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Church 11

Calvary chapel Merritt Island.

I don’t need to preface anything by bringing up the whole “we already know we aren’t going here because Shannon prefers a different teaching style” but I DO need to preface by saying that of all the churches we’ve visited, with the exception of east coast and my parents church, this is the one we kind of “know everybody” and know the church not just by reputation.

We were led to the nursery by a kindly type lady. If you come in the main entrance, you have a long walk to get to the kids area. Sucks for guests. Also, looking around and looking at the printed materials in my hand, I feel like they have never heard of color before. The essence of neutral is brown. and the essence of brown is neutral. with a hint of pastel in the bulletin and on the website. but otherwise….NEUTRAL.

Second service is remarkably uncrowded.

Start with a song I don’t know, music is led by Wild The Younger, and wife.

Pause for a few minutes of old school greeting. There is actually enough time for a full on conversation.

A Young man gets up to make announcements. NO SLIDES, Videos, anything!!!! Just straight up reading and expounding on the announcements in the bulletin!!! I haven’t seen this in years. Brings up two other men to talk about youth camp. Ah, here is a video. So, I guess one use of media for announcements? So weird.

Shannon points out my grandparents – during the greeting time I mentioned that I didn’t see them and he said “yeah they probably sit up front, third row” and I said “now way. They are mid-back sitters.”

I called it.

Announcements end with a round of applause?!

Now for baby dedications. Which includes a 4 year old.

I realized that we are 20 min. into the service and we have sung 1 song so far. Oh, ok the band comes back out. a 3 pc + 3 backup singers. They all got the skinny jeans memo.

Asked to be seated, then pastor wild says there are people in the back to pray with you and to go back there if you need prayer. Then they start a slightly too fast acoustic version of “here I am to worship.”. Lots of people seem to be going for prayer though, so that’s cool.

On a personal note, I think I have a hard time with asking strangers or people I don’t know well for prayer. If I need other people to pray with me about something, it’s usually an extremely personal issue and if I don’t know you really well, it’s probably none of your business. Why would I ask you to pray about it when I don’t even want you to know about it?

Is that me being a normal private person? Or is it me being prideful and stupid?

Back to the service – we have had 3 or 4 more songs, very acoustic-y, And we are siting down. I can’t figure out why. By the way, the 90′s called and asked for their praise and worship back. “white as snow” really? Around a campfire maybe. On a Sunday morning…hm. Moving on with ” all creatures of our God and King” and that I dig. If you’re going to take it back…take it WAY back. Stand up for the last chorus. Still standing for next song…I guess that’s why they give you a sitting break, I think this is the 8th song.

It ends abruptly with a turning to the psalms.

Curve ball – we are interrupting the introduction to the sermon to sing “joy to the world.” which he claims has nothing to do with Christmas. Lyrically. It’s not about the Lord’s first coming, but rather his second coming.

And that is essentially what the message is about. Why hasn’t Christ returned yet? Men are wicked and profane God’s name continually. The psalms depict Gods justice, his wrath, his hatred for wickedness. So why hasn’t he come yet? It’s his long-suffering. His love for us, as Paul says, that stays his hand. He wants all to receive his forgiveness. Every man will have the opportunity.

When he does come, we will know it. We won’t wonder. We won’t be confused – and there will be no escaping it.

He goes on to Talk about the second kingdom. Heaven, when it’s all said and done.

I feel like we’ve heard more than a few sermons about heaven lately.

I’m getting muddled on his point(s) here at the end. He is tying it into doing Gods will “on earth as it is in heaven” and so forth.

He prays. The band is back on Stage. Oh, but not all the band. The lead girl and the bass player are missing. And the pastor stays at the pulpit. That’s always a little awkward – he can’t NOT sing, but he also can’t sing loud. Awkward.

And …we’re done.

Delayed for a myriad of reasons, but posted by request…

Church #10

Coastal community church. They meet at the Port St. John community center. It feels so “been there done that” I’m trying not to chuckle.

Child Check in is acceptable, someone leads us to where we need to go. The nursery is located in the game room, so all the diaper bags are stacked on the pool table.

We make our way to the main service, and walk in to “I am free”.  My husband kindly steers me away from the donut table which is located on the back wall. And I steer him away from sitting in front of the sound booth, because…it’s oddly the most conspicuous seating in the house.

Pastor greets everyone, makes a few jokes and asks folks to greet. Very structured yet informal. I can appreciate that.

Shannon comments on how horrible the backdrop is. I agree…we could use something a little less…textured pink.

