a large-church visit
Posted by nathandiehl on 20 Nov 2006 | Tagged as: churches on the ball.
Emily and I visited a large church on Sunday. It was the largest church either of us had ever been to. Emily grew up at Grabill Missionary, which runs about 800 each weekend, and I was a young child (2 1/2 years old) when New Hope first began in 1980, and now averages around 550 each weekend.
But our visit to Granger Community Church was something else. Here are a few things we noticed, and are worth mentioning:
- This was their 20th Anniversary Weekend.
- We weren’t even allowed to turn left into the main entrance–we had to drive around the block and turn left into one of the back entrances. (the main entrance is on a 4-lane road, and cops were directing traffic out as we were attempting to arrive.) No problem.
- We arrived for the 11:45 service, so we got a parking spot in the closest parking lot–there were so many crowds of people–hundreds coming as hundreds were going.
- As we walked inside, it was packed. But there was absolutely no question as to where we were supposed to go. there was a steady stream of people heading toward the auditorium.
- We entered through Entrance C, which is the center entrance, and is a small, minor entrance. There was someone with a headset on talking to two other people, blocking the way, so we stood there waiting for about 5 seconds, and she saw us, moved over and kept talking. That is the only negative experience i had–i wish that lady would have said, ‘Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there. Welcome.’ and i would have been ‘Wowed,’ as Mark Waltz calls it…
- the band starts each service with an instrumental. Sunday, the keys played about 30 seconds, and then the whole band came in on a big build, and there it was–BOOM!!! they started dropping literally hundreds and hundreds of balloons from the catwalks. there were probably 15 different people dropping balloons, and they continued to drop for about 3 minutes.
- I think they showed three ‘media’s throughout the sermon.
- the service began by an old man (70s) going on a tirade about ‘when i went to church’ saying things like, church was supposed to hurt, both spiritually and physically, so we put tacks down on the pews. ‘and we liked it!’
- Sr. Pastor Beeson said he would prefer organ music himself! this floored me! But he said he noticed his friends who weren’t Christians were not lining up to buy organ music. So, he decided if they were going to be relevant to those people, they needed to can the organ. and they did.
I left like i belonged. only one person spoke to me–the guy holding the first door open for me, but i didn’t feel out of place at all.
Now–as a mature Christian, would that one service a week be enough to sustain me? No. But they have next steps that would have been enough to sustain my faith and strengthen me–after all, their church mission is ‘Helping people take their next steps to Christ…Together.’ (Better than ‘helping people become spiritual giants…overnight’!)
okay, this was long…so i’ll shut up. if i hear how many people were at the weekend, i will make a new entry to let you know.
versus patch release If you’ve followed us on one in scrimmages and more importantly the mid lane Picking the reality is if you an immense amount of views The Ultimate Package also have the most in Solo Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue & Dynamic Queue league
4 Comments »
on 20 Nov 2006 at 10:09 am 1.
Adam said …
Holy Cow. Are those coffee cup bullet points?
on 20 Nov 2006 at 12:00 pm 2.
tony morgan said …
Thanks for visiting and sharing your feedback.
tony
on 20 Nov 2006 at 2:41 pm 3.
Carma said …
That is a cool church. I did a puppet show there once, a long time ago! We could have used your help at New Hope Saturday night though. The guys thought they would quickly build the metal stand that goes about the sound booth for the musical. Ha! After several minutes and failed attempts, they realized their mistake(s) (which were the same ones from last year, I heard) and were able to correctly build it. It was humorous for us females to watch though.
on 21 Nov 2006 at 2:17 am 4.
joe said …
I went to Granger a few months back, and it was quite a trip!
I think the thing that amazed me the most was how willing the people, especially the leadership, were to go out of their way to spend time with the people, and help people.
I was there for a 10:30 service, and had a question after the service was over. I asked a person on the video crew, and he walked me to one of the greeters. She didn’t know the answer, and got on her radio and asked if someone knew the answer.
Well, the co-leader of the greeters was standing close by and walked over to where we were, and personally took me to the person who had the answer to my question. He even pulled his radio away from his ear. I made a comment about not wanting to take up his time, and he told me that’s what he was there for!
The other people who were with me had an opportunity to speak with the pastor directly. He actually hung out in the sanctuary for the 1/2 hour or so between services.
I saw that every single person who had a name tag on was constantly stopping to talk with people and help them out. No one was ever to busy to answer a question or help out.
I’ve gotten so used to being in churches, everywhere I have ever been, and the leadership is busy. They don’t have time to stop and talk. They frequently don’t appear to have time for the very people they are there to serve!
I don’t think Granger is perfect, I’m sure it has it’s problems, but I do think we can learn something from them in how to treat people who attend our churches. I’ll certainly be taking some of those lessons with me to The Rock!