had made and a strong desire to be a better friend to some of the ones I already have.  I hope I can be a faithful and loving friend.

Jane Scott - the best coffee bar attendant around

Jane Scott - the best coffee bar attendant around

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ The Well – Hixson First Baptist Church: In Spirit and Truth

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Church Experience #39 – October 5, 2011

The Well – Hixson First Baptist Church – Hixson, TN

Facebook, Football, and Church

A weird thing happened late at night on Tuesday (or actually early in the morning on Wednesday) of last week.  Just after midnight I was hanging out at home evaluating what went wrong with my latest fantasy football defeat (after starting the season 2-4 I may get some retribution this week against my wife) and before calling it a night, I took one last glance at Facebook and noticed a new post on the ChurchSurfer Page.  It was from “The Well” and it read, “We would like to invite you to our launch tomorrow night at Hixson First Baptist starting at 6:30. Hope to see you there.”  What are you people thinking?  I only agreed to go to church once a week this year on Sundays (and a Saturday at a Seventh Day Adventist Church).  I never said anything about weekday services.  Gosh!  And why would anyone think that I would be interested in a launch service?  And why would there be a service at a Baptist church called The Well?  And now that I’m interested, why would someone invite me to something without giving me any details like it was some kind of cool mysterious church thing that was going to happen?  OK, OK, you got me!  Not to mention we were planning on going to the Tennessee vs. Georgia game at Neyland Stadium in Knoxville (thanks again for the tickets Chip & Carol) that just so happened to be a Saturday night game and this would prevent me from looking like a zombie in church on Sunday morning after getting home around 2:00 a.m.  And by the way, Jesus is my life, Christianity is my faith, and Tennessee Volunteer football is my religion (I’m pretty sure I just lost a lot of readers with that statement, for multiple reasons).  Now back to The Well…so I got this odd Facebook invitation after midnight on the night before the launch service.  Sounds interesting, don’t you think?  Well, here is how it went…

Not Just a Church Service 

Hixson First Baptist Church

Hixson First Baptist Church

Laura and I pulled up to Hixson First Baptist Church into what looked to be a pretty good-sized crowd for a Wednesday night service (of course I really don’t have any frame of reference because I only go to church on Sundays, remember?).  We approached the entrance, which was flanked on both sides by some giggling teenage girls (every church has them), so I stopped to have my picture taken with two of them and then we proceeded on inside.  We mingled around in the lobby for a few minutes and met Justin, the Youth Pastor, as well as a few other people and then decided to go on into the sanctuary.  The room was pretty typical of clean and simple modern church architecture with rows of traditional wood pews both face-on toward the center of the stage and flanked at angles on either side.  There was a vacant orchestra area to the right of the stage with music stands and instruments that gave me a clue of what the Sunday service music consisted of, but for this service there was a four-piece praise band set up on stage surrounded by speaker stacks and decorative blocks lit up by multi-colored lights.  Justin, the Youth Pastor, came up to the front and offered a short explanation of what the vision for The Well was, stating that this was not just a Wednesday night service, but would also take shape into small groups, local outreach, and global missions.  Justin led the congregation in a prayer and also offered encouragement by explaining that there were church members in another room praying for this new ministry as it was happening.  The praise band, whose lead singer spoke with an Australian accent, took the lead and launched into some rockin’ Christian-radio-style praise music and souped-up versions of well known hymns.  After singing a few songs with times for prayer and meditational worship mixed in, the pastor came up to begin the sermon.

In Spirit and In Truth 

Me with two of The Well's giggling teenage girls

Me with two of The Well's giggling teenage girls

Senior Pastor Myron Wilkins began preaching from a stool on stage, telling a story about growing up in an inner city African-American Methodist church and remembering a time when a mostly white church invited in various groups for a multi-cultural worship service.  He recounted how beginning with the white church choir and then progressing into music from the black gospel choir, the energy began to get amped up and up, finally culminating with a Latin salsa band that had people dancing.  He noted how each of the styles of these worship groups may have been different but they all lifted up the King of kings.  Pastor Myron related this story to his Scripture teaching for the evening, John 4:19-24, and how the Samaritan woman had been told by Jews that worship should take place in Jerusalem not on the mountain which the Samaritans typically worshiped.  We do that a lot in today’s Christian world don’t we?  It really seems to be my experience that worship style is probably one of the top two divisive factors in the Christian church along with doctrinal beliefs.  It is truly dumbfounding to me that worship can divide us.  We actually have the nerve to tell people that they are not worshiping God to our liking.  Think about that.  I have heard numerous stories about churches who have lost members because they changed the style of their worship music…or even worse, I have heard stories about churches who chose not to change their worship music for fear of a member exodus.  Seems pretty fickle, eh?  Now don’t get me wrong, there are extreme circumstances where people actually may be incorporating sinful or unbiblical acts into their worship, and those instances should judged and dealt with as we are instructed in the New Testament, but in those rare cases we are not talking about adding electric instruments or switching to praise songs from hymns.  When you get down to the root of it, are not all of those types of disagreements more about us than anything?  Do they not just show our inability to compromise or get along with one another?  Shouldn’t our decisions about worship be about the object of our worship rather than the worship itself?  Jesus thought so and so does Pastor Myron.  Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman about a time when true worshipers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.  Pastor Myron spoke about the necessity for our music to be focused on Christ, and that if it is not, it doesn’t matter how good it sounds.  He continued by explaining that in order for our music to be focused on Christ, He must be present and receiving the worship that is due Him.  Therefore, worship is not a talent issue, it is a heart issue.  We must have Christ in our hearts to succeed in worshiping the Father in spirit and in truth.  If arguing about using a song book versus a hymnal, playing electric instruments, piano and organ only, or no musical instruments at all, singing fast songs or slow songs, raising hands, clapping, jumping, dancing, standing completely still, singing while wearing robes, or any other worship style “argument” is taking center stage in our churches, then I can tell you right now that we are not worshiping in spirit and truth.  In John 4:23 Jesus says Himself that “…the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”  God help us.

Closing Thoughts 

The Well - sanctuary at Hixson First Baptist

The Well - sanctuary at Hixson First Baptist

After Pastor Myron wrapped up the service with a traditional Baptist salvation message and altar call (which he called “come do your business with God”), the congregation was dismissed and invited to hang around for some fellowship time with refreshments in the gym/dining hall.  Laura and I went on over and had a great time eating some cookies and other treats and meeting some friendly folks, including the mystery Facebook user who invited me.  It turned out to be Matt Stelzman, who works in the same building as me and had heard about the ChurchSurfer blog and decided to invite me at the last minute.  I am glad he did because I received multiple blessings on that Wednesday evening, including a thought provoking sermon and a few new friends.  For anyone looking for a little bit of a different slant on the traditional Baptist church service, The Well seems like it is intended to be (or maybe not) a church within a church, bringing together people who are looking for corporate worship that extends into small group meetings, focused outreach, missions, and prayer.  Taking a piece from Pastor Myron’s sermon message, I would imagine that the organizers of The Well are seeking to do this within the context of Hixson First Baptist as a way for existing members to find some variety in worship and service without creating a division within the church.  I’m sure those who attend The Well will not give up gathering together on Sundays and taking part in other church activities, which leads me to my encouragement for anyone reading this article.  Why not seek something more within your church rather than something different outside of your church.  This may require you being the initiator, the leader, or the organizer of something, but the hope would be that it would be a way for you to serve and add to your church rather than divide and take away from it.

praise band at The Well - Hixson First Baptist

praise band at The Well - Hixson First Baptist

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Saint Martin of Tours Episcopal Church: All Dogs Go To Heaven?

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Church Experience #38 – October 2, 2011

Saint Martin of Tours Episcopal Church – Chattanooga, TN

Bring Out Yer Pets

For this week’s ChurchSurfer visit I took part in a tradition that I never knew existed, probably because I’m not Catholic and I had never been to an Episcopal church before this year.  The tradition I am referring to is the “pet blessing service” that is part of the feast of St. Francis of Assisi that is celebrated by the Catholic church on October 4.  Other denominations, including the Episcopal church, have also adopted the pet blessing service, and if you do a Google search for it you get a ton of results about these services that are held by local churches.  While driving down East Brainerd road last week, my wife Laura and I saw the sign at Saint Martin of Tours Episcopal Church, which spelled out in removable block lettering “ST FRANCIS PET BLESSING – 10 AM WORSHIP – PEOPLE / PETS INVITED”.  Cool!  I had no clue these existed, but I have a nine-year-old dog named Larry (named after my favorite character from the “3 Stooges“) who could probably use a blessing or two.  So we both agreed that we would bring Larry to his very first church service and our first pet blessing service.  We did not really know what to expect (Laura’s first comment was “they allow dogs inside church?”, like there is some kind of Biblical decree forbidding it), but we were excited to see what it was all about, so here’s how it went…

The Great Outdoors 

St Martin of Tours Episcopal - Church sign

St Martin of Tours Episcopal - Church sign

We pulled in to the parking lot of Saint Martin of Tours Episcopal and Larry, who is a lousy car rider only because he gets so excited that he does this annoying grunt/whine thing anytime you slow down and/or turn (because that obviously means something is about to happen), was already worked up into a frenzy.  We opened the door and he jumped out in full alertness mode, not recognizing the place at which we had arrived.  He darted around nervously at leash’s length while we gathered our Bibles, pens, and notebooks and then we all headed toward the building.  I put Laura in charge of picture taking duty for the day so that I could keep hold of the leash…Larry obeys me better, especially in public places.  He is actually a very well behaved dog and I invested a lot of diligent training time into him, making sure he wouldn’t do all the typical canine behaviors that I find annoying like begging for food, sniffing crotches, jumping up on people, etc.  He’s not perfect and slips up every now and then, but always responds immediately to correction, which is why I am comfortable bringing him to public events such as a church pet blessing service.  We headed toward the front entrance but then realized that everyone with a pet was going around the side of the church, so we decided to follow the crowd.  As we rounded the rear corner of the church we saw rows of chairs tucked into a nook in the back yard and realized the service would be held outside.  Had we known this, we would have dressed more appropriately because although it was a beautiful sunny morning, the air was crisp and cold.  Laura and I both had worn short sleeves, so we tried to stay in the sun as much as possible to keep from getting too chilly.  St Martin of Tours Episcopal is a beautiful brick structure surrounded by tall skinny pine trees, and as the sun rose in the morning sky peeking through branches and pine needles I marveled at the bond that we humans have with the other plants and animals of God’s creation.

Shaking Hands and Sniffing Crotches 

St Martin of Tours Episcopal - outdoor pet blessing service

St Martin of Tours Episcopal - outdoor pet blessing service

Standing in the church yard were dogs of all sorts and an assortment of other animals including a rabbit and a horse, all accompanied by their human owners.  It was pretty amusing to watch the contrast in socializing that was going on…people shaking hands and saying hello’s while their canine counterparts sniffed rear-ends and whined at each other.  The pastors were greeting everyone with a warm welcome and dog treats, but Larry was too interested in all the other dogs and people to worry about eating a snack.  After a few minutes of socializing, everyone took seats and the service began with the reading of prayers and Psalms.  It seemed like most of the pets settled in and behaved well, with an occasional whine, bark, or correction from a pet owner.  As the service progressed I noticed a steady stream of animal hair floating through the bright rays of the morning sun, and a siren in the distance aroused some barks and howls from the animal audience.  The pastor made his way through a humorous “squirrel-in-church” story and explained points about Saint Francis of Assisi, who this service was meant to honor, and what it means to live sacramentally.  He explained that living sacramentally is to live on behalf of something else, and he related the way that our pets need us and live to please us to the way we should live for Jesus Christ.  Instead, we are too often narcissistic and build our lives around our own priorities rather than putting God first and other people second.  My level of concentration was constantly challenged throughout the morning service by a stocky brown and white bulldog sitting in front of us who stared intently at me and Larry all morning long, going through a series of intentionally distracting tactics such as whining, tail wagging, making cute faces, and inching closer and closer to us on its belly.  The bulldog obviously wanted to play, and Larry would have happily obliged had I given him the OK.  After the pastor’s message the congregation received communion and brought their animals with them for the pet blessing.  The aisles slowly filtered down to the front and it gave everyone a chance to see each pet as the procession moved down the center aisle.  The final blessing was for the horse, which was brought in from the side rather than down the middle, and the pastor offered it a couple of the communion wafers but the horse was not very interested in them (I can’t blame it, and if it wasn’t for the meaning of communion I don’t think any of us would actually eat communion wafers…they are akin to styrofoam).  The service leaders, which included a couple of women who looked super-cool donning over-sized black sunglasses with their ceremonial white robes, concluded the service by giving out a few “pet awards” for the biggest, smallest, most unusual, etc. and then auctioning off the remaining dog treats.

No Fun Allowed 

St Martin of Tours Episcopal pet blessing service - dogs and a horse

St Martin of Tours Episcopal pet blessing service - dogs and a horse

After the service, people seemed more willing to hang around and spend time socializing with each other rather than rushing off to get on with the rest of their Sunday.  It was very interesting for me to see the extra dimension that was added to my church experience and the way I related to all these new people and their animals.  Having our pet companions with us gave me extra insight into the everyday home life of all these people that I would have never seen otherwise.  It also helped me to have something in common with them and a way to relate to them and initiate conversation.  When a dog does the introduction for you, it can make an awkward social situation (not that church is awkward for me, but it could be to someone else) suddenly very tolerable.  I wondered if the church environment has become (or maybe has always been?) too “sterile” and therefore too divergent from our home lives for us to feel truly comfortable or at ease while we are there.  Do we lose some of our personality when we go to church?  What if we do…and what if the root cause is that for those of us who were raised in a church-going family we can recall from our earliest childhood memories getting dressed up in “church clothes” that were different from what we wore every other day, we were told to be on our best behavior, we couldn’t be loud, we couldn’t run and play, we couldn’t be kids in church?  I am not saying that well behaved kids are a bad thing (and I point to the fact that I expected my dog to behave so that we could all focus on the church service), but what if the whole act of going to church as children conditioned us to stop having fun there?  What if it conditioned us to lose part of our personality there and become stoic?  What if it conditioned us to care too much about our appearance and how we may be perceived by others if we don’t fit in with the “norm” and behave in a certain way?  It seems to me like in a world where each individual person is so unique and all of our quirky little eccentricities that make us who were are (and usually what makes each of us so special to one another) are too often white-washed away as we get “cleaned up” for church.  We have been conditioned to believe that we can’t have fun at church.  We can’t let our hair down and be the same person we are every other day of the week.  Maybe if there was no pressure to look or act a certain way at church people would want to be there more often.  Maybe non-Christians would want to be there as well.  I don’t want to distort my point here…I am definitely not saying the church should become more worldly, I am just saying that when we build churches, we are not replicating the Temple of Jerusalem.  There aren’t Levites inside who are bound by strict rules about cleanliness, ceremonial practices, and codes of conduct…but we sure do act like it.  The local church is not a club.  It is not a bar.  It is not a party room.  But that does not mean we can’t have fun there!  The local church is like life…there are fun times, serious times, tragedies, celebrations, pain, sorrow, happiness, joy, worship, and everything else that happens between birth and death.  We should stop taking ourselves so seriously and loosen up.  Dance a little.  Shout to the Lord.  Lift your hands to heaven and sing praises to God even if you don’t have a “choir voice”.  Clap your hands and jump up and down.  There will still be plenty of time for singing soft hymns, silent meditation, prayer, and seriousness.  Bringing pets to church seems like a great way to bring a little more of ourselves with us.  Why don’t we do it more often?  What are your thoughts on the matter?  What things does your church do to bring your personality out?  Maybe you disagree completely and feel that church should remain unblemished and sacred.  I’d like to hear some feedback…let’s discuss.