Next song, then some announcement videos, starting with one about their new building in progress.

Uh-oh…during announcements I took a minute to actually look at the bulletin. I got smacked with the Holy Grail. Yes, papyrus AND comic sans ON ONE SHEET OF PAPER. Give me a minute for my pulse to return…

Also would like to note the intense use of live type in all the videos. They are also waaaaaaay longer than they need to be. by like…90 seconds.

Weird transition from high volume kids camp video into worship.

Shannon is convinced the worship leader looks like Bill Murray. I see it. Also James Lipton on acoustic guitar.

During prayer someone’s cellphone is making the speakers buzz. Not mine…dag, yo! airplane mode!

Intro clip from “Bolt”…(added later…this clip pretty much had nothing to do with the sermon now that I’ve heard the sermon.)

And the Pastor looks like the Spencer Breslin. According to the screens, he is Dr. Brookins.  Who knew PSJ had so many look-a-likes?

Humor is definitely this guy’s thing. We are like, 5 minutes in and it’s clear that he gets easily sidetracked with his stories. He also brings up A.D.D. a lot, attributing his squirrel-like tendencies to that. He launches into a long story about kids T.P.ing his house. In the story, he goes outside, the boys scatter into the woods, but he notices down the street a running car…with the keys in it. He assumes it belongs to the boys who did it, and he yells out “I have your car and your keys, you’ll get them back when you clean this up.” and waited. In the end, the boys one by one come back, drink some hot chocolate, and then clean his yard and wash his car for good measure.

He compares the TP-ing story to the story of Jonah. Jonah ran off thinking he could escape. But God “held the keys to his car” so to speak, and was willing to give them back to Jonah when he finally obeyed. I can see his point, it makes sense. He talks about understanding Jonah’s point of view, based on what we know historically of Nineveh…they were pretty barbaric apparently and it would be insane to walk into their city and start yelling the message God had for them. From a logical point of view, he says that it looked like a plan for certain death. So running made sense. But only if you discount God.

A few more stories, a few more points – he is certainly engaging as a preacher. He said a few things that made Shannon and I chuckle. At the end he speaks a few words about not running from God, and about salvation. The main thing I would take away from the message is the obvious Jonah lesson on knowing God, or knowing about God, and ignoring or disobeying.

Close with a woman singing “set me free” by casting crowns. She has a decent voice. As she is singing, people are leaving – it’s a little weird. we haven’t been dismissed, but…I guess there is confusion on whether the service is over or not? I felt like it wasn’t. So we stayed put til she was done singing.

Then we picked up Ella and got out quick. I would have been interested in observing their tear-down process, but we were in the van before I could blink.

Church #9

Soverign grace

I’ve wanted to visit this church for like 8 years now. Or something close…my friend Jennifer went to a church in ormond beach that is a part of the same organization, and when I visited her then I remember enjoying it. So here we are.

We drop Ella off in the “narnia room” explain her recent violent behavior (vomiting) and to come get me if she starts acting weird.

Walk into the sanctuary and Shannon and I both have flashbacks to the embassy…see the pics at the bottom.

We find a seat and are immediately greeted by an enthusiastic man named Tim who has probing questions. Expresses deep admiration for our past and future.

Worship starts with “forever” a little fast on the tempo. Oh hey, Tim again! He gets up and reads a long but inspiring passage of scripture.

It’s worth mentioning that the makeup of the band is half adult, half teenager.

Sing two more songs in the same key and they both have the word “exault” in them. Roll that into “how great is our God” Chorus and a girl steps up and reads another passage of scripture. It is well integrated. I like it. Oh, OK now she is spending a minute to exhort the young people.

A young man (ie late 20s?) takes the mic from her and continues in the same vein, he seems very pastory so lead? Youth? Dunno. I should mention finger picking in the BG the whole time, so it wasn’t weird.

Back into how great is our God.

And now welcoming guests, tithe offerings during verbal announcements.
They are apparently having a church picnic this afternoon complete with wiffleball tournament.

Oh snap! They dismiss the children but also…take a five minute break? This is weird. Perhaps this is in Lieu of the “turn and greet”

Takes us a little by surprise.

Three women come up and talk to us. Apparently I’m “adorable.”. One of them looks like Amber Tamblyn, and she insists that we look familiar and she thinks she knows us. Then ANOTHER Tim comes up and talks to us. You can have a lot of conversations in five minutes, it would seem.

The young man gets back up again. he is preaching on Ezra 9-10. And he says they are finishing up the book of Ezra, so that makes me think they/he are a expository in preaching. That possibly is a mark against them from Shannon…he prefers topical preaching.

