Church Hunting: F C Church

FCC

This is a bit unusual since, after visiting and deciding I didn't want to go back, that is likely what we will do. I think the pastor is an excellent teacher, and by and large many of the fundamentals seem solid and we are not yet settled.

I visited once, by myself. The visiting speaker was a missionary, preaching on missions, and it was powerful. But this church is big, felt impersonal, felt polished (in the corporate sense). Lots of process, greeters here, welcome desk there. But I felt very anonymous in the crowd. It felt like the sort of place where people go, as consumers, to be served, rather than hoping to be part of a family and common worship of the Almighty God and His redeeming Son.

The second time, we went as a family. The visiting speaker preached very strongly. But same effect, that we could go in and come out without anyone noticing. It's the sort of church where you're not needed. Where you must plug in. Right or wrong, this is the feeling. We left without speaking to anyone, but were caught by a dad from our school who raced out to give us a little gift bag. I like this guy. Very soft-spoken, sweet father. Very likable. His kids were disappointed hearing that ours were there but they hadn't seen them.

The gesture was nice, but I have a poor feeling about gift bags. They had a CD or a sermon (good) and a coffee mug with the name of the church. It's kitch, branded... stuff. It's giving coffee machines at banks for your first transaction. It's not why we're there. Maybe it works on some people. But I felt worse, like people hope a gift bag can change whether people come.

Strip it all away! Take out the traditions, the rituals, the welcome desks... get rid of it all! Boil it down to a handful of simple things, teachings, behaviors. Let this be a place of genuine worship (no performances, no worship bands, etc.) and motivated people will come. At least I will.

The last memory, very strong, was that the "worship band" that sang (they rotate), was off key (I can live with that), did a lot of modern, repetitive songs (not a fan), but most tellingly, no one in the congregation was singing with them (what's the point?). That lack of song, that was hard.