Tag Archives: contemporary worship

Church Experiences

ChurchSurfer @ Hamilton Life Church: Hearing and Seeing the Message

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Church Experience #48 – December 18, 2011

Hamilton Life Church – Chattanooga, TN

A Turn for the Spiritual

There have been several times this year that my wife, Laura, and I have been personally invited to church by someone we know, which is always a nice gesture.  I have tried to accept these offers for the most part, aside from some random invitations I have received by letter or email from people who I don’t know who have read the blog and invited me to visit their church.  Not that this is a bad thing…I think it is great that people have heard about the ChurchSurfer blog and wanted their church to be included (which, to me demonstrates their passion).  I have just decided to keep things a little closer to home and make the blog a reflection of actual people that I was meeting in my regular, everyday life.  So recently at a Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce networking event, I was engaged in conversation with Michael and Kacey Picou, owners of a dry cleaning business called Pressed4Time, and after our conversation had taken a turn for the spiritual, they invited me to visit Hamilton Life Church with them.  With a few open weeks still remaining before the end of the 2011 ChurchSurfer journey, I gladly accepted.  It turns out that Hamilton Life Church had decided to have their Christmas service this week, so Laura and I kicked off our Christmas holiday a little early and joined in the celebration with some new friends.  Here’s how it went…

A Talkative Bunch   Read more...

Church Experiences

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.  Read more...

Church Experiences

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   Read more...

Church Experiences

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   Read more...

Church Experiences

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   Read more...

Church Experiences

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…  Read more...

Church Experiences

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.  Read more...

Church Experiences

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…  Read more...

Church Experiences

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…  Read more...

Church Experiences

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…  Read more...