Church visit #7 Church of All Nations (CAN)

I had been to CAN before for a meeting once and to drop off Presbytery youth ministry materials another time but had never attended worship here before. I came this week to see Moses a youth who went to Triennium give his testimony. Pulling into the parking lot it was not very full but being labor day weekend this was not surprising. I think it is not fair to only visit a church on certain summer holiday weekends ( memorial day, 4th of July and Labor day) as a number of the regular attendies are gone. I did not encounter any greeters but this may have been because I was early or I may have went through the wrong door. The sanctuary while the traditional long center aisle, did not seem lost in time as some do. Maybe the bightness of the light coming in helped. I am begining to realize I like sanctaury's that are bight and full of natural light. There is a screen up front for the hymns. The service begins with praise music led by the praise team. They ask the congegation to stand and join them few people do stand and don't seem to know the songs. At first I wondered if the praise songs were a new thing but discover later that many are visitors, seems like about 80% of the people around me are visitors there to celebrate the 104th birthday of the matriarc of the congregation. when it comes to passing the peace Pastor Jin Kim asks people to gather in the center aisle and many seem to do this and passing the peace goes on longer than I am used to . Pastor Jin's sermon is very good he talks about how culture is changing and the PCUSA is slow to adapt and how we need to consider how we react to culture. he makes the point that christianity has been around since Paul and the disciples spread the word, but the specific churches, demoniations they started are not still around and that Luther and the protestants did not intially intend to start new demonations but wanted to reform the catholic church. He talked about the three groups in the PCUSA those who don't want to change anything and are content with that , those who want to leave the PCUSA and those in the middle of these two groups. I did not time the sermon but feel it was longer than I am used to but it did not lose my attention. After the sermon they "welcomed" guests by having them stand and say where they are from. I do not like this and did not take part in this. One thing that was unusal was instead of music during the offering they had a member do a testimony. As I left I thought this is a church I could be a member at. Also when I got to my car the lot was full and spilled out onto the street parking , so the congegation was a late arriving one ( I was not that early). I am going back in two weeks as Moses's testimony is rescheduled for then.