Laura and Larry at St Martin of Tours Episcopal pet blessing service

Laura and Larry at St Martin of Tours Episcopal pet blessing service

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Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Chattanooga Church: Going Medieval on Chattanooga Church(es)

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Church Experience #37 – September 25, 2011

Chattanooga Church – Chattanooga, TN

A Building That Beckons

Some time earlier this year I was Googling and browsing the websites of various churches in Chattanooga and came across Chattanooga Church.  It just so happened that as I clicked through the pages on their website I noticed a blog post from their pastor, Morty Lloyd, that referenced the ChurchSurfer blog.  He had read the newspaper article about ChurchSurfer that appeared in the Chattanooga Times Free Press and used it as an opportunity to challenge his congregation to look at their own church introspectively and think about how they may be perceived by visitors.  I made a mental note about this church (which doesn’t always work so well) and then kept noticing it as I would pass by on Bonnie Oaks Drive.  The Chattanooga Church building is one of those intriguing structures that you just want to go look at because of its unique charm.  It is a small grey stone structure that looks like it belongs among the rolling hills of the Irish countryside or in some quaint little village in rural England.  Instead, Chattanooga Church is paradoxically perched on the left side of the circle driveway that leads into Bonnie Oaks Business Park.  Despite the out-of-place location, the building still invites you to come inside for a closer look, as does the name of the church, which without any denominational tags or descriptive adjectives in the title, leaves you wondering what it is all about.  Full of questions and curiosity, my wife Laura and I decided to give Chattanooga Church a try, and here is how it went…

Medieval Worship 

Chattanooga Church

Chattanooga Church

It was a hazy Sunday morning and as we strolled lazily up to the church I stopped to snap a couple of photos from a few different angles.  We rounded the corner from the parking lot and noticed a pointed-arch doorway standing open with a few people greeting each person as they entered.  We were first greeted by Cathy, who asked if we were visiting and when we acknowledged that we were, she retrieved a welcome packet for us and thanked us for being there.  The outside door lead directly into the sanctuary, so after we passed by Cathy we headed immediately down the center aisle and into a pew just a few rows down.  We sat down and surveyed the room and were immediately greeted by a lady named Sharon in the pew in front of us, and then by Steve, Carman, and a few other people who were making their way from the front of the room to the back, shaking hands and greeting everyone that was in attendance.  The sanctuary had a medieval feel to it, with black iron faux-candle light fixtures which hung by thick black chains from the wood beams in the ceiling.  The arched windows had a yellow tint to them and were adorned with ivy.  The pulpit area had a small stained glass window containing a portrayal of Jesus with a small child, and there was a projection screen in the center above a small stage set up with musical instruments which spilled out onto the floor in front of the stage with a drum kit and then guitars lining the wall up to the first pew.  As the room filled in with about sixty people of various ages and races, the praise band took their places and started the worship service with contemporary praise music.  The sound was full and joyful, and we lifted our voices to the Lord in praise with several familiar songs as well as a few that were new to me.  In between songs there was a break for prayer which was lead by a lady from the congregation, the collection of tithes and offerings (which included an encouragement from the writings of Martin Luther in which he says there are three conversions that take place in Christianity:  the heart, the mind, and the purse), and a prayer request pad which was passed around the room.  At the end of the service we discovered that all the prayer requests were read aloud to the congregation and then prayed for right there on the spot (and I later found out about a super-cool smartphone app that Chattanooga Church developed which allows all the members to access these prayer requests and other important church updates from anywhere).

Young and Wise 

Chattanooga Church sanctuary entrance

Chattanooga Church sanctuary entrance

After the worship service ended, a young man introduced himself as Carman Lastoria, the Youth Pastor of the church, and stated that he would be speaking that day in place of the Pastor, Morty Lloyd, who was out of town.  Pastor Carman was clean cut and well dressed, looked to be in his early to mid twenties, and spoke with a voice made for radio (take note J103).  He began his sermon on Romans 9 with the encouragement that through faith we are God’s offspring and as the Church (capital “C”) we are called to be a family.  It did not take long for me to realize that Pastor Carman was wise and mature beyond his years, and he spoke confidently without hesitation, which was surprising given his age (and obviously fruit of the Spirit).  He continued by explaining the difference from Romans 9:1-9 of Jews who believed they were heirs by bloodline (“children of the flesh”) and Jews who accepted Christ by faith (“children of the promise”) with the passage, “For they are not all Israel who are of Israel…”.  He expounded on the subject by contrasting Ishmael, who was born of a young and fertile maid-servant, with Isaac, who was born by the grace and power of God according to His promise establishing the lineage of Christ.  Pastor Carman ventured further into Romans 9 and did not back away from verses 16-21, which can be challenging and therefore off-limits in many of today’s white-washed sermons full of fluffy messages and humanistic doctrine.  Instead of avoiding this section he embraced the chance to compare free will with God’s sovereignty, resting on the point that God is always in control.  He emphasized that faith is the ability to trust that we are secure in the Potter’s hand, and then ended his sermon with a bit of alliteration (pastors love alliteration) by offering the exhortation to Recognize who you are, Rely on God’s sovereignty, and Rest in His hand.

Coffee Talk 

Chattanooga Church medieval sanctuary

Chattanooga Church medieval sanctuary

In the days following our visit to Chattanooga Church, Laura and I received several greeting cards from church members thanking us for our visit, extending blessings to us, and inviting us to come back, which was both thoughtful and impressive.  Later in the week I was able to connect with Pastor Morty Lloyd and we met up for coffee and had some great discussion.  He seemed to be just as intrigued about ChurchSurfer as I was about Chattanooga Church.  We talked about the beginnings of Chattanooga Church and their focus, which is Jesus Christ (isn’t it sad that a church actually has to come out and say that their focus is on Jesus Christ?). Pastor Morty shared the three-fold vision of his church to connect the unchurched with God, reconnect others who may have fallen away from the church with God, and equip all to live for God.  It was on that third piece of their vision that we really found common ground, and we spent a good while discussing how churches today continue to cater to the epidemic of consumerism in our society.  When did the major switch happen from qualitative Christianity to quantitative Christianity?  When did Christian pastors abandon the concept of equipping believers to become ministry leaders and servants within the church in favor of allowing them to defer most of the responsibilities to full-time church employees (an interesting note here, the pastors of Chattanooga Church all have regular jobs to support themselves, including Pastor Morty, who referred to them as “tent-makers”)?  When did our churches give up on impacting a community and instead seclude themselves in bigger and bigger buildings with built-in amenities?  When did the weekly attendance number and church budget become more important than the spiritual maturity level of the people sitting in the pews?  I know these are not problems in all churches, but how could we let them become a problem in any church?  Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are called to be a faith family that loves, supports, serves, protects, prays for, listens to, and holds all things in common with one another.  Until we are all willing to take responsibility for upholding our part and for holding others accountable to theirs, we will continue to be a disjointed and dysfunctional family.  I praise God that there are disciples out there actively sharing the Gospel of our Lord and by His strength raising up and equipping others in the ministry of faith, but this is not something only a few of us are called to do…it is something we are all called to do.  I pray that we all recognize who we are, rely on God’s sovereignty, and rest in His hand.  Amen brother Carman!

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Harvest Bible Chapel: A Church Is Born

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Church Experience #36 – September 18, 2011

Harvest Bible Chapel – Chattanooga, TN

Despite My Best Efforts

A few months back I spent a day volunteering at J-Fest, which is an all-day Christian music festival put on by the local Christian radio station, J103.  I served at the information booth for Men’s Ministry Network, a local ministry that I am involved with, and during part of the day I thought it would be a good idea to visit the rest of the booths at the festival to get information about other local churches that I might visit this year for the ChurchSurfer blog.  Just a few spaces down from our booth was an energetic group of people representing a yet-to-be-officially-launched church called Harvest Bible Chapel.  I thought it was a little odd that a church that technically did not exist yet (although as Christians we all know that this group of people was already a church) would have a booth at a Christian music festival (which translated means I can’t believe a church would actually be that organized and able to plan ahead, especially one that hasn’t even launched yet…but then again, maybe that’s why they were able to be organized…they weren’t dealing with the craziness of full-on church life yet).  So I gathered some literature from them, which I of course didn’t really look at (limited time), and was invited to an informational “party with the pastors”, which I of course didn’t attend (limited energy), and then I filed a reminder to attend their first real worship service in the back of my mind somewhere (limited capacity) that pretty soon got lost (limited functionality).  I thought it would be a really cool experience to attend the first-ever worship service of a new church, but as you can see, I obviously had all of my excuses in place in case I missed it.  Apparently God had a different plan for me, because despite my best efforts to botch this up, someone (don’t ask who, I’ve already filed that info away) mentioned the launch of Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga to me in conversation a whole week in advance of their inaugural worship service of Sunday, September 18, which rattled my forgotten memories of J-Fest back into focus.  I can usually handle remembering something for a week, so I felt confident that I would make it there on Sunday and experience the (public) birth of a church.  Here’s how it went…

Not A Regular Old Sunday 

Harvest Bible Chapel (aka East Brainerd Intermediate School)

Harvest Bible Chapel (aka East Brainerd Intermediate School)

My wife, Laura, and I pulled into the gravel parking lot of the building that used to be David Brainerd Christian School off of Igou Gap Road (now East Brainerd Intermediate School), which is temporarily transformed into Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga on Sundays.  Parking lot attendants guided us in, and four door greeters were posted at the front entrance with looks of excited anticipation on their faces.  By the time we stepped out of the car, the parking lot attendants converged on us with handshakes and smiles, and then gave us piggy-back rides to the front entrance where the door greeters were ready and waiting to open the doors and roll out the red carpet…OK, it didn’t happen like that at all, but I thought it would be really funny to lead you on a little bit.  The parking lot attendants and door greeters were all extremely nice and you could definitely tell that there was excitement in the air among these people who had probably been looking forward to this day for quite a long time.  Just inside the front entrance we were greeted at an information table by Steve and his wife Deborah, who engaged us in conversation and shared their Chattanooga relocation story and then listened with interest as we told them a little about ChurchSurfer.  While talking with Steve and Deborah I glanced down the hallway and noticed a flurry of activity all around, with people making introductions, laughing together, and shaking hands, all with an obvious escalation of enthusiasm beyond what you would expect to see on any other regular old Sunday at church.  We headed toward the gym, which also serves as the Harvest Bible Chapel sanctuary, and were greeted by the pastor’s wife, Jaime, and more door greeters, who welcomed us with a smile and handed us a bulletin as we entered.  The inside of the gym was not overly decorated…it really just looked like a church service in a gym (not being critical, just pointing out that it didn’t seem “overdone”).  There were sheets of blue plastic covering the wooden gym floor for protection and rows of stack-able cushioned chairs were lined up facing what would be a “stage” area with black pipe and drape serving as a back drop.  The worship band, which consisted of a guitar, bass, drums, and a female vocalist, stood in front of a large projection screen and there was a sound technician at the back of the room surrounded by sound equipment.  Everything looked to be set up very professionally, and I remember thinking to myself that it seemed like they had done this before (I also remember someone saying there were now 70+ Harvest Bible Chapels, so they’ve probably got a pretty good church-planting system in place).  I saw some people I knew around the room and said some hello’s and also met a few new people while waiting for the service to start.  The couple in front of us told us that their son was the guitar player in the worship band, and I could sense that they were proud parents and were excited about their son’s new endeavor.

Setting Expectations 

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga sanctuary/gym

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga sanctuary/gym

The service began with a time of lively and free-spirited worship, mostly made up of well known contemporary worship songs that were easy to sing along to.  Lots of people lifted their hands or clapped as they sang, and the band had a full sound but was not overpowering.  After a few songs the pastor, Mike DuBard, gave a speech to welcome everyone in attendance and to recognize all the hard work that went into preparing for this special day.  He introduced the church plant team and showed some recorded video messages from other Harvest Bible Chapel pastors who congratulated the newly created HBC Chattanooga.  He then led the congregation in prayer, which included intercession for two other Harvest Bible Chapels that were launching in Knoxville and Northern Kentucky that same day.  Pastor Mike then prefaced his sermon by announcing that everyone would need a Bible in hand (and directed the ushers to pass out Bibles to anyone who didn’t bring one) and then pointed out that Harvest Bible Chapel believes in teaching the Bible and sharing the Gospel without apology, because “when the Word is preached, transformation happens”.  He began the sermon by reading Colossians 1:1-8, and then read back through the same verses, expanding on each one with additional insight to provide clarity and understanding.  Pastor Mike taught with a calm confidence, speaking plainly and with conviction but not overly emotional.  It was apparent to me that the sermon contained a clear message about expectations for this newly established church (which I will attempt to illustrate with sound effects).  He spoke about how Colossians was written by Paul to a church plant (boom), to commend them, encourage them, and instruct them (boom, boom, and boom).  He noted that real faith is seen, and he exhorted the congregation to be serious about practicing genuine love, having eternal hope, and actively sharing the Gospel (ba-blam).  Pastor Mike also spent a few moments talking about how Chattanooga is a battleground of Christianity, and although there is seemingly a surplus of churches that already exist here, many of them are filled with people who are looking to break out of their spiritual rut, to which he responded, “bring us those people”.

Final Thoughts 

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga praise band

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga praise band

After the service wrapped up, Laura and I spent a short time bidding farewell to all the great people we had met.  When we left, I couldn’t help but feel infectiously optimistic about Harvest Bible Chapel and the mission they have embarked on to serve the Lord and preach the Word in Chattanooga.  It is not hard to display marked enthusiasm on the very first day of a new church…you get a similar “this-is-the-first-day-of-my-new-life” type of feeling as you did the day you graduated college or the day you were married.  We all know the real test comes a year from now, five years from now, and twenty years from now, when the “newness” factor has worn off and real life sets in.  Are you still as “crazy-in-love” with your wife after you’ve seen her at her “worst” (notice the quotations, honey) with bed-head, no makeup, a frumpy nightgown, and pillow case wrinkles on the side of her face?  Are you still as “gung-ho” about your career after you’ve logged countless twelve-hour days, years of being underpaid, a boss who never expresses appreciation, and being passed up for a promotion by the guy half your age?  Will the people of Harvest Bible Chapel still maintain the same level of fervor for their church through the bad times as well as the good?  If you put Christ first then the answer to all of these scenarios is “yes”.  God is faithful.  Christ is our strength.  The Holy Spirit is our empowerment to commit ourselves to being disciples.  To live is Christ and to die is gain.  May we all share in the joy and passion of Harvest Bible Chapel as they embark on their mission for Christ in Chattanooga.  I know that their congregation will be a welcome addition in the cause of advancing the Kingdom in this city and that their love will impact the nations.

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga before service

Harvest Bible Chapel Chattanooga before service

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Grace and peace in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Burks United Methodist Church: The Sermon 10 Years Later

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Church Visit #35 – September 11, 2011

Burks United Methodist Church – Hixson, TN

Here I Go Again

So I got to thinking this past week (dangerous, I know) about the fact that I have been to thirty-five different churches in the Chattanooga area this year (well, actually thirty-four in Chattanooga and one in California).  My line of thinking quickly switched from “wow, I’ve visited thirty-five churches this year”, to “wow, I only have fifteen church visits left this year”.  So then I quickly started considering how many churches of each denomination I have been to, what parts of the area I haven’t visited yet, topics that I haven’t covered, experiences that I might have missed…OK stop right there.  As I revisit those thoughts I also realize that I wish I could visit every church in Chattanooga, meet everyone, experience everything, and write about and share it all.  I realize that the process of creating and doing the ChurchSurfer blog this year has opened my heart to an even deeper love for the Lord and for people, and a sincere desire to share His love with everyone I possibly can.  I also realize that simply broadcasting messages about this Love through a blog or from the pulpit or any other means of mass delivery is simply not the way to accomplish that task.  The best way to share God’s love with people is in person.  People will receive your demonstrations of love through serving them much faster than they will receive anything you tell them or write to them.  People change when you walk through it with them, not after you have preached it to them.  In fact, God Himself gave us the best example by showing us that even though it was important to broadcast the Ten Commandments and sacred writings of His Word, ultimately He needed to come in person and show us His love by serving us (John 13:14-15).  He did it in a way that we could replicate and then commanded us to do just that.  As disciples we are called to not only receive His love, but to share it with others and ultimately, prepare others to share it also (2 Timothy 2:2).  I truly believe that I could never accomplish with a blog that is read by thousands of people, anything close to what I could accomplish with only a few people in person.  Jesus discipled twelve men.  There were millions of other people on the earth and yet He chose to pour Himself into twelve men.  It’s because He knew what those twelve men would go on to do.  Here’s a news flash for you…if you are a follower of Jesus then you are called to do the same thing that those twelve men did (Matthew 28:19).  OK, wow…I really didn’t mean to get sidetracked on a sermon, but that may have been a few minutes of Holy Spirit guidance there.  I hope it means something to you.  So now, on to this week’s church visit…

The Smell 

Burks United Methodist - Hixson, TN

Burks United Methodist - Hixson, TN

This Sunday Laura and I decided to attend Burks United Methodist Church in Hixson.  We parked in a side lot and headed in a side door (not the main entrance) which led directly into the lobby area outside of the sanctuary.  As we stepped in the door I was immediately greeted by a familiar smell…the United Methodist Church smell.  Don’t ask me how or why, but most United Methodist Churches have “a smell”.  I don’t know if there is a certain type of wood used in the construction or where it comes from, but I leaned over and whispered to Laura “it smells like a United Methodist Church” and she laughed and agreed, apparently realizing that there was truth to the statement.  We walked over to the information booth in the lobby and were enthusiastically greeted by Barbara, who proceeded to explain to us an upcoming schedule change for the worship service and Sunday school class times and then took us on a quick tour, showing us where the “young couples” class met, which she suggested we attend.  Barbara introduced us to Leon, the Pastor of Discipleship, who gave us more information about the different Sunday school classes and invited us to attend the movie “Courageous” on a night when Burks United Methodist had rented out a local movie theater in order to get lower ticket prices for members and guests.  It was obvious that Barbara and Leon wanted to get us connected to other small groups or classes at Burks UMC, and I appreciated the sense of urgency and effort they put forth in making sure we knew when and where to go.  I would much rather have someone guide me through the initial process of learning my way around a new church than try to figure it all out on my own or from a website, which it sadly seems like the best you can hope for at some churches these days.