I’m looking around the room and there are still children here so perhaps they weren’t….dismissed? I must not have been paying attention.

Young man preaching from hardcopy notes. Just don’t see that very often these days.

The subject is faith. The isrealites had to get rid of the foreign women, because they were turning the mens hearts away from God.

He likes to yell and then whisper. He yells about temptation. He whispers about Gods love. He talks to the kids about obedience.

Shannon says he Is 100% sure this is the youth pastor.

And wow, an abrupt ending! A brief closing prayer and that it – no song, no business, it’s done.

The second Tim comes back and says “wait, what’s you’re last name?” turns out he went to highschool with Shannon, so they chat for a minute.

This post is from last Sunday, it was delayed due to vomiting all week. We’re better now, thanks for asking :)

Church #8

Crosswalk community church.

Downtown Titusville, next door to koiblers. It seems to be two storefronts seperated by a business inconveniently in the middle.

Nursery check in was…non existant. We walked to the front door and asked if they had childcare, and were greeted with confusion. They do have it. Someone finally took us there.

Back to the main storefont, either every church member smokes, or the building used to be a bar.

“full band” with a guy on acoustic leading, not horrible. Guy on lead electric is quite good. Can’t hear the keyboard at all. And they have in ear monitors, how weird.

“beautiful one” ends in “welcome this morning” and a greeting time that everyone seems to enjoy. Pastor comes over and greets us.

Next song I don’t know.

Restroom is located awkwardly in the corner so to get up and use it is pretty conspicuous. Probably will try to avoid that.

Next song I don’t know either. But everyone is singing, like even young men and teenage boys. So…did they communally write these songs or something? Seriously.

You may notice in the pictures the banners on the wall…clearly they thought this remnant of the 90′s was worth preserving. There are a lot of strange choices here. Ceiling is freshly painted white. I would have gone with black. Track lighting, mixed with hanging fixtures – the kind you see in foyers.

Now were taking Communion. First time I’ve heard proper communion reminders in a long time – getting right with God, or being saved to begin with. Then an explaination of the Passover and foreshadowing of the cross.

Prayer.

Back on our feet to sing “worthy you are worthy”. Oh, hey, with some added bridges I think they made up themselves. What a musically creative team, not afraid to rip apart Tim Hughes.

Dismiss the kids for kids church.

He opens with a crack about first service, hmm and haws as he fiddles with his MacBook trying to get verses on the screens. There it is..

1 Peter 1:13, fixing your hope completely on The grace that is coming to us by the return of Christ.

A few minutes of” prosperity gosel” bashing. Seems kind of out of nowhere, must be a thing for him.

Back to the verse, our focus is supposed to be on the return of Jesus.

Hebrews 11. The hall of faith scripture…

He tells a story about when he went to word of life bible school in new York. Then he uses some “just out of bible school” isms. Like referring to tv channels like “hell’s box office” and “sin to the max.” wow. Just…wow.

He continues to talk about how we may lose sight of the destination, and fall in love with the journey. This life. Comfy surroundings. We aren’t intensly looking forward to the return of Christ. We are pilgrims. Sojoruning a rough road to reach the promise land.

Next up is the sermon on the mount. Oh, but first a commercial break as he walks to the back of the stage to adjust the a/c.

Worry is sin. It’s an offense to God. “don’t worry about your life, what you will eat, or what you will drink, nor…”etc. Worry is the opposite of faith.

I just realized something completely unrelated. The whole “it took God 6 days to create the earth” is crap. God could have created everything in a second if he wanted. It was a choice he made for whatever reasons, setting time in motion, establishing the 7 day week, making an example of working 6 days and resting 1 because we are retarded and needed the instruction…who knows. But it was his choice.

Anyway, back to the sermon on the mount.

He brings up prosperity Gospel again, after reading 6:33. And says it’s not what the verse means, it doesn’t mean “and all these thing will be added unto you” it means you don’t care about the external stuff cause were seeking Gods kingdom first and if “all these things” haven’t been added, we don’t notice or care.

Yeah, he just lost Shannon.

And some more prosperity gospel bashing.

And he explains that the word seek means “to meditate” so now he just lost me.

And apparently we are all addicts. We were created with addictive personalities To be addicted to God.

He goes on for a bit rehashing the points of fixing our eyes on heaven.

Closes with a prayer of salvation.

And no, not the close….we have a song.

And another prayer.

And the offering.

