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…  Read more...