church visit #6 Faith Presbyterian

Today August 26, I went to a church that while it is part of our Presbytery I do not know much about it. I choose this church this week for a couple of reasons but to be honest the most compelling one is that they had a 10:30am service, the early summer ones are too early for me. Despite driving past the church and needing to turn around I had given myself plenty of time so I was a little early. Upon entering the building I was greeted by one of the greeters stationed by the door and found my way into the Sanctary. My first thought was I was surprised how small and intimate the space seemed, I was expecting a larger space with the size of the church congregation. The space despite the bright recessed lights felt closed in and somewhat not welcoming with the exposed rough concrete walls and bright red carpeted chancel area. I looked for the TV cameras as it felt like more of a TV studio than a sanctury and I waited for the televangist to appear up front. I began to think about how much architecture of a space can set the mood, comfort level. There were video clips showing on the screen up front before the service started. Being a blended worship service there was not Prelude to set the tone and signal the start of the service instead one of the "praise" band singers greeted everyone, invited the congregation to sing a hymn out of an older looking non Presbyterian hymnal. There was no PCUSA hymnal to be found in pews. Then three "praise" songs were sung. They all had a taize, or slower more reflective pace to them, even though Open the eyes of my heart, I have always sung as a more upbeat, joyful song. I questioned their idea of praise music. Next was the children's message, it seemed really early in the service (wonder what this says about their view of children in worship). The woman giving the message had a pitcher of water and a cup, she first tried filling the cup with it turned upside down and asked the kids why it wasn't working. She then went on to talk about how sometimes we do not pay much attetion to God and his love rolls off us and does not fill us up like the upside down cup. This theology brothers me as I think even when we are not as focused on God he still fills us with his love, and we do not need to do anything to receive his love. Next was to be the prayer of confession ( not sure how I feel about this coming after the childrens message and the kids have left) but the pastor must have skipped over this and not realized it. He then did the prayers of the people and the Lord's prayer, think this is out of order as this such come after the proclaimtion of the word. Another Pastor got up and did the announcements thing, and then people read testimonies about Stephens ministers. A visiting missionary was introduced next and she was interviewed on the chancel " stage" which seemed odd. The preaching Pastor read the scripture which was projected on the screen and then started his sermon. His sermon started out talking about our changing culture, I was worried he was going to turn this into a moralistic sermon, telling us what was good and what was bad, but he did not. He used two tv commericals one from the 50's and one from the 90's to illustrate the change in culture. He said we " the church" need to learn to adapt to the changes in culture, not to ignore them, try to keep them out, or fight them. He said for churches to grow we need to consider those 38 years and younger. I was pleased he did not think this meant just tweaks to the programs of the church but more overriding change and examination. One stat he used struck me he said one church trend analyst said churches need to have 25% of their makeup be 38 years or younger to survive beyond the next 20 years.
So overall impressions, disturbed by the "praise music" and the children's message, liked the Sermon, but it did not feel like a Presbyterian reformed service and the evangilism tones were too much for me, so I probably would not go back.