And another song that I don’t know. Oh wait, no I do know this song, they just put their own spin on it.

And the worship leader is praying.

Now were done.

Did I mention two prayers for salvation? One at the communion, and one before the offering.

I hope we weren’t the only visitors cause that would mean the pastor REALLY thinks Shannon and I aren’t saved. I suppose we could look unsaved. If the unsaved have a look…who knows.

In the car Shannon says after the Matthew 6:33 debacle, his mind moved on and he started thinking about a documentary project on the space center closing. I think it’s a great idea, we’re going to look into it.

I don’t think we’ll be heading back to crosswalk community. All the best to them and theirs.

Church #7?

Central Christian church

Child check-in measures were satisfactory

Walked in 7 minutes late, worship seems well thought out, and not musically deficient.

Pastor steps up and gives a type of pep-talk and has prayer people come up.

Next song. I realize that not alot of people are singing along, and not because it’s an unfamiliar song, it’s a retooled hymn. “take my life and let it be” but the girl leading worship has a very strong voice and adds a lot of vocal stylings. Plus there are no backup singers. When she belts it out or adds a trill here or there, there is no melody to follow. I don’t know if this is their normal setup…1 good backup singer would solve that easily.

She also prays…effusively. She prayed like 5 scriptures strung together. And then she steps forward and Introduces the topic and the opening video. Which I immediately realize she is in. Self-produced, she’s doing street interviews. They have a good camera. Maybe even a steadicam. Editing is ok but some cheesiness on the fx. We all make those mistakes at some point, right?

Pastor steps up again. We are talking about Heaven. For the next three weeks, apparently.

This seems to be a “what does the Bible tell us about Heaven? And how should we live in light of this information?”

Apparently we missed the “hell” message a few weeks ago.

So far so good.

There is music playing loudly in another part of the buidling. I guess the kids/youth have a seperate service?

He is using a lot of scriptures. He warned at the beginning that it would be a lot, so I’ll take that as a sign that it’s not the usual? I’m tracking with him so far.

Sermon lasts 48 minutes or so, it was a lot to cram into that short time frame! a plethora of scripture references. No red-flags, nothing stood out that might be a theological concern. We stood up and the couple immediately behind us shook our hands and exchanged pleasantries and they were our age and “normal” looking. That’s always a good sign. They have a brief “meet and greet” for guests right after the service, so we stayed for that. You introduce yourself and watch a 3 minute video of the pastor describing the churches vision, etc. Interesting format, but not bad. They could easily be an ARC church if they wanted.

Shannon’s comments when we got in the car was that the message was kinda hard for him to follow. Something about a headache. I followed along just fine, not sure I learned anything but I was entertained by the pastor’s hypotheses that we can know what heaven is like by reading what the bible says about it and then applying our imagination.

On the ride home, we kinda were like “Man, I wish so and so’s church was here. That’s where I would go.” (fill in the blank - Chris Hodges, Andy Stanley, etc.)

Last night we didn’t know where we wanted to go.

So this morning I googled churches in Brevard. That was good for a chuckle. Then Shannon said “let’s visit that church on Grissom.” “Discovery?” “yeah.”

Their service starts at 11, so we went and had breakfast. Then we killed time.

Then the clock struck 10:55 so we went in.

The greeting is intense. We’ve been greeted by….everybody.

Worship is..hm. They open with “your grace is enough.” solid B for effort. Tempo is a little fast, singing is atrocious, and I would spend a solid prayer meeting asking God to convict the bass player into wearing pants instead of shorts.

Break for announcements…potluck, youth camp, and a report from a lady that was in Haiti.

This is very much a “homegrown” service, no program to speak of. And it seems to be OK to stand up and interrupt with your own thoughts. The mic gets passed around a ton.

Greeting is a freaking past-time here.

“I will worship (echo)” yeah.
They have one young man on stage on guitar, I feel like going to him after the service and telling him “hang in there. Either you’ll get old too, or more young people will come. Either way..”

And we sang a typo. “Jesus dies my soul to save” no no. DieD. With a D.

I haven’t sang “shout to the Lord” in years.

Now here is a problem. I can’t figure out who the pastor is. This is weird.

We’re about to do communion…ok, maybe Steve Buscemmi backup singer is the pastor.

Bonus!!! Acapella meditation by backup Steve Buscemmi. I’m having a very hard time understanding what he’s saying/singing. His mic is too far, and he’s a mumbler. Also, before the offering he told a story about a really good roast beef sandwich he had and the horseradish sauce.