Entertained by Children 

Burks United Methodist lobby area

Burks United Methodist lobby area

As time for the worship service approached, Laura and I headed on in to the sanctuary and found seats in a pew just a couple of rows from the front.  The sanctuary was large with a high ceiling and white walls with brick and wood trim.  The pews were wood with green cushions, and greet carpet led to the pulpit area at the front of the room where narrow stained glass windows rose vertically from the floor to the ceiling.  Shortly after sitting down, a man sat in the row in front of us and turned around, introducing himself as Brian, and then asked if we had a child that was singing in the service after he saw that I had my phone out ready to take pictures.  I told him we were visiting and then noticed that there were quite a few parents sitting in the front rows with cameras ready…signalling some type of children’s choir performance.  We shared a few more minutes of conversation and then with the accompaniment of traditional pipe organ music, the choir made their procession to the pulpit wearing shimmering robes, followed by Pastor Nathan Malone, who welcomed the congregation and then introduced the first hymn.  It has become so rare to actually use a hymnal in today’s churches, Laura and I fumbled around with it a little trying to find the right number and then flip to the page.  Once I had it open it was like riding a bicycle, and I actually prefer singing songs with written music, which if you can read music allows you to sing along even when you don’t know the song (unlike modern worship music with words on a projection screen).  I did notice an empty drum kit and other instruments on stage, which are used for the contemporary service, but they sat vacant throughout the traditional service while we were treated with beautiful arrangements for the piano and organ instead.  After the opening hymn everyone was invited to greet the people around them and then the children (ages 3-5) came up for their performance.  I’ve always felt like United Methodist churches do a great job of getting the children involved in worship service, where the entire congregation can see them and enjoy them.  Watching this group of toddlers singing was wonderful and included all the usual laugh-out-loud moments when they do the things that only kids do.  Pastor Nathan then invited a family to the front for a child baptism, and also asked friends and family to come forward to lay hands on them during prayer.  He encouraged the congregation to surround and support the children with love and then provided an explanation (which he referred to as a “teaching moment”) of child baptism, pointing out that it is about honoring God rather than the individual.  After the baptism ceremony we proceeded through the traditional United Methodist responsive readings and guided prayers, ending with the Lord’s Prayer, which I love reciting in church with other believers.  The collection time was accompanied by a montage of patriotic songs (“America”, “God Bless America”, etc) commemorating the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and then after a few more announcements Pastor Nathan stepped into the wood podium to begin his sermon.

Remembering the Sermon 

Burks United Methodist children's choir

Burks United Methodist children's choir

As Pastor Nathan began, I wondered what types of sermons were being delivered at various churches around the country that day.  I’m sure some were about forgiveness, some may have been about revenge, some were probably about emotional healing, and maybe some about peace, but Pastor Nathan began by remembering what he went through trying to prepare for his sermon on the Sunday following the attacks back in 2001.  He reflected on the “What’s next?” question that consumed so many people in those days and how many people struggled through the progression of dealing with shock, anger, and the desire for revenge.  He then made a reference to Scripture that I thought was an excellent comparison when he brought up Jesus dealing with the beheading of John the Baptist.  Jesus and John the Baptist were relatives and when he was put to death the Bible says that Jesus went off to a deserted place alone.  My guess would be that he spent this time in prayer, which we must all do to deal with such tragic moments in life that bring about the opportunity to fall victim to the temptations of Satan.  Pastor Nathan noted that even ten years later the spirits of fear, hatred, division, and suspicion are continuing to be perpetuated by many around the world based on what happened on 9/11.  He made sure to explain that those and other terrorist attacks are not the true way of Islam, but are horrendous acts committed by extremists.  He also made sure to point out that there are Christian extremists out there as well, and he contrasted the recent protests and arson at a mosque construction site in Murfreesboro with the opposite reaction of Heartsong Church in Memphis, which put out a sign welcoming the Memphis Islamic Center to the neighborhood.  Pastor Nathan delivered the sermon more like a teacher than a “preacher”, but with an affirming voice of confident authority.  The sermon was thought-provoking and timely and left room for personal reflection without forcefully inserting dogmatic points of view.  As the service ended and we left the building the mood was slightly muted by the serious message and the anniversary that was on everyone’s mind.  Despite the memories of that tragic day ten years ago, I can honestly say looking around at the faces leaving church, the Spirit was at work assuring believers of the glory of heaven and the peace of Christ.  His Kingdom is free from tragedy, heartache, pain, and all evil…I look forward to the day when I get to enter that wonderful place.

Burks United Methodist sanctuary

Burks United Methodist sanctuary

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Redemption Point Church: A Charlie Brown Pentecostal Praise Break

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Church Visit #34 – September 4, 2011

Redemption Point Church – Ooltewah, TN

It’s All About the Timing

On multiple occasions this year I have been invited to visit Redemption Point Church in Ooltewah.  I am not sure how or why I have ended up running into so many people who attend there, but it is one of those weird things that keeps popping up over and over.  At one point earlier in the year I visited the Redemption Point website and was intrigued by the “Aspiring to be the most loving church in America” slogan right there on the home page.  At the time I was really focusing on how I was welcomed into the churches that I was visiting and how the people at each church interacted with me.  I thought it would be interesting to see if the people at Redemption Point were doing any better at living out their aspiration to be the most loving church than all the other churches around Chattanooga.  Maybe God knew that would be the wrong reason (or maybe the wrong time) to visit Redemption Point, because it soon slipped my mind and I never felt strongly led to go there…until now.  After having another one of those “chance” encounters…this time with a friend who had been on the same Walk to Emmaus that I attended in the Spring, who I ran into again at a Chamber of Commerce luncheon recently.  He invited me to visit his church, which just happened to be Redemption Point.  So this time I felt like it was definitely time to go, and after visiting I know why I was supposed to wait until now.  I’ll go over the timing aspect of this church visit a little later, but here’s how the experience went…

Earplugs? 

Redemption Point Church - Ooltewah

Redemption Point Church - Ooltewah

Laura and I pulled in to the large parking lot and before we had taken more than a few steps toward the church, I already saw one of the people who had invited me to visit here at some point earlier in the year, Kurt Schaffer.  We waved and continued walking up to the church entrance to wait on Kurt and his family so we could greet them.  Just outside the entrance of the church there were people on either side holding up large wooden frames, which they were inviting people to stand behind to have a Polaroid (I really didn’t know they still made those) picture taken.  This was designed to be a fun lead-in to the “Family in Focus” topic that the church was highlighting for the month of September.  Laura and I got our picture, thanked the people who were providing the service, and then headed on in the building after meeting up with Kurt and his family.  The lobby area was bustling with activity and as we explored around and were greeted by several people, Laura noticed a basket of earplugs, which was something we had never seen at a church before, but gave us a clue about what to expect.  I snapped a couple of quick photos and then we all headed into the sanctuary to get ready for the worship service.  Kurt invited us to sit with them and we gladly accepted, thankful for the opportunity to share some fellowship time before the service, which (sadly) does not always happen when we visit churches where we do not know anyone.  We sat about midway down the center section of the large sanctuary.  The room was typical of most of the modern churches that I’ve seen, with clean and simple construction and most of detail and emphasis placed on the stage area.  In this case the stage was divided into sections, with the center having a large projection screen that was mocked up to look like an Apple computer complete with a faux keyboard sitting on top of the clear soundproof plexi walls of the drum kit.  A typical contemporary worship band filled out the center stage area with electric instruments and microphones, walled-in by a praise choir of about twenty members on the left section of the stage and horns and other instruments on the right section of the stage.  The band blasted off into an up-tempo praise song, producing a full sound with the combination of the band, choir, and horn section reinforcing one another.  Now I understood why there were earplugs in the lobby and I noticed several older members of the congregation taking advantage of their benefits.

Worship Gone Viral 

Redemption Point Church lobby area

Redemption Point Church lobby area

After the opening worship song there were some announcements about the various aspects of “family month” at Redemption Point Church and then everyone was invited to come to the front altar for prayer time or to participate in prayer from your seat.  After a time of prayer, all children were invited to the front to lead the congregation in worship as the band launched back into several more praise songs.  The congregation was actively engaged in the worship, lifting hands of praise as they sang the lyrics of glorification to the Lord.  Multiple prayers were offered up throughout the service, mainly focusing on the topic of families, asking for restoration where it was needed and also the return of prodigal children, and during the final prayer at the end of the service all members of the congregation were encouraged to place their hands on the shoulders of the people on either side of them, which was a unique and powerful experience.  Lead Pastor Kevin Wallace then spent a short time edifying the church about their mission work in Uruguay, specifically calling to attention the new property they had just purchased there to serve as their Uruguay missions headquarters.  He also talked about additional missions to Guatemala that Redemption Point was actively engaged in and he made it very clear that international missions was something that they would continue to keep as a focal point of their church’s service to the Lord (amen!).  During this time the congregation brought their tithes and offerings to the altar at the front (rather than passing collection plates around the room) and Pastor Kevin then introduced a video that the church had created and uploaded to YouTube which had gone “viral”, getting over 100,000 views.  The video is titled “Charlie Brown Praise Break” and should give you a good glimpse into both the music at Redemption Point and the preaching style of Pastor Kevin.  He then noted that at Redemption Point Church they are not into “crystal cathedrals”, but that this church existed to be well-used and that it is probably not the best church to go to if you are uptight.  I would tend to agree with him (although this might just be the group of folks to help you loosen up a little).

Preach It 

Redemption Point Church sanctuary

Redemption Point Church sanctuary

Pastor Kevin began his sermon by reading the majority of Deuteronomy 6 in the King James Version.  His voice was loud and raspy, and I felt like this was the essence of what we consider “preaching” in the South…at no point in time during the sermon did he speak to the congregation, he simply preached it.  The rising and falling of his voice with various tones of emphasis would peak with frantic auctioneer-like shouts that were only interrupted by equally loud gasps of air, and then taper down to long pauses and soft whispers.  Throughout the preaching he would engage vibrato in his soulful vocal style that I would ultimately describe as “speak-singing”, and it was truly mesmerizing.  This type of preaching is a craft, and Kevin Wallace is most definitely a skilled artist.  The subject matter of his sermon bounced around from point to point on matters such as polytheism, double allegiances, spiritual conversation, education, and the Holy Ghost.  He tied most of these issues back to the topic of family, and more specifically, children, and at one point he rationalized that if you treat God and church just like everything else in your life (work, school, sports, recreation) then your kids will think they all have the same level of importance.  He then exhorted the congregation that education and attending a good school is not the most important thing for their children….salvation is!  All throughout the sermon, many people from the congregation would stand and clap or shout “amen” at Pastor Kevin’s various points of emphasis.  He ended the sermon in a roar, walking up and down the aisles with booming shouts of praise and speaking in tongues.  It was at this point that I began to understand why Laura and I were here now rather than earlier in the year.

Final Thoughts 

Josh & Laura Polaroid portrait

Josh & Laura Polaroid portrait

The current topic that Laura is researching for a Bible study that she is a part of is speaking in tongues.  This topic obviously causes a lot of confusion between denominations and believers in the church today.  The differences of opinion vary all the way from one extreme which would be that speaking in tongues is one of the miracles that has ceased to exist, to the opposite extreme which would be that you have not truly been saved unless you have been “baptized by the Holy Spirit” which is exclusively evidenced by speaking in tongues.  This blog is not a platform for theological debate between differing doctrines, but instead it is about personal experiences at various local churches around Chattanooga, and to that extent this week’s church visit served its purpose in providing an experience at a charismatic Pentecostal church that happened at just the right time for Laura’s Bible study.  All I will say about our (Laura and myself) personal viewpoints on the topic of speaking in tongues, is that we rely solely on the Word of God to confirm its existence and to provide the outline of how, when, and why it should happen.  I have never uttered a single word in tongues, but I know I have a deep relationship with Jesus and that I am assured of my salvation through Him.  I have experienced other miraculous works of the Holy Spirit both through me and around me, and although speaking in tongues has not been one of them, it would not bother me if it did happen…I would thank and praise God for bestowing whatever gifts upon me that He sees fit.  For those of you who may believe otherwise, either that tongues and other miracles have ceased to exist or that I am not saved because I have not spoken in tongues, I will not try to tell you that you are wrong, but only that I love you regardless of what you believe.  At the end of the day, is not love the ultimate spiritual gift that we should all desire?  I believe it is, and I pray that we may all increase in our ability to love and be loved with the Love that only flows from Jesus Christ.  Amen.

If you didn’t click the link to watch the “Charlie Brown Praise Break” here’s another chance:

Charlie Brown Praise Break

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ North Shore Fellowship: Buzz-worthy and Jam-packed

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Church Experience #33 – August 28, 2011

North Shore Fellowship – Chattanooga, TN

The Buzz

Certain churches create a buzz around town and just by living in Chattanooga and being active in the local Christian community you tend to hear about them in various conversations.  You usually can’t remember what or where you heard about them, but just that you heard about them (at least that is how it happens to me).  I have visited a few of these buzz-worthy churches…Calvary Chapel, The Net Church, ChristWay Community Church, etc…and have found some very distinct similarities, which may explain why people take notice and talk about them.  They are all growing (which is probably a result of the buzz), they are all full of young people (teens, twenties, and thirties), and they all seem to be making a commitment to teach their congregations that Sunday morning church service should not be the focus or extent of Christianity in your life (the odd thing is that by pushing that paradigm, attendance at their Sunday morning services is exploding).  This week I decided to visit another one of those buzz-worthy churches that I have heard something about from someone somewhere…North Shore Fellowship.  Anyone in Chattanooga knows that the North Shore is one of the most buzz-worthy locations in town right now, so it only makes sense that a church in that area would be making a surge in attendance (sort of like St. Elmo/Calvary Chapel).  So Laura and I decided to see what the buzz was all about.

In the Wrong Place at the Right Time 

North Shore Fellowship - The wrong building

North Shore Fellowship - The wrong building

 

We cruised down the main North Shore strip of Frazier Avenue and turned onto Woodland, pulling just past the North Shore Fellowship church building on the right and parked on the street.  There were only a few cars in the parking lot and a small huddle of people standing and talking, but it seemed like the crowd we expected was missing.  We strolled down the sidewalk to the building and saw a sign on the door that said that the 10:30 am church service was held at the North location.  Luckily (or maybe not luck at all, we were in the wrong place at the right time) there was a group of twenty-somethings who had made the same mistake we did and told us that they knew how to get to the other location and invited us to follow them over.  We followed them over to the Mississippi Avenue location and immediately knew that we were now in the correct location as we passed car after car parallel parked down every single side street surrounding the church.  We parked and joined the mass migration of people into the large brick church building (which is also home to Northside Community Church) and as we entered first the lobby and then the sanctuary we were surprised with the size of the crowd.  An usher had to help us find a space to sit in one of the rows of old-fashioned wood pews, and as more and more people poured into the sanctuary the congregation was asked to scoot down each pew if possible to create more space for additional people.  A few minutes later after every pew had reached capacity, a request was made for anyone willing to sit in the floor up front to do so in order to accommodate additional people standing in the back of the church and overflowing into the lobby.  It was really a scene I have rarely witnessed in a church these days.  In a time when we are so used to under-utilized church buildings and scarcely populated sanctuaries on Sundays, this church had to ask people to sit in the floor to make room for everyone trying to come worship God.  What a great problem to have!

Appearances Can Be Deceiving 

North Shore Fellowship - The right building

North Shore Fellowship - The right building

As the worship music began, I glanced around the sanctuary and was more than a little awestruck at the juxtaposition of the mostly young, beautiful, and affluent congregation seated in this traditional old church structure.  I would expect a congregation with this appearance (in the worldly sense) to be seated in a megachurch in the suburbs with new construction and all the latest musical equipment and electronics.  Instead, the worship music that flowed from the front of the well-worn room was a stripped down and unplugged accompaniment by a lone acoustic guitar, mandolin, piano, and minimalistic drum set.  No fancy stage lights and sound system.  No hard rocking worship band.  No big production and rehearsed stage show.  Just a few acoustic instruments that effectively emphasized the lyrics of the mostly vocal-driven worship.  It was refreshing.  I sang along to the well-known hymns and praise songs, hanging on every accentuating note from the mandolin (my favorite instrument).  This was one of those instances when the old adage “less is more” could not have been more applicable.  After worship we recited the Apostles’ Creed, listened to announcements, and then were treated with a solo song performed by a female vocalist while wooden bowls were passed around the room for the collection of tithes and offerings.  Without hesitation, as soon as the song concluded, a small wooden podium and stool were pulled to the front of the pulpit and Lead Pastor Gary Purdy leaned back onto the stool and began his sermon.  Pastor Gary was well dressed in what I would call a semi-casual outfit and spoke plainly and calmly about the exact subject matter that I would have expected to hear, and which I mentioned in the intro paragraph above.  As soon as I heard the catchphrase “do life together” (which I have also recently heard at some of the other buzz churches mentioned above), I knew that the sermon to follow would be an admonition to this jam-packed house of worship that what we were all a part of at that exact moment…Sunday morning church…is not and can never be the fulfillment of your Christian “life-journey”.  I wasn’t disappointed.

