Sunday, June 20, 2010

My First Official Visit

New Bethel Assembly of God
6000 Collin Street
Arlington, TX 76018
817-265-2041

This was my first official church visit of the project. I decided to start close to home for convenience sake. I first went to a church just up the street from where I live, but I could tell that it was not the church for me. Instead I turned down the road to a church I had seen before as I drove down the road next to the airport. I was later than I wanted to be, but fortunately they didn't start until 11:00am, and I was just in time to get in.

The first thing I noticed was that it is a fairly small church. The sanctuary can handle about 150-200 people. There were about 100 or less there this morning. The sanctuary has no pews, but the link-together chairs that are becoming popular in most modern churches. There are no hymnals in the sanctuary. Instead there is the standard projector and projector screen at the front of the church. The stage had no provision for a choir. There were only some guitars, drums, a keyboard, and the pulpit on the stage.

The service started slightly after 11am. The first part of the service was a standard worship team-led modern music affair. The congregation stands for the entire worship portion, which is a bit hard for me to do. (I don't stand still well for long periods of time, and I started walking in place to relieve the pain in my back and hips.) The songs were all modern--written in the last five or ten years. The congregation did a lot of hand raising and amen-ing, but no rolling in the aisles or speaking in tongues. I guess that makes it slightly charismatic.

About half an hour after the start, the preaching began. Unfortunately, it wouldn't stop. Some pastors have the gift of public speaking and preaching. This pastor isn't one of them. I listened to the minister drone on for 45 minutes. The best I can say is that he had random bits of advice in his sermon. I couldn't identify a central message, and there seemed to be no framework around which his sermon was based. When it was all over, there was no altar call, and the audience was summarily dismissed.

I was able to glean some other tidbits from my observations. The audience was an eclectic one--a mix of ages and skin colors, but unfortunately it looked to be comprised mostly of families. The pastor is 55 years old. There were two offerings (something I hadn't seen before). There are two services on Sundays at this church, one in the early morning and one at 11am. The also have what they call "Christian Education" in the evenings, but not today as today is Fathers' Day.

As far as the people go, I was not impressed. Nobody went out of their way to greet me. The ushers did greet me at the door and so forth, but that was about it. After the service I went over to their visitor table to inquire about a singles group, but I was ignored, and I left after waiting about five or ten minutes and seeing the person behind the table greet others. (It may be because I didn't fill out a green visitor card.) I wasn't all that interested in finding out if they had a singles group because I don't plan to return, but still, it would have been nice to be acknowledged.

Overall, I was not impressed by this church. There was no real message, and no real feeling of fellowship. I hope this won't be the norm for my visits, but only time will tell.

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