Oh SNAP!!! The DRUMMER is the pastor!!! I didn’t see that coming.

This guy reminds me of Justin Gamble. But in a good way.

“we” are in “40 days of love.” so today is “love is not easily angered.” He is totally reading his sermon. There is a lot of “how many people _________” and raising hands. Like somebody is counting or something.

If pastor Eric circa 2006 was preaching this message, 1. There would be more than a hundred people here listening. And 2. He would have titled it “Anger Management” and movie clips would have been involved.

My thoughts here are that the pastor really has a lot of potential. Like, it would take very little effort to produce grade A preaching here. His message is solid. Basic, but solid. And he’s very clear, direct, engaging, etc. The amount of work to make him like, say, a good ARC pastor would be minimal.

Closing with a few moments of silent prayer. Aaaaaaand a song.

Aaaaaand no…that was not the close. We have individuals who are coming up for prayer and we are praying for them one by one. And the softball team!!!! We are praying for them! I only see 7. Maybe the pastor is on the team. That’d make 8.

They want us to grab bread.

Old man sitting in front of me  gives closing prayer (picked at random) And then a closing song.

As I picked up Ella, the teacher said “uhhh…she found one of the markers. We tried to wash it off the best we could.”

Great. My kid is the “eats markers” kid.

Last week we decided to go to Calvery Chapel Viera. We woke up Sunday and all had coughs and sore throats, so the delayed visit is being carried out today.

WordPress is being jerk. I’m switching to notes.

We arrived a minute late after a starbucks stop. Turns out no coffee in the service so that was a waste.

Dropped Ella off. One thing this place doesn’t lack is personnel…people greeting, ushering, parking, in droves.

This place is very…new. And it feels and looks unused.

The worship is weird. There is nothing I can pinpoint that isn’t “good” or “right” but I guess “off” works. As I pondered this, I realized “oh yeah, second string.” this is a video campus. The best team is going to be at the main campus, obviously.

This place is way decked out. They have line arrays, 5 catwalks, 3 cameras for iMag, 3 tiered stage… I noticed the guitarist has the same amp hunter has that he loves, Shannon says it’s not the same one though.

Is it mean of me to think they don’t deserve all this stuff?

2nd string theory (ha ha) goes for the campus pastor guy. I think the lead pastor is out of the country and so the campus pastor from here is preaching at the main place, and a pinch hitter stepped up here.

I understand whats going on here too well.

The stage behind the speaker is visually distracting. I can see two mic stands. And I don’t know what the fencing is.

He’s a good speaker. I can see why he is the campus pastor here. But man, they speak for a long time. Were clocking 70 minutes on the preaching. I think he could have said the same thing in 50, easily.

The scripture was from Matthew, and the main point he seemed to drive home the last 30 or so was “counting the cost” of following Jesus. There was a lot surrounding it, but the other points got lost.

We get up to leave and who do we bump into in the aisle? Damien and Julie Johnson…they just moved to Viera and were visiting for the first time too. That was funny.

Something else that was funny, is the kids ministry is obsessed with stickers. There were 2 stickers involved in checking Ella in, 1 for checking her out, she had stickers on her take-home papers, and when we got home and I changed her clothes, I was surprised by yet ANOTHER sticker ON her diaper that said “we changed her diaper at _____ time, it was #1 and her mood was happy.”

Uh….thanks?

Church at Viera, Shannon said this morning.

Shannon found the service times on their website and said “uh, the website looks cheesy.” I said “cheesy websites really aren’t a reason not to visit a church.” As much as I’d like it to be.

So we are at the 10:45 service. Got Ella checked in, their kid check-in system is rockin. Lo-fi really can be better.

Open with an interesting video in a mans deep voice saying what the church is about. Interesting. The singers step up, all 7 of them. Sing a song I don’t know and I’m not that into. Next song I know, so I’ll sing it.

Next I don’t know the next song so let me just commen on two things – greeting. Walking in the door, greeting was well done. Not just a “glad you’re here” but “wow, it’s windy today isn’t it!?” which was a nice touch. Greeting in the service, turn and greet your neighbors…wow, no one gets out of that one. I literally was greeted by every “neighbor.”

What’s with song lyrics leaving out vowels? Is it really doing anyone a favor to type “ev’rybody” than just including the E? Really?

Somebody around me smells like cheese and fruit danish.

Their announcements have this going for them: up to the minute slides, like with pictures taken from stuff on Friday. Good pics too.

Announcments include the orphange my brother is at in Haiti with pics of the water purfiers, and reports that 8 orphans got out last night. I laughed at that. Becaus.. I’ll tell you later.