How To Begin Your Life

Pastor Gary’s first attention-grabbing words were about what Facebook, the TV show “The Bachelorette”, and pornography all have in common…they are all cheap substitutes for intimacy.  He then moved closer toward the real meat of his sermon and threw the thought out there that in order to receive true intimacy from church, it must transform from “a place you go to” into “people you do life with”…and you can’t be at the center of it all.  Pastor Gary referenced Ezekiel 36:33-38 and noted that Christianity seems hard-edged until you see and truly understand Jesus as the foundation of it all (which is the thing my unbelieving friends cannot grasp).  The rest of his sermon seemed like instructions on how to “begin” a Christian life, with a “help us help you” invitation from the North Shore Fellowship staff to all who would accept the offer.  He pointed to Colossians 3:12-17 and spoke of unity and a life together in Christ.  He used short phrases such as “lose to win” and “dive under” to express how Christians are called to lift up others while humbling themselves.  Pastor Gary ended with examples of how we should seek the renewing of the Gospel in our lives first across rows or pews, then in circles or small groups, then across tables with meals and fellowship, and finally in the trenches as missionaries to the lost.  After the sermon the congregation was asked to spend a few minutes greeting people in the seats around them and Laura and I met a nice couple in front of us and then awkwardly shook hands with a few other people who did not seem very comfortable with the social aspect of church.  The service ended with an infant baptism by sprinkling and the parents publicly acknowledged the baby’s need for Christ and made a commitment to raise the child properly.

Closing Thoughts

After the service concluded, Laura and I filed out of the sanctuary where the masses webbed out in all directions along the side streets full of parked cars.  I mentally filed North Shore Fellowship under the “pushing-to-break-their-members-out-of-the-doldrums-of-being-a-Sunday-only-Christian” church category, which is important for me to remember because these are the churches that I feel comfortable referring people to.  There are many doctrinal differences between denominations (none of which are the focus of this blog) and many different political and social stances that are taken, but my main concern when referring someone to a church (because none of them are perfect) is that there must be an environment that fosters growth, accountability, and action, rather than enabling or encouraging staleness and/or consumerism.  I feel like at least in the right environment, new believers or truth seekers will be more likely to work out their salvation and successfully search out foundational and doctrinal truths from the Source rather than passively taking someone else’s word for it, or even worse, not caring one way or the other.  I hope you take a moment to evaluate your own life-journey.  If you are seeking fulfillment that you still have not found, it is probably because you are at the center of your Christian life.  Your life should no longer be about you, but about the One who created you.  If you have not been saved then there is no better time than right now.  You will never find fulfillment, purpose, intimacy, or salvation in any other place or person…Jesus Christ is the only way.  The amazing thing is, when you ask Him to save you from the death we all inherited as a result of sin, a miracle happens.  It is the most wonderful experience you will ever have.  A work will begin in you that will continue throughout the rest of your life and you will be able to look back on that moment when you spoke those words as the beginning of your Life.  His blessings await you.

If you need someone to talk to about these matters, please contact me at josh@churchsurfer.com.

If you didn’t click the link to watch the “rehearsed stage show” here’s another chance:

YouTube – Parody of our Modern Church Service

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ Hephzibah Ministries: In Tune with the Spiritual

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Church Experience #32 – August 21, 2011

Hephzibah Ministries – Chattanooga, TN

Starting with a Sermon

In the midst of attending fifty different churches in 2011, I have also gone through daily and weekly personal reflection in an attempt to evaluate my walk in faith to live for my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I have been intentional this year, more so than I ever have before, to focus on the eternal rather than the here and now.  That is not to say that my present circumstances and actions are not important, but my hope is that I can think eternally in order to act immediately (wow, I like that…that may be my new catch phrase, “think eternally in order to act immediately”).  I want to spend as much of my time, energy, and resources as I can investing in things that will enrich the lives of those around me rather than doing things that we, as Americans, often end up consumed by such as entertaining ourselves, trying to gain wealth, buying new toys, and chasing notoriety.  I have faith that I will share in the inheritance of eternal life in the Kingdom of God, so earthly pursuits of luxury and comfort serve only as a distraction to what is to come next.  I have recently read two books that have helped me along in my personal reflections and eternal focus – “The Boy Who Came Back from Heaven“, by Kevin and Alex Malarkey, and “Radical:  Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream“, by David Platt.  These books have helped me to pay more attention to the reality of unseen forces at work in the world around us and how the forces of darkness are intertwined with the urges that drive us toward the pursuits of luxury and comfort.  I have always had a sense of how American churches have fallen so easily into the snare of these fleshly pursuits and have never felt fully comfortable connecting my spiritual life to one of them for fear that I would also begin feeding into the problem.  The truth of the matter is that we are the Church.  An amazing and humbling realization is that as the Church, we are the bride of Christ.  We are united with Christ as one, and with this blessing comes responsibility.  We are called to represent Christ to this world in order to bring glory and honor to Him as Head of the Church and to invite all who will believe in Jesus to come into the same covenant that we have entered into.  So the question is…how well are we representing our Lord?  Can the world see that we are different?  Can they see Christ in us or do we look just like them?  Let me get away from this mini-sermon and move on to the church visit I had this week and you might be able to make some connections.

Freedom of Worship 

Hephzibah Ministries Chattanooga

Hephzibah Ministries Chattanooga

I had heard through my dad, Mark Davis, about a friend of his named Bob Sanders who was the pastor of a small church called Hephzibah Ministries.  According to my dad, pastor Bob is very in tune with the spiritual realm and the unseen entities that exist around us.  This sounded very intriguing since one of the books I had just read was all about a boy who could see angels and demons, so Laura and I decided to visit Hephzibah and worship with Bob and his congregation.  The Hephzibah Ministries building is a former office building just off of Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga near the Police Services Center.  The building is basically a plain looking concrete structure that simply serves as “space” where this church can gather together.  We entered in the front door and headed down a short hallway and straight into the sanctuary, which was probably a break room in its former life.  On our way in the sanctuary we were handed Hawaiian leis, and saw that many of the people inside were wearing Hawaiian shirts and shorts with leis, and so we put ours on and found some seats.  We were ten or fifteen minutes early for service and expected to have time to meet some people before the service began, but the worship music was already going and the thirty or so people who were inside were already engaged in the music.  There were banners covering most of the walls and a projection screen at the front of the room with speaker stands on either side.  The music that was playing was not coming from a live performance, but was actually recorded versions of worship songs with the words projected on the screen along with scenic images of mountains, oceans, and clouds.  There was a table below the projection screen that was covered with a white table cloth, and I anticipated a communion service that would probably be a part of the day’s worship.  The atmosphere of worship was open and joyful, with some people standing around the side walls and at the back of the room, some people seated or standing at their seats, and other people waving various flags, shaking a tambourine, trumpeting a ram’s horn, or dancing at the front of the room.  It was comforting to know that these people could express themselves in worship without fear of being judged or ridiculed for doing things a little differently.  Laura and I stood at our seats and joined in singing and worshiping the Lord.  I didn’t mind that there wasn’t a full live band or choir, I was just happy singing praises to God.

A Simple Sermon 

Hephzibah Ministries sanctuary

Hephzibah Ministries sanctuary

After the worship time ended, pastor Bob and his wife made several announcements about how Hephzibah was going through a time of positive changes and they encouraged the congregation to seek their calling for how they can support and be a part of it.  He encouraged the people with the statement that “everyone fits in” and laid out three basic concepts, that every ministry has somebody praying for it, somebody paying for it, and somebody doing the work.  He noted that working within a ministry comes from spiritual prosperity and paying to support a ministry comes from material prosperity.  He continued on, explaining that the two main goals that Hephzibah’s ministries should address are evangelism to the lost and edification, which is the building up of the saints.  It was pretty obvious that pastor Bob’s goal for the church members at Hephzibah was not to enable them to be passive Christians but to encourage and empower them to be active servants.  Following the announcements, the congregation read the list of fifty or so names on their church prayer list which were categorized into groups such as “healing”, “military”, “missionaries”, and so on.  After the names were all read out loud pastor Bob led a prayer and then passed the microphone around the room for individual praises (which most of the congregation participated in).  Pastor Bob transitioned into his sermon, reading from 1 Kings 3: 7-15, and then preached about praying the right prayers.  He touched on aspects of prayer such as “conditional prayers” where people tell God they will be obedient if He answers their request (which he stated could never be the right way to pray) and prayers for circumstances to “go away” instead of asking Him to see us through or equipping us to overcome those circumstances (in which case you could grow from it).  He concluded by answering the question “how do you find out what to pray?”, with the simple response of “ask the Holy Spirit”.  Pastor Bob did not deliver a polished sermon that sounded as if he had spent thirty hours of his week perfecting each segment with a humorous life story or clever allegory and creating bullet points or fill-in-the-blanks to keep people engaged.  Instead it just seemed as if he got up and spoke from the heart, trusting in the wisdom he has been given by the Holy Spirit to guide his congregation along toward spiritual maturity.  I’m sure it is exactly what they needed to hear at that moment.

Connecting Back 

Hephzibah Ministries potluck lunch

Hephzibah Ministries potluck lunch

We ended the service with communion and were then invited to attend the Hawaiian-luau-themed potluck lunch they were having, which we gladly accepted, understanding then why we had been handed leis on the way in the door.  We ate and enjoyed fellowship time with many kind people and we definitely appreciated the hospitality.  After several conversations, Laura and I left and headed home, unsure if we had just attended church or a family picnic.  On the drive home I had already drifted off into thought, comparing Hephzibah Ministries to many of the other churches I have visited in the context of what I had been reading in the book, “Radical”.  I can tell you that it doesn’t take a multi-million dollar church building to hold church.  It doesn’t take a band with expensive electronics and lighting rigs to worship God effectively.  It doesn’t take a state-of-the-art kitchen and dining facility to prepare a meal and fellowship together.  It doesn’t take anything material to do any of these things at all.  We could gather together in the middle of a field and sing praises a cappella and sit on the grass listening to Bible readings.  Jesus taught from hillsides, or boats, or riverbanks, and probably shouted His sermons so that the crowds could hear them.  People in other countries sneak out and meet in the middle of the night in dark basements that they carefully walk long distances to for fear of being caught and arrested for their beliefs.  The fact that we can actually hold church and worship freely in this country should be luxury enough for us, but the enemy has ways to distract us in either environment.  The dark forces attempt to oppress and punish believers in some countries, and get them to adopt the materialistic ways of the world in others.  I personally don’t believe Hephzibah Ministries will make that mistake and change their focus to expensive buildings and sound equipment.  But what else would I expect from a church whose pastor is in tune with the spiritual entities around us?

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis 

ChurchSurfer @ ChristWay Community Church: A Healthy Tree Is a Fruity Tree

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Church Experience #31 – August 14, 2011

ChristWay Community Church – Ooltewah, TN

A Gang of Six

For about the past two or three months we have been attempting to visit ChristWay Community Church in Ooltewah.  The problem with visiting this church is that we have multiple friends who we have been trying to coordinate with so that we can all attend on the same Sunday.  We all know how easy it is to coordinate multiple families’ schedules to be at the same place at the same time during the summer with vacations, weddings, some having to work on weekends, and other obligations…it is about as easy as herding cats.  So eventually we just gave up and decided that this would be the week we visited there (otherwise we may have never made it) and whoever else could attend with us would just be a bonus.  Our friend Michael had just worked a 24-hour shift and was getting off work at 7 a.m. Sunday morning, so unfortunately he was out, but his wife Shannon and their two children, Lydia (4) and Eli (2), were able to make it, as was our friend Carol.  We agreed to go to the early service, which began at 9 a.m. (better for the kids), and so we all planned on meeting up before the service so that we could sit together.  Two weeks ago we had brought a guest with us to Rock Point Community Church, and we have visited a few churches where we had either been invited by or knew people who attended there, but I believe that this was the first week where we were meeting up with other first-time visitors to a church.  I am all for any change of routine in my church visits, so I was excited that this week would have some extra dimension to it and some new “characters” for the ChurchSurfer blog.  Instead of just me and Laura, there would be a gang of six first time visitors descending upon the unsuspecting souls of ChristWay Community Church, so this should really put them to the test.  Here’s how it went…

Debbie at the Door 

ChristWay Community Church

ChristWay Community Church

Laura and I met up with Shannon and the kids in the parking lot and decided to go ahead and check the little ones into child care while waiting for Carol, the final member of our entourage.  Just like Silverdale Baptist, the visitor parking was really good, so we took full advantage and parked right outside the entrance.  As we approached the steps, the doors swung wide open with two smiling men welcoming us in, and then we immediately walked into a second tier of greeters standing just inside the door.  All the greeters were wearing matching t-shirts and lanyards, so it was very easy to identify them (and avoid them if you happen to be anti-social).  We, of course, are definitely not anti-social (except maybe Laura when she doesn’t have me forcing her into socializing), so we walked right up to the very first greeter, who introduced herself as Debbie.  Debbie enthusiastically welcomed us in and correctly identified us as first-time visitors (another benefit of the visitor parking spaces).  She helped Shannon get Lydia and Eli checked in to child care, and kept us engaged in conversation as Carol arrived and joined the group.  Debbie then took us on a complete tour of the facility, and dropped us off at the Cafe so that we could all grab some morning coffee.  Laura leaned over to me and whispered, “I think the people here are all on happy pills or something”…which should tell you a little about the environment and the demeanor of all the bubbly people we passed by (or maybe it’s because Laura is not a morning person and anything other than a scowl at 8:45 on a Sunday morning is perceived as “happy”).  I definitely appreciated the welcome and personal tour we received from Debbie and after we each got some coffee, we headed to the sanctuary for worship.

Are You Fruity? 

ChristWay Community Church sanctuary

ChristWay Community Church sanctuary

The sanctuary was mostly white with two rows of columns running down either side of the room and aisles of cushioned chairs on the inside and outside of the columns.  The stage area was back-lit with a green glow and had projection screens on both sides and a huge banner in the middle with large white letters spelling the word “LIES”, which was marked through with a red slash.  The congregation was made up of mostly young families and a large crowd of youth who were sitting together in the front few rows to the left of the stage.  The atmosphere was very casual, and most people were wearing jeans (including the pastor).  The worship band, which consisted of guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums, came on to the stage and began an up-tempo contemporary praise song, filling the room with a big, full sound compared to the small size of the band.  After one song, there was a video presentation on the screens promoting the new season of lifegroups that was about to start as summer came to a close and kids were going back to school.  I really enjoyed the humorous nature of the lifegroup video and thought the use of multimedia was an excellent way to utilize newer technology to engage the congregation.  After the video, the senior pastor, John Waters, came on stage and began his sermon (you can listen to the full sermon online), taking me a little off guard by infusing some comparisons of Yankees vs. Northerners (and conversely Rednecks vs. Southerners) and a hemorrhoid joke into an analogy with an annoying lady from his recent vacation who acted consistently obnoxious but then claimed to actually be very considerate of others.  The context in which he told this story was to

ChristWay Community Church welcome booth

ChristWay Community Church welcome booth

illustrate the point that oftentimes people do not have anything in their lives that back up their own claims.  Many (or most?) Christians, for example, do not live a life or do anything that would distinguish themselves from the world.  Pastor John rationalized that many believers probably think there is a distinction between being a Christian (believer) and being a disciple of Christ (the terminology is explained in Acts 11:26), and think that they have been saved simply by the act or ritual of attending church and professing to “believe”, but yet go on living the same lifestyle as those who are of the world.  He then referenced Matthew 7:21-23 which makes the point that not everyone who thinks they are saved is actually saved.  So how will we know we are saved?  John 15:4-7 and Luke 6:43-46 tell us to look for the fruit, which is the evidence of a healthy tree.  Pastor John then went on to make two very profound points, one of which was that we should not focus on the fruit…we should instead focus on the tree.  The next was a rhetorical question that asked, “what if every person who claimed to be Christian was bearing much fruit?”  How different our churches, communities, and world would be!  Pastor John continued on, exhorting the congregation to look at their “tree” (currently, not at some previous stage of life) and examine the roots (personal time with God, John 8:31), the trunk (fellowship with the body of Christ, John 13:34-35), and the branches (giving our resources and serving, 1 Peter 4:9-11) and making sure everything lines up with what God has called us to do in His Word.

Closing Thoughts 

ChristWay Community Church cafe

ChristWay Community Church cafe

After the sermon, the praise band came back on stage and we sang two more powerful worship songs (thankfully, because I was more than slightly disturbed to think that there would be only one worship song in the whole service).  The spirit of worship was definitely strong and the band and congregation rocked out and sang praises to our Lord.  After the service closed we exited to the cafe to wait for Shannon as she picked up the kids from child care.  Both of the children seemed to have a great time and the six of us then settled in on some comfy sofas in the cafe for a little while, enjoying each other’s company and fellowship.  I ran around and snapped some pictures and then we all said our goodbyes for the day and headed for home.  All throughout the church visit I was under the impression that ChristWay Community Church was non-denominational, and it was not until I met with Pastor John later in the week that I found out it was actually affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.  He explained that they did not promote their Southern Baptist Affiliation because they do not want it to become a barrier for anyone.  He said that their goal as a church was to reach the unchurched (about 60% of the local population) and to focus on remaining a healthy church, rather than just growing for the sake of growing and potentially becoming a large but unhealthy church.  That lined up with both the sermon he preached on Sunday and the overall experience we had while visiting ChristWay.  It looks like they are heeding their own teaching and examining the “tree” rather than focusing on the “fruit”.

