Confessions of a Church Shopaholic

Moving overseas to a new city and few ties has provided us with an amazing opportunity to find a church to call home for the next year. After being in country for three weeks (and visiting a few churches), Liz and I just started to have a conversation about what we are looking for. The list included some preferences and some non-negotiables. They were: a church that was contemporary style and had good teaching, a place where we could get to know people and people could get to know us, a good children's ministry for Philip and Katrise, not too far away, a place we would like to visit on our trips back to the US when we visit ministry partners, in fact a place where there might be people who would like to partner with us in ministry would be a real bonus.

A google search for churches in Littleton provided a bumper crop to choose from. Reading through website after website left me feeling a little like there was little difference between most of them. The statements of faith are fairly generic and many emphasise having an authentic community of people who want to worship Jesus. Most of the larger churches run multiple Sunday morning services, but no evening service (an evening "youth service" is often expected in Sydney).

Last weekend we visited a United Methodist Church with some family members. It was a very well presented building. We were warmly greeted at the door and well looked after by the Children's Ministry receptionist, who directed us to the right rooms for Katrise and Philip. The service featured the first verse of several well-known hymns, and some items - two were done with tymbralls (sp? - little bells) and another was a group of women singing. The auditorium was large - seating at least 500 - and we were at the second of three services for the morning. First time visitors were handed a welcome pack during the service that included a loaf of bannana bread. The senior minister is a woman and they were launching into a series on Paul's journeys as recorded in the book of Acts. Interestingly, she doubted that many of the NT books attributed to Paul were actually written by him. Later, she also scoffed at calling people outside of the church "lost" or "seekers" or "unchurched". She preferred a term from the recovery movement: "normals". (People in the church are "nuts" - never underestimating the spirit). After the service donuts and coffee were available (for a small donation).

This morning we visited a large "community church" (who shall remain nameless). We arrived about five minutes late. But it was a massive, very impressive building. When we entered the lobby there were very clear signs that directed us, as newcomers, where to sign in our kids and where to go. This was just the first sign to me that the church leaders had read (and were closely following) the church growth handbook. This time we arrived for the first service, unsure whether we would attend the worship service or visit an adult Sunday School class. Because we were late we decided just to sneak in the back of the service - after dropping Katrise off at her class and Philip off at his. We arrived in the service just in time to find everyone filling out a church survey (probably like "Reveal" from Willow Creek - it had questions like, "in the past year, have you built an ongoing relationship with a non-believer?" and "do you feel you have grown spiritually in the last year". At the end of this, the worship team led us through two songs - very well performed, but the volume seemed a little muted and, as I looked around, I could barely see anyone else singing along. The auditorium was about the same size as the church from the week before - seating about 500. The sermon was on the question, "Are you an admirer of Jesus, or a follower?". It came from the end of the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 7:13-23 to be precise) - a section of the Bible they had been preaching through for nine months. The preacher (I think it was the senior pastor) referenced his sources well - a commentary on Matthew by Brunner, a story by Ortberg about Blondin, etc. His voice broke a couple of times when he talked about people rejecting Jesus. He finished with a challenge - and about 11 people stood to indicate decisions to truly follow Jesus. In the seat was a visitor's card and the reward for handing it in to the information/welcome desk was a $5 Starbucks voucher. At the end of the service I picked up Katrise and browsed the bookstore in the lobby while waiting for Liz to get Philip. Then we all went and handed over our 50c donation for a donut. We stood around eating it, sitting after a while, but no one seemed to notice us or even smile at us. As we were leaving we ran into a neighbour from the seminary - a friendly face! Still, our reflection after leaving was that they had all the elements but we didn't feel their heart.

At home in the carpark at the seminary we ran into another friend and they told us about a church they were visiting that night. It sounded intriguing, so we decided to join them. Called "Scum of the Earth" (http://www.scumoftheearth.net/) it was definitely a church with a difference. Located on the edge of downtown Denver, it is about 20 minutes drive from our apartment. Their (one) service is held at 6:30pm on Sunday nights. We pulled up on a side street and I wondered if it would be safe to leave our car! Walking up to the front of the building, we passed through a crowd of local smoking - who then followed us into the service. The building was packed! It had been an old church which had been totally gutted and used for who knows what over the last several decades. But the exposed timber rafters and soaring ceiling, gritty floor and four foot drop at the front one third of the church made it really different. There were some cushions cast about on the lower third, and a mix of nice "church chairs" (think movie theatre seats) and old hastily erected portable chairs lined up on the top two thirds. The music was raw, badly amplified, but everyone was singing lustily. After about three songs - with good meaty lyrics, but sung simply - the service broke for dinner for about 15 minutes. Everyone formed a queue and worked their way out to the back to pick up a plate of tortilla, beans, etc. Most finished the food in the main sanctuary (for want of a better term) as the service resumed. A lady pastor, Kim, spoke on the power of forgiveness. It was straight from Luke's gospel (Luke 7) and it followed from a sermon the previous week by a 70 year old guest speaker. After explaining the power of forgiveness in the text, she shared about getting divorced while being a student at Denver Seminary. The seminary had proceedures they were to follow, but actually walked with her through the process in a way that helped her tremendously and allowed her to be at her current place, living out God's calling. It was real, shocking (in some ways) and very powerful. The place was packed full of students (from the local college), locals with tattoos, etc. and it was awesome. We also ran into a visiting group from Campus Crusade. A summer project team of students and staff were working with troubled youth and came to visit the church together. Amazingly, the project director's wife was the sister of Liz's friends she worked with in Indianapolis. Philip and Katrise also did amazingly well to hold it together during the service as there was no child care (no other children about, really). We couldn't ask our kids to do it every week, but Liz and I really enjoyed the style of service and the atmosphere of being around college students again :) Oh, and I should mention that my NT professor Dr Craig Blomberg, attends the church and his wife is on the Church Council, so I am confident they are biblically sound :)

Anyway, my parents are in town next weekend, so I am not sure how much church shopping we will do. We have a couple of other potential churches to check out, but we need to settle somewhere soon.