Pastor steps up. I think his name is Mark. The fact that I don’t even know his name and he’s started preaching actually impresses me, and makes me wonder if this is a less pastor-centric church. I guess time will tell that.

They aren’t doing live video projection in the service, they just have one camera in the back that feeds to the lobby. Interesting choice.

He is talking about wise moves. Making wise choices. The obvious scriptures pulled out of proverbs. He says something about being righteous, and I’m not sure if it’s what he means but he makes it sound like righteousness is something we get to work for.

Anyway. He goes on at length about making wise choices and being righteous, and integrity.

A man comes up to share a testimony about a hard lesson learned about integrity in his business life. He gets choked up a few times. Shannon and I were equally impressed with the testimony part of the service.

Message ends with a song. They’re channeling “Glee” for the baby boomers. Seriously, is this worship or show choir? Ok, the song for the offering clinches it. It’s “Rachel” from Glee. Minus the arm waving and skipping around stage.

Also noted that the band is formed entirely of over-40 men. They’re good musicians but yeah. Nothing like lack of diversity to point out…the lack of it.

We are visiting the Mezzanine as a family tonight. Shannon was here last week, I was still unpacking etc. And stayed home.

I’m wary. Shannon and I met at the mezzanine about 7 years ago. I was 20. Going to a service aimed at young adults made worlds of sense to me at the time. It was good in many many ways, ways I could expound on at length. This isn’t about that though.

I’m turning 28 this year. My husband is turning 35. We have a daughter, we’ve moved away and moved back, we’ve helped plant a church, we’ve done many many things. We are different people now and I’m just not sure I fit into a young adult setting anymore. I guess that is what time will tell.

So anyway, we are here. Dropped Ella off in the nursery.

Open with a cover song. Turns out to be a song by muse, but the first few bars sounded like that britany spears song. I tried to shazam it but it never works on live music, I’ve noticed.

Coupla worship songs. Half way through the music I noticed a few things.

1. I know very little recent worship music. Should work on that.

2. Their big projector went wonky and needs repair.

3. They have the stage covered in small 24″-36″ rods with bare lightbulbs. They are on a dimmer so they’ve been adjusing the brightness along with the stage lighting. It’s nice and everything but all I can think when looking at them is Tesla. Weird association.

Wrap that up.

Some announcments, offering, they report partially correctly the status of Haiti missions. Only Kyle is there, Cherie is trying not to twiddle her thumbs at home.

Matt steps up. Starts talking about friends. Not sure if that’s the subject or if it’s a segue.

He uses a phrase “unadulterated evil.” and I’m wondering on a side note what adulturated evil looks like in comparison.

I think he’s focusing on the subject of influence. He reads proverbs 2:20-22.

Goes back to proverbs 2:12 to explain how to follow the steps of a good man.

He gives many examples, one even of Shannon getting a job last week. His main point though seems to be about being intentional in your friendships, making sure you befriend people older and wiser than you, as well as people younger that you can impart things to. And the friends who are not good influences become less “friends” and more “ministry” even if that means just praying from afar.

In summary.

We skedaddle quik cause Shannon has another engagement for the night and has to drop us off at home, so we aren’t around after to chitchat etc.

Visiting churches is something Shannon and I agreed to before we moved. We have never “looked” for a church since we’ve been married.

Sunday we went to East Coast, the church we went to while we were engaged and the first few months we were married. I knew what to expect, and many of my readers are familiar with it so for now I’ll leave it be and it can stand as church #1 that we “visited.”

Church #2 is Calvery Chapel Space Coast. My parents and my brother and his family attend here. We are here on a Wednesday night. They broadcast their weekday service on the radio, so they are live tonight. Worship is shakey, my mom is singing backup and between her and the soft plucking of the banjo it’s about all I’m hearing through the P.A. I’ve heard through the grapevine that this is an area church #2 needs work on.

The pastor’s gift is clearly in teaching. He is a great teacher. Perfect for a Wednesday night services where you can flip (or scroll) to a lot of scriptures.

It’s hard for me not to do a “top to bottom” overhaul of a church service mentally. I’m making a concerted effort not to do that over the next month or two, and tonight is no exception. Every fleeting thought of “if only… this” or “they could..that” is bannished.

Pastor Baron is talking about “abiding” and we are in John. I would be impressed immensly if he even once quotes The Dude. That’s a lot to ask, I guess.

Ok, well. He references Samantha on “bewitched.” different eras…

Wrapping up.