If you feel like your “tree” is not as healthy as it should or could be, and you would like to fully realize the blessings that Jesus promises to those who abide in Him, please send me an email at josh@churchsurfer.com and I would be honored to help you take the next step of faith in your life.  We are not called simply to believe.  Attending church each week is not the fulfillment of God’s calling on the lives of His children.  There is much more, and I pray that you will answer His call – Revelation 3:20. 

Laura, Lydia, Carol, Shannon, and Eli

Laura, Lydia, Carol, Shannon, and Eli

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page to help others find it also.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis 

Laura and Lydia

Laura and Lydia

ChurchSurfer @ Rock Point Community Church: A Very Special Guest

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Church Experience #30 – August 7, 2011

Rock Point Community Church – Chattanooga, TN

Faith Changes Things

(Warning, philosophy ahead – please read this first paragraph slowly)  It is a strange thing how faith changes your life.  When you think about it, how could it not change your life?  Hebrews 11:1 gives us a definition of faith when it tells us, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  When you have evidence of something that you have not seen, it makes it possible to believe it exists.  Without evidence, that thing is just an idea or concept, but with enough evidence it becomes established as real, or as truth, even without physically seeing it.  This initial belief in the existence of something by faith then results in a change of your understanding of the things that are related to that thing.  If this thing is significant enough, then over time, the way you act, feel, and think about everything else will change, as it is now filtered through this newly established truth.  One day the world is believed to be flat, then there is evidence to prove it is round, and everything changes.  For those who are disciples of Christ, the evidence of the claims He made is revealed to us in a real way that cannot be denied.  This evidence (which comes from Jesus Himself and the Holy Spirit) gives us the ability to believe, and as the rest of our lives are then filtered through this new truth…we change.  The more we are willing to act, feel, and think through the filter of our faith in Jesus, the greater our faith becomes (given, of course, because of God’s grace) and the more we as an individual change.  The strange thing (that I alluded to in the very first sentence) is that this changed person of great faith is who you were really created to be…so basically you are becoming your real self.  I told you it was strange (or maybe just my strange way of explaining and phrasing things).  The point of this feeble attempt at a philosophy lesson was to prelude some significant events that happened around this week’s church visit.  Now that I think about it, that message does not actually do a good job of leading into this story at all, but it was on my heart to share for some reason, so there you go…faith.  Now on to the next paragraph.

The Rest of the Story

OK, so the significant events…lets just say that a new person stumbled into my life this week.  I do not want to reveal personal information about this person, and I definitely do not want to betray any type of trust they may have in me, so I will keep their name and specific circumstances private.  What I can share is that I met this person at a time in which they were experiencing a personal crisis.  It was one of those total “God things”, because had we both not been at the exact place at the exact time, we would have never crossed paths…a few seconds would have changed everything.  The consequences of not crossing paths could have meant serious injury or even death for this person.  Even having crossed paths, if I had not had the faith or desire to do the things I did, the end result would have been just as tragic.  Trust me…it was a God thing.  Because of the way God has changed my life through faith in Him (there’s the connection I was looking for in the first paragraph), I was able to show God’s love to another human being.  I was able to offer real help to a person in crisis.  I had the faith to lay hands on them and pray for their needs and for their faith.  I had the faith to invite them to attend church with me and Laura on Sunday, and I will have the faith to continue to love and serve this person in any way I can.  These things were accomplished through faith and for the glory of God.  Faith comes from God, and the awesome results of faith glorify God.  So, Laura and I had been invited to attend North Point Community Church by Joe Danules, the President of the company she works for, Pathway Polymers, and his wife Mary Danules.  North Point Community Church is the second largest church in the country, and is pastored by Andy Stanley.  Unfortunately, the church is in Alpharetta, GA, which is a long drive from Chattanooga, but they do have a church plant called Rock Point Community Church that meets at Chattanooga Christian School.  Bingo…sounds like a winner to me!  So on Sunday morning, Laura and I picked up our new friend and headed over to CCS to check out Rock Point.

A Little Bit Different 

Having a guest along with us definitely changed the dynamic of my church experience this week.  I usually show up to the churches I visit early to try to engage in conversation with other people and to get a feel for the environment and explore the church a little bit.  Trying to coordinate with someone else’s schedule did not really work out that way, so we basically showed up at church just as the service was beginning, and as a result we did not have a chance to socialize and experience that aspect of this congregation.  We were greeted by a parking greeter, a walkway greeter, and multiple door greeters on our way from the car to the CCS auditorium, so I can say that they definitely do their part to make sure you feel welcome and know where to go.  Upon entering the CCS auditorium, we blew through the lobby after receiving a bulletin from the door greeter, and headed straight into the already darkened auditorium down to the second row of seating in front of the stage.  There was a skit going on that was a take-off from “Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader?”, but since we missed most of the skit, I did not really get the point of it and all I could tell you about it was that, just like the TV show, the kid won.  After the skit, the worship band came on stage and launched into the worship service with the force of a full-on rock concert.  The lighting in the room was dim, there was colorful up-lighting on the stage, the music was loud, and the energy was high.  The band, which consisted of keyboards, drums, bass, and multiple guitars, started with an up tempo number and then slowed the pace with two anthemic power ballads that really had Laura and me connected in a spirit of worship.  Since we were in the front of the room, I could not really provide a good description for how the rest of the congregation worshiped, but I did see many people raising hands which made it at least seem like an open and expressive environment.  After worship concluded there was a short time for greeting the people around us, collection of tithes and offerings, and then it was time for the sermon.  Normally I would provide a more vivid description of the sanctuary and church building, but since we bypassed the lobby set-up and were in a high school auditorium, that is really all I have to say about that (like Forrest Gump).

Real Evidence 

Andy Stanley on projection screen at Rock Point Community Church

Andy Stanley on projection screen at Rock Point Community Church

The sermon at Rock Point Community Church highlighted the one big difference between this church and all the others I have visited (ever).  It was coming from Andy Stanley who was preaching in person at North Point Community Church in Alpharetta, but was being “beamed in” and projected on to a big screen on the stage here in Chattanooga.  So we were actually seeing and hearing Andy Stanley live, but not in-person.  At first, I was not real crazy about that idea, and started wondering if this was really what church should be like…impersonal, a projection of a man on a screen who could not hear or see me.  But as Pastor Andy began his sermon on faith (oh, the timing) and I started getting wrapped up and focused on his message, the awareness of where the message was coming from diminished and the whole idea of the projector screen lost any sense of distraction it may have presented.  I have never heard a sermon from Andy Stanley before and have never read any of his books (honestly I didn’t even really know who he was before this week) so I must say my first impression of him was a very positive one.  He spoke fast and moved through a lot of material rather rapidly, but every point was presented very plainly and there was no struggle at all to follow along (read some thoughts on Andy Stanley on Jon Acuff’s blog, Stuff Christians Like).  He opened with an overview of faith, starting with Mark 6:3 and Matthew 8:10, noting that these are the only two Biblical instances of Jesus being described as “amazed”, in one instance by great faith, and in the other instance by a lack of faith, but in both instances it was faith that caused His amazement.  Pastor Andy followed up by pointing out that the evidence of great faith in us, is responding to situations in life in a way that shows we are absolutely confident that God is with us.  He then ran through North Point’s (and all their church plant’s) mission as it pertains to faith, and he provided examples of different levels or “leaps” of faith that we experience in life, such as “16-year-old high school student” faith, “single and just moved to Atlanta” faith, “married and just had our first baby” faith, or “parents with a teenager” faith.  In all of these faith stages of life, we are tested in different ways, leading to the question, “how do I trust God as a (insert stage of life here)?  Pastor Andy then came to the main focus of his sermon, which was the “5 main things that surface in every faith story”.  This week he went through the first two, which were:  1) Practical Biblical Teaching, and 2) Providential Relationships.  What?!??!  Are you serious?  I just had this “God thing” happen in my life, running into the person in crisis, following God’s call by faith to help them and pray for them and invite them to church, and then Andy Stanley who isn’t even in the same city as me starts going over one of the main points of his sermon, which is providential relationships.  God, you are truly amazing!  Pastor Andy described a providential relationship as someone God uses in your life as a major “faith catalyst”.  On the way out of church that morning, our new friend looks over and says to us, “that sermon made me think maybe God put you in my life for a reason”.  Wow!  Glory to God!  How is that for evidence?

Wrap-up and Prayer

The transition from Andy Stanley on the big projection screen to Powell Grisham, the lead pastor of Rock Point, who was actually standing there in person, was a little awkward…probably just because this was the first time I had experienced it.  Pastor Powell closed the service with announcements and prayer, and the lights came on and we all filed out of the auditorium.  My wife, Laura, gathered some informational materials from the visitors booth in the lobby on our way out, but since we had a guest with us we did not take time to stop and mingle and potentially meet some of the other church members.  We had some good conversation with our new friend on the way home about providential relationships and our hope that we would continue our friendship.  It is my hope that this person will continue to join us on our ChurchSurfer church visits around the Chattanooga area, and maybe transition into regular attendance at a church home, where they can continue growing in the faith as part of a faith family.  I ask that everyone reading this would keep us and this person in your prayers.  Their circumstances will require some tough decisions and life changes in order to truly follow Christ and not just believe.  Please pray that the messengers carrying the lies of the enemy are kept at bay and that this person accepts God’s call on their heart.  Pray that this person is able to clearly understand and see the evidence leading to faith that is being shown in their life and that we are all strengthened by Christ to continue sharing His love and serving others.  Thank you for your prayers!

If you enjoyed this article, please click the Google +1 button at the top or bottom of the page.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook and Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

Peace and blessings in Christ,

Josh Davis

ChurchSurfer @ Silverdale Baptist Church: A Message Meant to be Heard

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Church Experience #29 – July 24, 2011

Silverdale Baptist Church – Chattanooga, TN

Last Minute Directions

For the most part, throughout my 28 church experiences so far in 2011, I have had little trouble picking a new church to visit each week.  I have talked in previous articles about my process for picking churches, which I would basically describe as listening for “clues” or direction from the Spirit, while at the same time being intentional about selecting churches of different denominations, size, and demographics for the sake of providing better content for the ChurchSurfer blog and a better opportunity for me and Laura to grow from a wide range of experiences.  There are roughly one-thousand churches in greater Chattanooga, so the pool of potential options is certainly not limited, but for some reason I was struggling a little bit this week with making a final selection.  There were a couple of churches that I had in mind, but they just did not “feel” right as it came down to time to commit to one.  So around midnight on Saturday night I did what any reasonable husband would do in a time of crisis…ask his wife for help.  Apparently Laura did not get the memo that explained how strategic and complicated selecting a ChurchSurfer church should be, because she thought for only a minute or two and then matter-of-factly stated, “I’d like to go to Silverdale Baptist”.  The nerve!  Of course I second guessed her.  I started throwing other potential candidates out there (yes, the same ones that did not feel right to me in the first place) trying to make her waver and realize she did not go through the correct selection process.  She simply responded that the decision was ultimately up to me, but I was the one who had asked her for help.  OK…ya got me there.  So I somewhat reluctantly agreed that Silverdale Baptist would be the church we visited this week, and I continued to second guess that decision even on Sunday morning as we headed out for church.

Pop/Rock and Bubble Gum 

Silverdale Baptist construction

Silverdale Baptist construction

We pulled in to the huge Silverdale Baptist complex, which was under heavy construction at the time, and parked in one of the “visitor” parking spaces close to the building (I was feeling a little lazy, but hey, it’s one of the perks of being a visitor, so there).  I snapped a couple of construction photos as we approached the building and then we headed on over to the entrance.  There was a welcome table with a greeter just inside the door, and we were handed bulletins and a map to help us navigate through the winding hallways leading to the gym, which was the temporary worship facility while the main sanctuary was under renovations.  The gym made a pretty functional temporary sanctuary, with the only oddity being the fact that it is obviously much wider than deep, so the stage area was very shallow and stretched out.  The basketball goals were folded up overhead, and the “fake wood” gym floor was barely noticeable with all the chairs spread out over it.  The chairs were cushioned and comfortable and there was black pipe and drape behind the stage and two large projection screens above it that had countdown timers for the beginning of the worship service.  I wondered how this “second rate” temporary setup in a school gym, which would feel spectacularly impressive to many congregations out there that lack adequate facilities, would compare to the normal Silverdale Baptist sanctuary.  Laura and I watched the room fill up to capacity, and as the countdown clock neared zero, the band, which was larger than what I have seen at most contemporary churches, got in their places and then kicked off the worship music.  I would describe the music as pop/rock worship with a nice full sound that was not too loud or hard on the rock side of things, but also not too “poppy” either, even though it leaned a little farther in that direction.  I am really not a fan of music that gets over into what I would classify as the “bubble gum” side of the pop/rock spectrum, and I know in the Christian music realm that is probably the most popular style (think Avalon and Point of Grace ), but it just does not resonate within me like other styles do (acoustic worship, gospel, old hymns).  We all have our different tastes and that is what makes us unique and special.  So even though I did not deeply connect with the worship music, I did enjoy it and I am always thankful for the chance to freely worship my Savior, Jesus.

A Southern Baptist of Southern Baptists

Silverdale Baptist gym as temporary worship area

Silverdale Baptist gym as temporary worship area

After two worship songs, there was a short time of prayer and exhortation from the pastor, Tony Walliser, and then two more worship songs and a quick transition directly into the sermon.  I guess it is not out of the ordinary in Southern Baptist churches to charge right into the sermon.  A lot of other denominations seem to take a while to warm up and ease into the real “meat” of the service, and many denominations devote a lot more time to worship rather than teaching, but at a good ol’ Southern Baptist church you can always expect the main emphasis to be on a hard-driving sermon (and there is nothing wrong with that).  I like to say that the main goals of being involved in a church are the opportunities to worship, fellowship, serve, and receive instruction.  Churches use Sunday morning services, small groups, Bible study classes, discipleship training, evening and weekday services, and many other programs in different combinations to accomplish these goals, and in my opinion as long as they are succeeding, how they do it is less important than whether they do it.  So if “tug at your heart” powerful Southern Baptist sermons are your thing, let me go ahead and recommend that you take a Sunday to visit Silverdale Baptist.  Let me also pause right here to explain why I now know that Silverdale Baptist was the right church for us to visit this week.  On a recent visit to Journey Church in Hixson, we were given a free book-on-CD by John Piper entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life”.  Laura and I were going on vacation soon after receiving it, so we thought it would be an excellent time to listen to the book we had been given.  During the long car ride home after vacation we eagerly popped in the CD and listened to about two hours of some of the most intensely intellectual garble I have ever heard.  It was like talking in adult language to a baby.  Nothing was sinking in and we could not even come close to following John Piper’s high level of vocabulary and thought.  So now fast forward back to Silverdale Baptist church and Tony Walliser’s sermon entitled “Don’t Waste Your Life”.  His first external reference was to John Piper’s book that we had just failed to understand two days earlier.  Wow.  Apparently God had a message that He wanted us to hear.  Pastor Tony went through point after point dropping bombshells about how people have the “want it now” syndrome as evidenced in society in the way we use credit to obtain possessions, in the way we cannot wait for marriage to engage in sex, and so on.  He touched on how we make idols out of the things that begin to define who we are and how we spend our time and money, such as restaurants, sports stadiums, houses, and man caves.  He mentioned how the shift in architecture in recent years, dedicating more space in new homes to bigger bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets at the expense of parlors, family rooms, and dining rooms demonstrates our focus on personal pleasure rather than hospitality.  The ultimate bomb that Pastor Tony dropped came as he talked about Christians who treat mission trips like vacations, and I wondered if that had become a problem right there in Silverdale Baptist and this was his best way to address and stop it.  The end result of all of these misguided pursuits is that you end up with passive Christians who are more focused on their own personal pleasures than serving the one who created them.  We all know that in most churches twenty percent of the people do eighty percent of the work…and this sermon was intended to explain why.

Wrap Up 

Silverdale Baptist sanctuary renovations

Silverdale Baptist sanctuary renovations

Needless to say Laura and I both really received the message from Pastor Tony that morning.  We have both committed our lives to following Jesus, not just believing Him.  Thankfully we have God’s sanctifying grace to work in us all the rest of the days of our lives as we continue to learn what that means and how we can live it out.  Pastor Tony gave some excellent guidance as he closed his sermon with encouragement to pray with a sense of urgency, love with a show of hospitality, and serve with a spirit of dependency.  The point of the sermon also got driven home rather significantly as I had a live illustration sitting in the chair right beside me.  At the beginning of the service that day, a young, attractive, well-dressed lady showed up about fifteen minutes late and only arrived in enough time to hear part of the very last worship song.  She then sat through the rest of the service and texted on her cell phone non-stop.  When the service ended she bolted out before I could even turn to speak to her.  I don’t want to be judgmental of this girl, because for all I know there was some kind of serious event going on in her life that merited her full attention, but if not then why even come to church?  It’s not like you are just going to soak up the sermon and the experience without ever paying attention to it.  So this served as a wonderful illustration to me about how many people sitting in church each week are there, but they are not really there.  They sing the songs but they don’t worship.  They listen to the sermon but they don’t hear it.  The understand the message but they don’t live it.  They receive from the church but they don’t serve at it.  They believe in Jesus but they don’t follow.  Jesus did not call us to simply believe that He existed and then still live according to our own will for our own selfish pursuits.  He called us to follow and abide in Him.  If you don’t understand what that means then I would encourage you to find someone who can help disciple you…they will likely be one of the twenty percent at your church who are doing eighty percent of the work.  Don’t waste your life.

