Since we moved to Anderson, we’ve searched for a church. And we’ve visited several. If you’ve ever had to look for a church, you know the challenge it can be. For us, having come from Nashville, Music City, we were told early on by another Nashville transplant not to compare worship with our church and the other churches we were familiar with back home. I guess having studio musicians and vocalists  in your music ministry isn’t something you find in every church.

We were also told about one Anderson church in particular. Well, told by some, warned by others. And some of those warnings came from people who don’t even live in this town.  This church seems to elicit an opinion by everyone who has ever heard its name. They either love it or hate it.

I didn’t want to go. I didn’t want to go to a “huge” church, and by numbers, this is a huge church, in the thousands just on the one of its several campuses. I also didn’t want to go somewhere that seemed to have so much controversy with it, and if you type in just the name, you’ll find hours and hours of youtube videos, and pages of blog posts and newspaper editorials blasting what this church does and supposedly what it represents.

So we’ve looked everywhere else. Since I’m working in an office where we are teaching pastors and future ministry leaders, particularly with an emphasis on the practical, our experience looking for a church as a family has been really interesting to me, so I thought I’d share some observations.

The first church we visited was probably the most traditional. Choir robes, organ, lots of gray hairs in the pews. The Sunday school class we attended wasn’t bad, they were friendly enough, but the teacher lectured and there was no real discussion that took place. The Sunday school teacher did make one call that Wednesday after we visited, to say they were glad we came and to invite us for a Saturday get-together. Since we knew the church wasn’t for us, we politely declined but still appreciated the call.

The second church we visited we actually found because of someone’s bumper sticker on their car which we followed out of our apartment complex one day. This church was out in the “cun-try”; about 20 minutes farther than we’d thought and a very different combination than we were used to, with overalls in the congregation and a rock band on the stage. The preaching was solid and folks seemed nice enough but there was no real attempt to welcome visitors. We did fill out our information when we took our son over to the children’s service they had for the kids, but it’s been three weeks and we’ve yet to hear from anyone from that church.

The third church we visited was based, I was told, off of the “big church” in Anderson. Since we really do prefer a contemporary style, I had high hopes for this one. It was another small congregation but this church was given a church building by another church about a year ago that had been dying out. It was an interesting mix of green shag carpet and electric guitars. We liked the music (though the female worship leader was a little off key several times – sorry, I was a music major and those things get noticed), but the pastor’s message that day felt a little “phoned in.” There was no passion, no excitement for what he was speaking about, and to be honest, I can’t even remember now what he spoke about. And once again, there was no reference to visitors. They had t-shirts with the church name displayed in the church foyer area, but we left having given no one any information to contact us. For all they knew, we’d never been there.

I’ve scoured the internet trying to find other churches to visit. Cliff had one rule - he wasn’t going to a church with handbells, his way of setting the bar for churches that would fit the “too traditional” category for us. Let me tell you, there aren’t a whole lot of churches in this area of upstate South Carolina who don’t have handbells. (And let me just say now, if you like handbells or go to a church with handbells, I’m not knocking your church. Just stating what works and doesn’t work for us. We’re used to going to church in blue jeans,  if that gives you an idea. :) )

I have missed passionate worship. And I’ve been hungry for a relevant, inspirational message. So, feeling a little desperate and despite my misgivings and uncertainties about this church and all we’ve heard, today we visited the “big” church, making sure we arrived early so we would have plenty of time to find where Caleb needed to go before the service started.  Let me tell you about our experience there.

We turned onto the road leading to the church and driving up to it, it’s enormous. The parking lots look like parking at the airport and Caleb, our son, even asked “is this a mall?”. But that’s where the similarities to a mall stopped. Since we were first time guests, we followed the directions on a sign we saw that said to turn on our flashers. Immediately we were greeted by parking greeters and within five minutes and before we’d even gotten out of our car, we were told “Welcome to               , we’re so glad you’re here!” One enthusiastic volunteer even started clapping and jumping up and down as he saw our car approaching with our flashers on. (How many times have you had someone clap and jump up and down for visiting a church?)

We were motioned to a parking spot up front and greeted as soon as we got out of the car by another parking greeter who walked us up to where several dozen people were standing, all dressed in maroon t-shirts with the words “I (Heart) My Church”. A man introduced himself (sorry, can’t remember his name at the moment) and walked the three of us into the building. He pointed out the main sanctuary, gave us two blue cards that allowed us to get free coffee at the coffee stand there in the lobby and then walked us over to the children’s wing of the church so we could check our son in. The kids are divided up in age groups with each age group (usually spanning a couple of grades) getting its own special name and logo (my marketing-guy husband noticed that specifically). 

The volunteers who greeted us at the door of Caleb’s grade were friendly and welcoming. And Caleb had a great time.

So did we in the service. The worship was great, and the message, based on Ezekiel 37, was interestingly enough all about why church is important. The message was also challenging. The pastor shared his view that he doesn’t want church membership to exist, but church ownership. People taking ownership (not just sitting in the seats and going through the motions), being committed to Christ and his bride (the church), reaching out to others and helping point people to Jesus.

Now, I’ve read more on the web about this pastor and the church from critics, some pretty awful stuff in fact, but after being there, it just doesn’t add up for me. People are meeting Jesus at this church. I don’t see the pastor making it about himself or his staff. It’s all about Jesus. It’s not about entertainment, as I’ve heard from others, or going to a “rock concert” or numbers, or being “cool.” It’s about, bottom line, a relationship with Christ. And that, I believe, is why this church is growing so incredibly huge. That’s why people are coming. People want what’s real. They don’t want what’s always been done. They want what really matters. And churches should take note.

You may wonder why I’ve intentionally not mentioned any church names in this post. That’s because I think the experience I’ve described above could be done by any church, regardless of size or budget. Any church could make a bigger effort to welcome visitors and make them feel comfortable and glad that they’ve come. Any church could be more intentional about being relevant while still challenging folks to live like Jesus. Any church can have a vision, share it with their congregation and pour out more than it takes in.

Today I saw passion. I saw ingenuity. I saw excellence. But most important, I saw Christ. I saw Him in the parking attendant who greeted us, the children’s ministry where my son learned the word “humble” and what Christ did as an example for us all in washing his disciples feet, and I saw Him in the service, as people worshiped with hands stretched out to praise choruses and hymns and in a challenging message about what it means to love Christ’s church, His bride.

We’re already looking forward to next Sunday.

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