Silverdale Baptist Church

Silverdale Baptist Church

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone you know who may be interested, and I also invite you to connect on Facebook or Twitter.  Please post comments below, and you can email me directly at josh@churchsurfer.com.

ChurchSurfer @ Church of the First Born: Image and Expectations

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Church Experience #28 – July 17, 2011

Church of the First Born – Chattanooga, TN

To Gain a Better Perspective

At the beginning of the summer, I visited Union Chapel (also known as “The Little Brown Church“) and was exposed to an inner city pastor named Alfred “No Middle Name” Johnson for the first time.  The article I wrote about that church experience dealt in part with observing the contrast of a black inner city pastor preaching at a white Signal Mountain church.  For the purposes of ChurchSurfer this provided great content because, in my mind, talking about how the love of Christ allows His people to rise above things that do not make sense to the world (all they see is the paradox of an inner city black man teaching wealthy white people), is a great way to glorify our Lord.  I felt like that article, although limited to just one speaker in a church that hosts a different speaker every week, did a good job capturing the essence of what the Little Brown Church is all about.  What the article did not do, however, was capture a clear picture of what Alfred Johnson was all about.  I was greatly impressed and intrigued with his sermon at the Little Brown Church in the way that it basically called to attention the current generation of youth that we, as Christians, are failing to reach in so many ways.  A sharp sermon delivered by a fiery preacher definitely gives insight into the man and his ministry, but it does not give a complete picture of either.  In order to get a more complete picture I knew I would actually have to see him in his ministry.  I needed to visit Church of the First Born, where Alfred Johnson serves as Pastor and see him in action in his own environment.  I always look forward to visiting churches where I am an ethnic minority anyway, because I feel like if I really want to gain a deeper understanding of other cultures and grow in my ability to truly love and connect to all people, I need to be exposed to people who are different than me.  If you really want to discover your own capacity for love, you cannot build walls and limit your contact to what you know…you have to explore the unknown.  So here is how my experience at Church of the First Born went…

A Hand-clapping Good Time

Laura and I parked on a crowded St. Elmo Avenue that was bustling with activity in between the 10:00 and 11:00 AM services at Church of the First Born in the Southside District of Chattanooga.  We exchanged smiles and some “good morning’s” with several people as we swerved through the crowd in front of the building, then through the small foyer and into the sanctuary.  The room was mostly white with a crimson carpet runner down the center aisle leading up to the stage area, which had two rows of choir seats behind three larger wooden chairs and a wood podium and altar table with a flower arrangement.  Beside the stage area was a multi-level electric keyboard setup and a drum kit enclosed by plexi-glass sound walls.  I looked around the room as the time for the service to begin was quickly approaching and noticed that attendance was much lower than what I had expected.  Laura and I sat and observed the scene with smiles on our faces, occasionally greeting the people who sat down closest to us.  There was never an intentional call to worship, but instead the music just started up and people slowly joined in as they ended conversations and got settled in to their seats.  Everyone was initially sitting down as the gospel-style worship music continued, and after a few minutes the music stopped for a responsive reading of Psalm 139 by Pastor Johnson, who was clothed in a white robe similar to what I was used to seeing in the United Methodist churches I grew up in.  By this time the room had almost filled to capacity, and I did see two or three other white people out of well over one hundred who were in attendance (just to point out that we were not the only ones).  The worship music was made up of joyful, up-tempo, hand-clapping gospel numbers that typically repeated lyrical sections as the music increased in volume and complexity and built to a climax.  Two of Pastor Johnson’s sons provided skillful mastery of their instruments (and looked much more at home on the electric keyboard than the old upright piano they had played at the Little Brown Church) as they flashed facial expressions and nods to the choir singers to signal the changes in the songs.  In the middle of the singing and clapping I drifted off on a quick mind journey about the differences between traditional hymn music and gospel music.  I reasoned that gospel music is more about making a beautiful sound than having deep lyrical substance, like the old-time hymn writers seemed to be focused on.  Don’t get me wrong here…I do not think one style is more worshipful than the other, but rather that hymns are like singing Scripture and gospel is like singing prayer…they are just different.  Either way, I love both styles and I can get to that place of totally connected worship through each of them.

A Question of Meaning

After the worship music ended, Pastor Johnson led the congregation in a heartfelt prayer, which embodied sincerity and conviction and sounded nothing like some of the written and rehearsed prayers I have heard at many other churches.  Before beginning his sermon, Pastor Johnson acknowledged all of the visitors that were in attendance for “family and friends day”, acknowledged any other visitors who were not invited by a friend or family member (Laura and I were the only ones), then directed the congregation to enjoy a fellowship time with the people around them (and included an order not to leave your seat and walk around aisles, which I took to mean that this congregation tended to get carried away with fellowship sometimes).  We then sang two more worship songs, one of which was a call-and-response style song led by Pastor Johnson and his raspy, soulful, made-for-gospel singing voice.  At the end of the song, he began his sermon (finally…I was really looking forward to it) which was centered on finding meaning in life.  He pointed out that suicide is now the number two killer of teenagers in our country, and raised questions about why self-image has become such a problem.  He noted that understanding your existence, your significance, and the intention of your life as it relates to God and our creation by Him, is the path to finding meaning in life.  Pastor Johnson’s message was obviously tailored to the issues that dominate the lives of his inner-city audience, but anyone can find relevance in this type of message, and it is my opinion (although I don’t have any research to back it up) that self-inflicted violence is probably a bigger problem in high income society than it is in low income society.  In fact, Pastor Johnson even closed with a statement that backs up that opinion when he said that disappointment comes from expectations.  I would argue that expectations are higher for wealthier teenagers than for anyone else, which can easily lead to depression and suicide if their performance or self-image does not fall in line with those expectations.  Pastor Johnson actually touched on the different income levels of society by saying that people go through life either at the “survival” level (low income) in which they are controlled by their circumstances, the “successful” level (high income) in which they live comfortably but struggle to find true fulfillment, or the “significant” level (any income level) in which they understand that God is the only way to find purpose and meaning.

Closing Thoughts and Prayer

As service closed, I left feeling both uplifted by the worship and message, but also slightly disappointed that I did not have more opportunities to engage with other members of the church.  I felt like there were so many other visitors there for “family and friends day” that it would have been difficult for regular members to get through all the various introductions and conversations and actually reach out to visitors who did not have someone there introducing them to everyone.  On the other hand, it should have been very obvious that we were visitors, being two out of about five white people in attendance that morning, so we should have been pretty easy to spot for anyone looking to welcome in outsiders.  This was quite a contrast to some of the other black churches I have visited in the area, where I had received a very intentional open and warm welcome.  But at the end of the day, this was still an opportunity for me to grow, to strive to love like Christ loves, and to contemplate how I may be able to present myself as more approachable to people of a different ethnicity or culture.  If I am unable to connect with believers who are different than me, how will I ever be able to connect with non-believers who are different?  So I close this week with a prayer, that through the discernment of the Spirit in me, I will be able to see through all physical and worldly distinctions between myself and anyone else and instead connect to all people by the perfect love of Christ.  Amen.

I apologize for not having photos to include this week, I was immediately absorbed into the hubbub of the day and never had the chance to step aside and take pictures (in other words, I just forgot).

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ChurchSurfer @ Journey Church: The Church, Not the Band (Journey)

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Church Experience #27 – July 10, 2011

Journey Church – Hixson, TN

Many Questions

The non-denominational Christian church movement in recent years is a curious thing to me.  I always wonder how each of these churches came into existence.  Some of these churches meet in people’s homes, in rented or shared commercial space, in re-purposed abandoned buildings, in church buildings of disbanded churches, the list goes on and on.  How they came into being is a whole other story.  They may have split from another church, they may have been a church plant from some organization, they may have started as a Bible study group that grew into a church, and I am sure there are countless other ways in which non-denominational churches continue to pop up.  For some reason I find it very interesting to think about these things…about how churches get formed, grow, and become a part of the community and have an impact on society.  I have done very little research about individual church origins, but I bet there are some great stories out there.  A completely separate rabbit trail of thought is how and why the non-denominational church movement itself began.  Was there too little flexibility within denominations for different styles of worship and self-expression?  Were there doctrinal issues that denominations were unwilling to budge on?  One big question I often ponder is whether it is a good or bad thing that the Christian church continues to fracture and divide into more denominations and also unconnected non-denominational churches, or whether it has any consequence at all.  I may not receive a definitive answer to these questions during my lifetime, but it does not mean I should stop considering them…or the question of what I can do to try to bring unconnected churches together.  The one thing I do feel sure about is that God would rather see his followers united than divided.  We, as the Church (big “C”) need to have a heart for each other, no matter what, and find a way to work together to serve our Lord, Jesus Christ.  These are all things that have been on my mind since my visit to Journey Church, a non-denominational church in Hixson, TN.  Here is how my experience went…

Hurricane Carol 

Journey Church in the hallway

Journey Church in the hallway

Laura and I pulled into the parking lot for Journey Church, which is in a re-purposed commercial building right beside the Wal-Mart on Highway 153, and really did not feel like we were going to church (that should tell you something about expectations in this country).  In fact, nothing about the yellow-ish colored metal-sided building said church at all, except for the signs and two door greeters standing in the hot morning sun.  I personally think it is great that churches are thinking outside of the box now, and using existing space (no matter what it looks like) rather than continuing to invest in new construction…why waste more resources?  As we approached the door we were warmly greeted and as the friendly gentlemen opened the door for us, we encountered a third greeter just inside, named Carol.  Carol exuded passion and enthusiasm and immediately made us feel welcome.  She asked us to put on name tags and then proceeded to take us on a tour of the facility.  We were stopped and hugged by another enthusiastic lady (don’t most churches have a “hug lady”?) along the way, and Carol showed us all of the child care facilities (even though we did not have a child with us…it was like she was showing off their children, like a proud grandparent) and led us to the sanctuary.  After the tour, she took us back to the coffee station so we could get a cup of coffee (she could probably tell I needed one) and while we were filling cups of God’s glorious brown nectar of life (OK, so I’m a coffee lover), Carol went and grabbed us some freebies…travel mug, bracelet, etc.  We happily sipped on our coffee as we headed back into the sanctuary, still partially in shock from Hurricane Carol (I’ve gone a little overboard here, but just trying to make the point that she was extremely nice, accommodating, and enthusiastic…which I greatly appreciated).

Don’t Call Me a Music Critic 

Journey Church sanctuary

Journey Church sanctuary

The sanctuary (and basically the whole interior of the building) had a warehouse feel to it, with stained concrete floors, exposed ceilings, and corrugated metal walls.  The lighting rigs on the ceiling and the up-lighting from the back of the stage gave the room a nightclub rock concert type of atmosphere, and the shallow stage with a drum kit, keyboards, and guitars dominating the space only added to it.  A group of twenty-somethings stood on the stage in a prayer huddle, and after disbanding for a few moments to mingle around, returned to the stage and took their places with instruments and microphones.  Laura and I had been having a short conversation with another young couple seated in front of us, Kim and Kurt, and I had also been watching the room fill in from about thirty people in attendance to what looked like about fifty shortly after the worship had began.  There was a large screen above the stage, which projected a “…5, 4, 3, 2, 1…” countdown (also chanted by the congregation) to worship, which I thought was pretty novel and and a cool idea.  The worship was heavily rock-influenced modern contemporary and the volume was definitely cranked up, creating the feeling that I was fully enveloped in the sound.  The musicians were talented and the female singer had an exceptional timbre that was perfectly suited for the style of worship music they played.  I have mentioned before in my article about The Net Church, that the modern alt-rock worship style does not really allow me to sing and connect through participation as much as other styles.  If I knew the songs better maybe it would lead to a different experience, but I find these songs more difficult to catch on to and connect with…but at the same time, they are more in line with the style of music that I prefer to listen to, so even though I do not connect through participation, I still connect to the music through “feeling it” (if that makes any sense).  So I cannot really say that I am missing out on anything by not singing as much as I usually do…I am still enjoying and worshiping God just the same.  Still, I would not want to completely lose the “belt it out” singing that you get from some of the classic hymns and worship songs that we all know and love, so I am hoping that they get mixed in at Journey Church as well.

Unpolished

After worship, a man came up to the stage to deliver the sermon.  This person was not the pastor of the church (Mark Love) so I can just assume that he is either an associate pastor or maybe a lay speaker.   Since I failed to get a name, I will just refer to him as “the speaker”.  One thing I found particularly interesting was that the speaker was dressed in shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes.  I have no problem with this, and I think that as long as our nakedness is appropriately covered by something that does not display offensive material, all is well (for the most part, anyway…hopefully you get my point).  The reason I think this is interesting is that usually even at the most casual of casual churches, the pastor will be wearing something that is at least one level of casual less than everyone else (worship leaders are a much different story).  Anyway, the speaker taught from Acts 9 about the conversion of Saul into Paul.  He bounced around a few main points, delivering a somewhat unpolished sermon, but nevertheless bringing out some important lessons from the Scripture topic and some needed exhortations on living a Christian life.  I do not want to sound critical of the speaker, but I do want to convey that it was actually kind of refreshing to hear someone deliver a sermon like a regular person.  What I mean is…sometimes pastors can be so polished that they sound phony or insincere.  It is sort of like me writing this blog.  I am not an accomplished author who has dedicated years of his life to literary studies and amassed an expansive vocabulary in the process (I was trying to sound smart there…did it work?).  I am just a regular “Joe” (Josh, actually) who can hopefully parlay the limited abilities I do have into pieces of work that accomplish something for the Kingdom.  So it sure is nice to hear someone who I can relate to do the preaching in a church, and also deliver a sermon that you know without a shadow of a doubt is from the heart instead of a sermon that sounds extremely well crafted.  So even though I did not get to hear Pastor Mark Love speak, I have to give him kudos for not feeling like he has to deliver every sermon at Journey Church.

More Questions

The service was closed with final worship song, and on the way out Laura and I were again hugged by the “hug lady” (thanks!) and greeted by several people including Pastor Mark Love and several others who encouraged us to come back.  In addition to all of the questions and thoughts I touched on at the beginning of this article, I jotted down a few additional ones in my notebook that I will leave you with.  I think these are questions/thoughts that every church’s leaders and members should consider and hopefully discuss openly with one another to clarify and prepare.  They are…If I am someone (a visitor) who is hungry for God, where would I go in your church?  How would I be directed there?  Who would help me find the way?  If the message that is preached at a church is led by the Holy Spirit, then it must be an indicator of where this particular church is on their journey, how healthy they are spiritually, and their level of maturity in the faith (because God would want the message to be delivered to the right people at the right time, right?).  Do your sermons reflect these things about your church?  What does that say about your church?  Do you hear the Spirit in the messages?  Hopefully these are as intriguing thoughts and questions for you as they are for me…and maybe they will give you a little something to think about and discuss until next week.  Then at least I will have done a little something valuable through this blog!

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone who may be interested and make sure to “like” it on Facebook.  I truly hope you enjoy reading about the ChurchSurfer journey! 

Josh & Laura - weekly self portrait

Josh & Laura - weekly self portrait

Josh Davis

ChurchSurfer @ White Oak United Methodist: Love the One You’re With

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Church visit #26 – July 3, 2011

White Oak United Methodist Church – Red Bank, TN

It’s Been How Long?

To start this week’s article I would like to take a moment to celebrate, reflect, and glorify God for a ChurchSurfer milestone…I am now officially halfway through my fifty church visits for 2011.  This week is my twenty-sixth church visit of the year and I cannot believe how quickly it has gone by and the amazing things that I have experienced.  The most valuable things I have taken away from the experience so far are the spiritual growth that Laura and I have both been blessed with, and the wonderful people we have met along the way.  I thank the Lord Jesus Christ, that He has walked with me every step of the way, giving me discernment, understanding, compassion, humility, love, and a willingness to venture outside of a normal routine without fear of being scoffed at, ridiculed, or not accepted.  These accomplishments and fruits of the Spirit serve as evidence of God’s power to work through us for good, and to build up and equip His followers as heirs and ambassadors for His Kingdom.  I thank God and hope that this blog and these experiences are in some way an encouragement, an opportunity for reflection, a call to action, or a help in some way to all who read it, for it would be a major disappointment to think that this journey was in any way self-serving.  With that being said, there are still twenty-five more church visits to go, starting with this one.  One of my goals for the next six months will be to continue to explore different denominations, cultures, and parts of town to seek Christ in each place…how He is taught, worshiped, and glorified by different groups of believers.  This can sometimes be controversial, and although Christians have plenty of disagreements, I would rather confront them rather than allow them to keep us divided (probably not a popular stance, I know).  So this week I decided to attend a church that has something that none of the other churches I have been to so far this year have had…a female (senior) pastor.  This is probably very controversial to some and probably no big deal to others, but it’s an experience I wanted to have, so here is how it went…

Piano Man 

White Oak United Methodist Church

White Oak United Methodist Church

At some point over the past few months, a friend of Laura’s mentioned a local female pastor who had a blog that she thought I would enjoy.  The blog she was referring to was Amy’s Journal that Amy Whatley, pastor of White Oak United Methodist Church, wrote during Easter of this year.  I read her blog and decided that including a female-pastored church in the ChurchSurfer journey would be another interesting experience to explore and share, and so here we were in Red Bank ready to check things out.  On the way up to the traditional red-brick church building, we saw a man hanging out on the front porch, and as we walked closer he came down the front steps (seemingly too eager to wait for us to go up the steps to him) and greeted us enthusiastically, walking us back up the steps to the porch and engaging us in conversation the whole way.  The man’s name was Tony, and he recognized me and greeted me by name (quite impressive), stating that he was the Facebook page administrator for the church and he remembered me from when I had “liked” the White Oak Facebook page the previous day.  After a short conversation, Tony pointed us into the sanctuary, and we exchanged a few quick greetings and handshakes on our way through the lobby.  The sanctuary of the church was a traditional large white room, with wooden cushioned pews, and a white pulpit trimmed in natural wood.  There were large pastel stained glass windows down the walls and an altar table in front of the pulpit with a vase of flowers and two candles.  As we sat down in a pew near the front, Laura and I chuckled after hearing an enthusiastic “mornin’ ladies” come from an elderly man with a walker as he greeted a group of women on his way down the aisle.  A few moments later we were greeted by a man named Robert, who my wife had recognized from his picture on the “new members” cork board in the hallway, and who we later learned was the husband of the pastor.  There was plenty of conversation around the room and we had received a cheerful welcome by Tony, Robert, and quite a few others, which always helps us feel a little more connected to the churches we visit.  Worship time was beginning and the choir filed in to the pulpit in green robes and the worship leader kicked off the morning with “America” on the piano.  We sang a few piano-driven hymns, which were not necessarily played in the traditional sort of way, but more like a modern piano arrangement, like you would expect from a Billy Joel or Elton John song (that’s probably not a very good comparison, but the best that comes to mind right now).  During worship time there were also segments for announcements from Pastor Amy, celebrations and praises from the congregation, the Happy Birthday Song for Hazel (probably one of those ladies that everyone in the church knows), prayer requests, and personal greetings (during which Pastor Amy came down to introduce herself to us).  Worship time was closed out with the collection of offerings, which was accompanied by “America the Beautiful” on the piano, and then a choir solo.  I assumed this was not a typical Sunday experience for this church, being a holiday weekend which probably results in low attendance and I also noticed a drum kit on stage that went unused.  I hardly missed any other instrumentation with the spirited piano playing from the worship leader, and resolved that sometimes less is more.

A Woman’s Perspective 

White Oak UMC sanctuary

White Oak UMC sanctuary

 

Pastor Amy came up and led the congregation in some responsive readings and the Lord’s Prayer, both of which are United Methodist traditions (and ones that I particularly like), and then began her sermon on Rebekah from Genesis 24.  Her sermon had excellent points as she went through the narrative about how Rebekah came to be selected and then agreed to be married to Isaac, but I could definitely tell the sermon was taught from a woman’s perspective.  She spoke more about the relationships and feelings that the people in this Scripture had, rather than the actual events and their implications.  She also made use of her witty humor to stay engaged with the congregation, while also focusing in on some key life lessons such as…godly men should be looking for a queen to marry, not a princess, and people seeking a relationship or marriage should work on becoming a good potential mate rather than trying to find someone who fits you the way you are.  Pastor Amy also related these lessons to the church, pointing out that we should all “be the church” and take action when we see something that is missing, such as a particular Bible study topic, a child-care program, or a community service opportunity.  She called on the congregation to “love the one you’re with” and invest themselves in making White Oak United Methodist a better place.  One of the consistent topics I have heard over and over again throughout the year resurfaced yet again as Pastor Amy dismissed the current culture of consumerism and how it plays into the way people “church shop” for a church home by what it has to offer them.  This, in my own opinion, should not be the deciding factor in where we choose to worship, which should instead be the result of prayer for guidance from the Holy Spirit to be led to a church that you can best serve with your spiritual gifts and talents, and where you can be fed through real relationships.  My opinion is that authentic worship is more in our control and can be achieved no matter what church we attend (although I do admit there are certain tastes and preferences at play there as well).  At the close of the service the congregation was offered communion, which was a huge blessing for me since for some reason it felt like it had been forever since the last time communion was offered at a church service I had attended.  The pews filed down to the front and knelt side by side in all the available spaces at the altar rail around the pulpit and those serving communion offered a pinch of bread into our cupped hands, which we then dipped into the cup and ate, remembering the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was sacrificed as payment for our sins.  We returned to our seats and prayed silently for a few minutes before being dismissed with a blessing.

Final Thoughts 

White Oak United Methodist pulpit

White Oak United Methodist pulpit

On our way out of the service, we were again greeted and thanked for attending by many of the church members.  As we were headed out the door I told Pastor Amy that I would appreciate the opportunity to have coffee or lunch together at some point during the week so that I could get to know a little more about the church and her history, and was surprised when she replied “well what are you doing right now?”  Laura and I did not have any lunch plans so we happily joined Amy and Robert for lunch at a Mexican restaurant just down the street.  One of the things that I always notice while going from church to church is how easy or difficult it is to connect with the pastor (I usually leave a visitor card explaining that I write a blog about local churches and would like to speak to them in person, or if I have the chance to speak to them before or after the service I bring it up right then).  Some pastors have been very interested in meeting and talking with me, others have seemed unsure of why I want to meet with them, instead offering to speak by phone, and others have been (sadly) downright unapproachable and seemed to have the attitude that a meeting with the pastor is some kind of special privilege for important people.  Believe it or not, Amy was the first pastor that has offered to share a meal that same day, which we gladly accepted and thoroughly enjoyed.  She showed not only through her sermon but by her actions also, that we can all “be the church” by seeking opportunities to engage new people and see where it leads.  I will leave the debate of whether or not it is Biblical to allow women to serve as pastors to be held in another forum dedicated to theology and doctrine (I am sorry to disappoint you if you were hoping for my thoughts on that matter).  The ChurchSurfer blog is about personal experiences and people, and I am happy to say that at White Oak United Methodist Church I was blessed with some new friends…thanks Amy, Robert, Tony, and all the other fine people we met.  May the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone who may be interested and make sure to “like” it on Facebook.  I truly hope you enjoy reading about the ChurchSurfer journey! 

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait 4th of July

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait 4th of July

Josh Davis

ChurchSurfer @ Hamilton Community Church: My First Adventist Experience

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Church visit # 25 – Saturday, June 25, 2011

Hamilton Community Church (Seventh-Day Adventist) – Chattanooga, TN

Denominationalized

One of the things that has been amazing about the ChurchSurfer journey so far has been the overwhelming response from the people I have talked to who have told me that after reading one ChurchSurfer article (usually about their own church) they continued to keep up with the blog week after week.  The majority of these people have told me that the reason they like to keep up with it is because it gives them insight into what is going on in other churches in the community.  It gives them a sense of “having been there” without actually being there.  You could argue that it is good for Christians to venture out of their home church on occasion to visit another congregation, but many people simply do not have the desire to do that.  They are understandably connected to their own church and do not want to miss out on their “family” time.  This is especially true of church leaders…elders, deacons, teachers, preachers, pastors, etc.  The church leaders are potentially the ones who would get the most out of experiencing other congregations, but are obviously the ones who would have the hardest time sacrificing a Sunday (or Saturday for the Adventists) at their own church.  The result of never venturing outside of your own church is that people tend to become “denominationalized” (OK, I just made that word up), meaning that they become intensely loyal to their own church denomination, adopting it as their identity in some instances, which can lead to forming negative stereotypes and attitudes toward other churches and denominations.  This is where it becomes a problem.  If we harbor these ill feelings toward other churches, how in the world are we supposed to work together to advance the Kingdom of God?  Of course I know that there actually are substantial differences in doctrine and practice from denomination to denomination, and I agree with C.S. Lewis who writes in his book “Mere Christianity” (a HIGHLY recommended read) that Christians cannot even agree on what is acceptable to disagree about (what are salvation vs. non-salvation issues?).  But the more we disagree, the less we work together, and the less we work together, the less we will accomplish for God, plain and simple.  So it was my intent with ChurchSurfer…both for myself and for those who read the blog…to experience as many different denominations as possible and hopefully come away with a better understanding of who we all are and a more open and positive outlook on how we can work together.  It was this desire that led me this week to visit a denomination I had absolutely zero knowledge and experience with, aside from reading “The Great Controversy” by Ellen G. White about ten years ago (which was donated to me by a missionary).  The denomination I am referring to is Seventh-Day Adventist (or just Adventist).  So Laura and I got up on Saturday morning and here is what happened…

Cafe Time

Hamilton Community Church, Seventh-Day Adventist

Hamilton Community Church

I have to say, after a lifetime of attending Sunday worship it was a very odd feeling to get up on a Saturday morning and head for church.  But to visit a Seventh-Day Adventist (SDA) church, that is exactly what we had to do.  Saturday worship is easily the most obvious difference between SDA and most other Christian denominations, but after reading their fundamental beliefs I was curious to see if there were other major differences in doctrine or practice, or if SDA was “just another” denomination that happens to worship on a different day of the week.  I’m not sure why, but it seems to me like the SDA church is classified (by people of most denom’s) alongside the Mormon church and Jehovah’s Witness church as having departed from the mainstream Christian tradition and basically becoming a separate religion unto themselves.  I am not sure where that thought came from for me, but that is why I had to go see for myself…why would I just accept a stereotype of which I could not even identify the origin or basis?  These were the thoughts that floated around in my head as Laura and I approached Hamilton Community Church, which has a nice, modern looking building on Shallowford Road in East Brainerd.  I glanced across the parking lot to see what other people were wearing (something I always pay attention to at churches), and concluded that I was appropriately dressed in church-y casual (as opposed to slacker casual) and felt comfortable that at least I would not be immediately pegged as an outsider according to the way I was dressed.  On the way in the door, we were handed a bulletin by a fifty-something gentleman with a smile, and we headed on down the hallway to do a little exploring.  We showed up early to see what the “Cafe” time from 11:00 – 11:30 AM that was listed on the website was all about.  We saw a Cafe sign above a door and were delighted to find that inside was a table spread full of breads, fruit, bagels, cookies, and a beverage area with juice, coffee, and tea.  I appreciated the hospitality of this church to provide refreshments for everyone, but more than that I know that food creates a social atmosphere, and I hoped that hanging out in the cafe area would facilitate some conversations with people.  We filled up a plate and a cup-a-joe and headed out to a table in the hallway to eat and socialize.  The fruit and bread hit the spot, but unfortunately the socializing did not happen.  Everyone around seemed to be generally cheerful and we were smiled at a lot but never spoken to, which was quite a let-down considering this was one church where I really would have appreciated it if someone would have reached out to us.  I do want to note here that the environment was very “homey” and my wife and I both thought it was extremely cool that the main hallway was lined with all sorts of framed photos of church members, families, and functions.

A (Not-So-Brief) Description

Hamilton Community Church sanctuary

Hamilton Community Church sanctuary

After finishing our snacks, we entered the sanctuary and were instantly impressed with the beautiful atmospherics.  The room was dimly lit, with colored up-lighting that accentuated the ferns, palms, crosses, draperies, and candles that decorated the walls and stage.  There was a clear podium at the front of the stage with two large video screens directly overhead pointing out at opposite angles to the seating area.  We went up to the front and grabbed a couple of seats and after a few minutes a man named Kevin came up and introduced himself as a church elder and welcomed us.  After a quick (but satisfying due to the quiet morning so far) conversation with Kevin, the praise band, consisting of acoustic guitar, bass, drums, and two female singers, came up and started an instrumental intro as the congregation settled into place.  All the members of the worship team were very young (surprising since older church members sometimes dictate the music style), appearing to be fresh out of high school, or maybe still in it.  After announcements, the worship music kicked off and was mostly peppy, up-tempo, acoustic-driven contemporary worship.  The congregation was pretty deeply immersed into the worship experience, with lots of clapping and some raised hands.  Worship lasted a full thirty minutes, briefly interrupted by the “Lamb’s offering” that was taken up by the small children of the congregation, which of course provided plenty of cute moments and chuckles from the adults, and a fellowship time in which people walked all around the room shaking hands and greeting one another.  After worship ended, everyone was invited to come up to the front to kneel and join in personal prayer time, which was referred to as “prayer garden” or to kneel at their seat, which Laura and I did.  There was a group prayer followed by a silent time for personal prayer and then a closing group prayer.  I enjoyed kneeling during this segment, and I have often wondered (and have mentioned before in a previous blog) why kneeling during prayer has (sadly) been largely removed from many churches and denominations today.  The worship and prayer time did not strike me as any different from other denominations I have attended, and as the pastor came up to deliver the sermon I was curious what type of message it would include.  The pastor, Dave Ketelsen, introduced his sermon topic as two-part discussion on “how to know God’s will in your life”, and credited part of his research on the matter to George Mueller.  During his sermon, pastor Dave cited the first four of eight principles on knowing God’s will, but what really stuck out to me was a quote he mentioned, saying “never let those who say it can’t be done interrupt those who are doing it”.  Now if that is not a quote to take to heart, I don’t know what is.  Sometimes what we perceive as God’s will for us may seem improbable or even impossible, but if it is indeed His will then we have to know that He will provide a way for us to accomplish it.  All too often there are nay-sayers all around us pressing their negativity toward us…”you can’t do it”, “you shouldn’t try it”, “it’s not your responsibility”, “you must be crazy”…but we cannot let those who are not in touch with God be allowed to dissuade us from God’s lofty expectations for us.  Others are doing great works for the Kingdom and bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and you can too!  Do not let those who say it can’t be done interrupt those who are doing it!  Amen!

A Brief Summary (After a Long Description)

Hamilton Community Church member photos

Hamilton Community Church member photos

To summarize my first Seventh-Day Adventist experience, I would have to say that nothing was terribly different from most other denominations I am used to…Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Non-denominational…there are always minor differences, but nothing Earth-shattering (or faith-shattering).  I am sure there are some fundamental differences (and I have been told since my visit that Hamilton Community is a fairly liberal SDA congregation), but it is my guess that it will take a visit to another (maybe more traditional) SDA church on down the road sometime, and hopefully some meaningful conversation with church members and leaders, to explore them.  I enjoyed the worship, the prayer, the message, and the food, but severely missed any real connection to the people inside the church, where I felt like I really would have fulfilled my goal of experiencing and understanding the Adventists.

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone who may be interested and make sure to “like” it on Facebook.  I truly hope you enjoy reading about the ChurchSurfer journey!

Josh Davis

 

 

ChurchSurfer @ Scott Memorial Church of God: In Need of Fathers

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Church Visit #24 – June 19, 2011

Scott Memorial Church of God – East Ridge, TN

Added Pressure

In the week leading up to this week’s church visit, I received an interesting phone call.  Clint  Cooper from the Chattanooga Times Free Press called me to inquire about doing a newspaper profile on the ChurchSurfer project.  Clint and I had met a few months earlier at a weekend event called the Walk to Emmaus, at which he had heard me mention the ChurchSurfer blog, and since then he had read it and apparently felt like it would be a good story to share in the “Life” section of the Times Free Press.  I was all for it, of course…my thought all along has been that the stories from these churches would be a valuable resource for people in Chattanooga…and hopefully uplifting and entertaining as well.  After making arrangements for a photographer to come out and meet me at the church I was visiting (but still had not chosen) I realized that having a photographer taking pictures of me may complicate the “average-Joe-first-time-visitor” experience that I’m always looking to write about.  I immediately began deliberating about the various churches I had been considering, and questioning to myself whether they would feel intruded upon or exposed, or maybe feel like I was reporting or investigating their church rather than just writing an experiential blog article about it.  I became somewhat troubled about this decision and thought about calling the pastor of a church beforehand to alert them to what would be going on, but then I reasoned that I would be making a bigger deal out of this thing than it really was.  On the morning that I was supposed to call Clint back to let him know which church I would be attending, I still had not made a decision.  I was looking at the calendar and it suddenly dawned upon me that this Sunday was Father’s Day.  My dad, Mark Davis, recently became the Interim Pastor at Scott Memorial Church of God in East Ridge.  How could I possibly choose any other church in the city of Chattanooga to attend on Father’s Day over my dad’s church?  Problem solved!  Not to mention that if having a photographer around caused a stir I probably wouldn’t get kicked out of a church where my dad is preaching, haha!  Thank you Lord!  So here we go…

A Father’s Day Surprise

Scott Memorial Church of God

Scott Memorial Church of God

Laura and I pulled into the gravel parking lot outside of Scott Memorial Church of God (of the Church of God Anderson, Indiana denomination, not Church of God Cleveland, Tennessee), gathered our Bibles and journals, and exited our vehicle.  We immediately saw a shaggy-haired man with a smile approach us, introducing himself as John Rawlston from the Times Free Press.  We chatted a few moments about the ChurchSurfer blog and he then snapped some photos of us in the church parking lot and then a few more of us walking up to the entrance.  At first I had been a little unsure about having John come inside the church with us, but after meeting him, I was put at ease about that decision and invited him to come inside.  As we headed toward the entrance, we were greeted enthusiastically by an older gentleman who opened the door for us and handed us a bulletin with an eager smile and a firm handshake.  We were stopped a couple of times on our way down the hallway by people who recognized we were visitors and wanted to welcome us, and after a few quick introductions we proceeded on down to the lobby outside of the sanctuary where we saw my step-mom Jean and our good friend Rhonda seated on a bench.  Just like any other week we did not reveal our church visit intentions, and we especially wanted this week’s visit to be a Father’s Day surprise for my dad anyway, so we just showed up completely unannounced.  Jean and Rhonda hopped up from their seats with excitement and hugged us both and began introducing us to the people around them.  After a few minutes of conversation we headed on in to the sanctuary where I saw my dad (I’ll refer to him as pastor Mark through the rest of the article) seated in a pew making some last minute sermon notes.  We gave him hugs and wished him a happy Father’s Day and then all stood around fellowshipping for a few more minutes until the piano music that had started in the background reminded us that church service was ready to begin.  All the while John Rawlston had perched himself at various vantage points, snapping photos unobtrusively in between introductions and explanations about who he was and what he was doing.  As service was about to begin he came up and thanked me, letting me know that he was finished and was making his exit.

The Church Experience

Scott Memorial COG sanctuary

Scott Memorial COG sanctuary

The Scott Memorial COG sanctuary was mostly off-white with pastel stained glass windows and traditional wooden church pews.  The pulpit was decorated with ferns and there was an altar table with two burning candles and a vase of fresh flowers positioned in front of a clear plexiglass podium at the front of the stage and a recessed baptismal in the wall behind the stage with a wooden cross above it.  There was a screen projection on the wall just to the right of the baptismal with an animated “Happy Father’s Day” screen saver soon giving way to a humorous montage of video clips, after which the congregation sang Happy Father’s Day to the tune of the happy birthday song.  All the men in the congregation were then given “Man of God” ink pens with an eagle on them as a gift (very thoughtful) and the church members with visitors in attendance were then asked to introduce their guests (Laura and I were introduced by Jean).  After the guest introductions, we all stood for the worship time and proceeded through a series of classic hymns, including “I Love to Tell the Story” and “Because He Lives”, that were accompanied by a lady on the keyboard, a backing audio track played over the sound system, and a praise group of six women who sang from the stage.  In between worship songs the collection plates were passed around while we were treated to a beautiful piano solo, and as worship time finished, pastor Mark led the congregation in a prayer followed by the Lord’s Prayer which was recited by all.  This made me wonder why all churches do not recite the Lord’s Prayer each week.  It is very obvious that these are powerful words which were used as an example by Jesus Himself when asked by the disciples to teach them how to pray.  I know we all have individual and church prayer requests, and I don’t think churches should discontinue the personal prayer time, but why not add the Lord’s Prayer on to the end so that everyone can participate?  It just seems to me that if we are given specific instruction on how to do a few things such as prayer and communion, it is probably a good idea to do them…just sayin’.

The Plight of Fatherlessness

Laura, Jean, and Rhonda

Laura, Jean, and Rhonda

After praying, pastor Mark began his sermon by referring to a long list of alarming statistics from the First Things First website in a subsection called “the plight of fatherlessness”.  I highly recommend reading through these statistics, because the more awareness we all have about the problem of fatherlessness that is crippling our country right now, the better chance we have of changing it.  Pastor Mark transitioned the mood from troubling to lighthearted by going into his weekly top ten list, which this week was a list of first-grader’s responses to well know proverbs.  This provided some much needed laughter after such depressing statistics, and he then referenced the Scripture of Ephesians 6: 1-4 to begin his message.  He outlined four things that dads need to give their children, which he explained were unconditional love, focused attention, discipline, and the blessing.  As he went into detail and used examples from real life and from Scripture to explain each one, he appeared to be emotionally invested as he delivered the sermon with passion.  Pastor Mark never set foot on the stage to address the congregation from the podium, but instead started at the altar table in front of the first row of pews, and paced up and down the center aisle and back and forth in the front row.  He carried an open Bible with notes stuck in it in his left hand and used his right hand to wave around and motion, adding emphasis to the various points of his sermon.  At the end he explained that the blessing that fathers are supposed to give their children is the moment in which they look them in eyes and verbally recognize their adulthood…for sons that they are now their “own man” and for daughters their “own woman”.  Pastor Mark closed the service by inviting anyone who had never received the blessing from their own parents to come to the front and receive it now…a moving gesture.

Being a “PK”

Mark Davis, Interim Pastor at Scott Memorial COG

Mark Davis, Interim Pastor at Scott Memorial COG

After service ended, Laura and I spent another thirty minutes talking and parting ways with all the new friends we had made.  It was a warm and friendly experience with the people of Scott Memorial Church of God, and although much of that had to do with the fact that I am the son of the pastor, I felt like I still would have received a loving welcome had that not been the case.  As for the service and the sermon, I always consider it a blessing to hear my dad preach, and unless you are a preacher’s kid (PK for short) it is hard to explain what it is like to see your parent preaching the Word of God to a congregation of believers.  I’m not sure if other PK’s feel this way, but for me no matter how good a sermon is, if it is not delivered by my dad it always feels like a little something is missing.  Maybe that is because I have seen the time, energy, and effort that he has put into his ministry.  Maybe it is because I feel his love for me as father and son, rather than just on a separate level of a regular pastor and church member.  And on this Sunday maybe it was because I had been able to look back through my life and see how my dad had done his best to give me unconditional love, focused attention, discipline, and the blessing.  Was he perfect at it?  No.  Only our heavenly Father is the perfect father.  But he always did what he thought was best and that is all any of us can ask for.  I will end this week’s article with a call to action for the men who are reading this.  If you are aware of children in your church or somewhere else in your life who you know do not have a father who provides these four important gifts, why not be that person for them?  Why not become a father figure to a fatherless child.  It might just change their life…and maybe yours as well.

If you would like to read the article by Clint Cooper in the Chattanooga Times Free Press click here.

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

Josh & Laura weekly self-portrait

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone who may be interested and make sure to “like” it on Facebook.  I truly hope you enjoy reading about the ChurchSurfer journey!

Josh Davis

Times Free Press article

ChurchSurfer in Chattanooga Times Free Press


 

ChurchSurfer @ New City Fellowship: A Culture of Accepting Cultures

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Church Experience #23 – June 12, 2011

New City Fellowship PCA – Chattanooga, TN

With or Without Generalizations

When it comes to making generalizations about how people worship and conduct church services compared to what types of cultures and subcultures make up the majority of the people in a congregation, I would say I have pretty much gotten what I have expected so far on the ChurchSurfer journey.  Denomination seems to be the best foreshadow of what to expect out of a church experience, and then as you add in the demographics of the pastor and people that make up the church you can pretty easily paint the rest of the picture.  For example, if you go to an Episcopal church that has a predominantly white congregation in an affluent neighborhood, you can probably bank on the fact that the service will be dressy and formal with conservative hymn-based worship led by a choir without electric instruments or drums.  There are plenty of generalizations like this that will tell a story about what a certain church is like, and I would argue that (whether consciously or unconsciously) these are the tools most people use to decide which church they will attend or join…it is really just human nature.  So far, I  have attended twenty-two different churches in 2011 and have not really been surprised (by not knowing what to expect) yet.  I am not really sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  Should churches be that predictable?  I can think of arguments for both the “yes” and “no” answers to that question, as well as for “yes and no” answer.  Let me also clarify that I am speaking of the typical format and style of the worship service here, not the events that happen (or results of those events) at a church on any given Sunday, which are wholly up to the Holy Spirit (you like how I did that…wholly and Holy?).  The reason I am bringing these things up (as you can probably guess) is that here I am in week twenty-three and feel like for the first time I visited a church that was not what I thought it would be.  Well, to be honest, I have actually been to New City Fellowship once before, probably ten years ago or more, and that was my experience then.  Now that I am married I thought it would be a great church for my wife Laura to experience as well, plus one that should definitely be included in ChurchSurfer.  So here is the run-down on our experience…

The Outside and the Inside

New City Fellowship Chattanooga

New City Fellowship Chattanooga

New City Fellowship is a traditional red brick church building that sits on East 3rd Street near Missionary Ridge.  From the outside it looks very typical…almost boring (not being critical, just setting up the rest of the article).  It is not until you enter the building that you begin to see things you would not expect.  After entering through the big white front doors, we worked our way through the small lobby and a series of smiles and polite greetings, into the large open sanctuary.  The room was filled with old-style wooden church pews leading up to the pulpit, which had various instruments inserted into any available space, as the area was clearly built for a much different selection of musical equipment.  The main component of the pulpit area was a piano/keyboard combo with choir seating that rose behind it, yet remained empty throughout the service, further accentuating changes in the style of worship from when this building was originally constructed.  The walls were adorned with large banners with sayings such as “Praise the Lord All You Nations” sewn onto them in brown, tan, and black letters.  We found seats near the front of the room and greeted people as they filled in the pews around us.  We engaged in casual conversation with a few people in the row behind us, while also being entertained by a small girl in the row in front of us who was popping up and down playing peek-a-boo.  A man came up to the podium and began with church announcements, competing with the low roar of conversations from the congregation, which slowly tapered out as he continued.  The worship band had taken their places during this time and began playing music as the announcements ended.  The music that ensued was joyful and spirited, with singing, clapping, dancing, and hands raising to the jazzy gospel-influenced praise and worship songs.  I smiled and sang as I watched a tambourine lady happily groove and shake her way up and down the center aisle, creating a cheerful atmosphere of praise to the Lord.  James Ward, the music leader at New City Fellowship, is an accomplished musician and songwriter, and I would argue that the praise band at New City is probably the most talented in Chattanooga.  The music was as eclectic as the congregation, which consisted of the most diverse mixture of race, age, and (apparent) income level that I have seen in a church so far.  We sang four songs with a prayer sandwiched in between, followed by announcements in Spanish and then the collection of tithes and offerings.  At one point during this segment the visitors were asked to stand, and then during a designated greeting time the church members were directed to “especially make our visitors feel welcome”.  The beginning of the service closed with the performance of a song that the children had learned during vacation bible school the previous week, complete with the funny face making, lyric forgetting, and attention wandering that always make you smile from ear to ear…one of those wonderful moments that is a blessing to everyone in the church.

New City Fellowship sanctuary

New City Fellowship sanctuary

A-ha Moments

The sermon for this service was given by a Pastoral Intern, Ronnie Perry, who began with Scripture from Isaiah 6.  He spoke about what he called a corruption in Christianity today in which people attempt to use God as a tool to meet their own goals and desires.  He delved into the deeper subject matter of how many self-willed Christians continue to focus on the short-term in this life rather that on eternity or the big picture, which causes us to blend in with everyone else rather than stand out as Jesus did…a point which he emphasized by saying “Christians today want the things of the world just as bad as the people of the world.” Pastor Perry continued by breaking down the Isaiah passage into three segments which he called a God encounter, a self encounter, and a response.  He reasoned that we must first see God as a reality rather than a concept, after which we will become shaken and self-aware that there is nothing impressive about us without the God who created us.  The response we should then have is to stop trying to shape God around ourselves while only believing what is convenient for us to believe, and instead follow God and live for Him as He calls us to.  During the sermon, Laura and I looked at each other in one of those “a-ha” moments because this message was exactly what we had talked about on the way to church.  I am talking about the same message, not a similar message.  It was a “God” moment in which you get chill bumps because you realize how the Holy Spirit speaks to you and prepares you for certain situations and experiences.  Wow!  God is awesome!

Kenyan Coffee Time

New City Fellowship wall banners

New City Fellowship wall banners

After the service, which had ended with an altar call, we ventured back to the visitor’s reception area that had been mentioned during the service as an opportunity to learn more about the church over a cup of coffee.  Of course, anytime there is coffee involved you can count me in, so we filled a cup and began sipping and struck up a conversation with two ladies, Estar and Sarah, who were attending the coffee station.  Estar gave us some excellent insight into the various ministries and service that New City provides to the community, which mainly focus on serving the poor and supporting foreign missions.  In fact, Estar came to the U.S. from Kenya as a result of the mission work of New City.  She spoke with conviction about the church and how she liked that they hold members accountable for serving in some capacity.  After about thirty minutes of great discussion, we parted ways and headed home.  Laura and I felt like we had experienced a truly unique church that celebrates and embraces all the cultures that make up the extremely diverse congregation.  In this church there was no sense of a forced integration or any sort of reluctance to come together.  It was as if the color and culture barriers had been overcome in this church effortlessly, which tells me that the Spirit is present and the love of Christ consumes the people of New City Fellowship.  If you know someone who has stopped going to church because of a bad experience where they felt out of place, unloved, or not accepted, I would encourage you to bring them to New City Fellowship.  It will not only be a blessing to them, but also an example and a great experience for you as well.  Even though it may look boring on the outside, I promise the experience inside will be anything but.

New City Fellowship street sign

New City Fellowship street sign

Please share the ChurchSurfer blog with anyone who may be interested and make sure to “like” it on Facebook.  I truly hope you enjoy reading about the ChurchSurfer journey!

Josh Davis

 

ChurchSurfer @ Little Brown Church: Sustained by the Love of a Community

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Church Experience #22 – June 5, 2011

Little Brown Church (Union Chapel) – Summertown, TN

A Church with a History

I will start this week with an interesting fact that many Chattanoogans may not be aware of:  Signal Mountain is not a mountain at all…it is a town that exists on Walden’s Ridge.  So when someone says “I live on Signal” or “I’m going up the mountain”, what they really should be saying is “I live in Signal” or “I’m going up the ridge”.  Walden’s Ridge extends much further past the town of Signal Mountain with other communities and towns tucked away on winding side streets that most of the time get lumped into the catch-all phrase of “Signal Mountain” that everyone recognizes.  One of these communities on Walden’s Ridge is Summertown, which has a very interesting history and a very unique and famous building called Little Brown Church (officially, Union Chapel).  For the sake of space, I will not get into the full history of Little Brown Church (there is an entire book on it) other than to say it is over one-hundred years old and was started by Chattanooga families that made Summertown their escape from the summertime heat in the valley and the Yellow Fever that showed up with the mosquitoes.    They built this little chapel as a gathering place, but rather than hire a pastor, they decided to save the money and do all the teaching and preaching themselves.  Little Brown Church operates from Memorial Day through Labor Day each summer, and to this day is a community-run entity, with no paid staff and a different person serving as the Director each year.

Little Brown Church front entrance

Little Brown Church front entrance

The Director organizes and oversees the efforts of the community to maintain the building and property, schedule the speakers, and facilitate the Sunday church service.  Each week there is a guest speaker who is either a member of the local community or a pastor from another church around the Chattanooga area.  The Little Brown Church has become such a cherished local phenomenon that even people without a connection to Walden’s Ridge or Signal Mountain know about it.  It has become locally famous and for all the right reasons, serving as a shining example of the power of community, and earning such a special place in the lives of all who attended as a child and have continued to return throughout all the seasons of their lives.  Little Brown Church was such a special place to one man who I recently met, Jim Frierson, that when he learned that I was writing about local churches for the ChurchSurfer project, he insisted that it be included and followed up by sending me an invitation for the opening day service for 2011.  Here is my experience…

Church in the Wildwood

Little Brown Church lady at piano

Lady Playing Piano

Laura and I parked along the side of the street just down from the Little Brown Church and walked toward the small group of people who were gathering on the stone patio in front of the building.  The patio was lined with benches and walled-in by plants and trees that fed into a lush green forest which served as the backdrop for the quaint little chapel building.  We were warmly greeted by several people as we explored the outside and inside of the building, taking a few pictures along the way.  The structure was exactly what you would expect from something called Little Brown Church in the wildwood…it was all wood from floor to ceiling, with the only signs of modern technology  being two black speakers mounted to the rafters, two black microphones on stands at the front, and three black ceiling fans spinning above our heads.  The church was open-air with the front doors standing wide and open windows (no screens) running down the length of the side walls.  There was a simple wooden podium at the front of the room with a blue and white flower arrangement sitting on a wooden stool beside it and a piano in the front corner, which was occupied by a little white-haired lady who was already playing to welcome everyone in with music.  There was a mixture of fold-out chairs and park benches split between the inside of the sanctuary and also on a full length balcony that ran down one whole side of the chapel (which filled up faster than the interior seating).  Laura and I went ahead and sat down near the front and watched as more and more people showed up (on transportation that ranged from horses to bicycles to golf carts) to an environment that was much like a family reunion or homecoming, with hugs and handshakes and a crowd that was visibly excited to be returning for another year at their beloved little church.  I had expected the people to be a little bit more dressed-down than they actually were, but then I reasoned that Sunday casual to many of these people (who I would assume most of which are fairly wealthy) is still pretty dressed-up for other folks.  I held a short conversation with an older couple seated behind us that ended as the service began with this year’s Director, Jim Campbell, announcing the first hymn.

A Splash of Diversity

Little Brown Church sanctuary

Little Brown Church sanctuary

I looked around the packed-out building as the congregation stood to sing “What a Friend” in its traditional style with piano accompaniment (by the little white-haired lady).  After the hymn, a young pre-teen boy led a responsive reading, followed by a prayer from the Director and an introduction to the Johnson brothers, who were the music leaders at