CHURCH VISIT - BAPTIST

This is my second blog post in a series I am doing on our experience visiting churches of various denominational labels, sizes and different styles of services. It is not my intent to be critical, but rather to be real and honest in our experiences. We have established criteria we are looking for at all of the institutional churches we are visiting.  I do not intend to mention the church specifically by name.

I have blogged in the past about Christians who have left and are leaving the institutional church in large numbers. They are leaving for their own spiritual welfare. Most still love God but have become disillusioned or fed up with the institutional church today. I believe this is a timely series. May it open our eyes and our hearts to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus.

CHURCH CRITERIA

~DENOMINATIONAL LABEL - Baptist

~TYPE OF SERVICE
   *Traditional xxxx
   *Contemporary
   *Blended

~SIZE OF CHURCH - Small

~FRIENDLINESS - Both pastor and congregation very friendly

~AVERAGE AGE OF CONGREGATION - 40-50

~DRESS ATTIRE - Casual

~GREETING - We were greeted upon entering the building in addition to the greeting time during service. The greeting time during the service was a good amount of time. The folks continued greeting after the service was over.

~MUSIC - Congregational singing music was a combination on of organ and piano as well as sound tracks. Special music singers utilized sound tracks.

~BALANCE OF MUSIC VS WORD - There was a good balance of music and Word

~TECHNOLOGY UTILIZED - Power Point was utilized throughout the progression of the service as well as throughout the pastor's message. Pastor also used a video to close out his message.

ALTAR CALL/INVITATION - Yes an altar call was given encouraging a time of prayer

~ACTIVITIES/PROGRAMS OFFERED - This church offers many activities. It has a solid youth program, men's activities, women's activities as well as family oriented activities.

~BIBLE VERSION USED- NKJV

~PREACHING STYLE-  Conversational

~USE OF SCRIPTURE - Good use of Scripture throughout the sermon

~RELEVANT MESSAGE - Very relevant message on prayer and necessity of an active prayer life.

~LENGTH OF SERVICE -  About 1 hour 10 minutes

~OBSERVATIONS/COMMENTS
We enjoyed our visit to this church in a small town south of where we live.  It is apparent this is a good group of people who love God and love one another.  This church is very friendly and joyful.

While the church handed out a bulletin, they did deviate from the bulletin. I was glad to see they are not bound by the bulletin.

Our experience at this church was a very positive one.  This is a church we would visit again.

Until next time...enjoy the journey!

Ray

CHURCH VISIT - UNITED METHODIST

This is my first blog post in a series I am doing on our experience visiting churches of various denominational labels, sizes and different style of services. It is not my intent to be critical, but rather to be real and honest in our experiences. We have established criteria we are looking for at all of the institutional churches we are visiting.  I do not intend to mention the church specifically by name.

I have blogged in the past about Christians who have left and are leaving the institutional church in large numbers. They are leaving for their own spiritual welfare. Most still love God but have become disillusioned or fed up with the institutional church today. I believe this is a timely series. May it open our eyes and our hearts to a deeper personal relationship with Jesus.

CHURCH CRITERIA

~DENOMINATIONAL LABEL - United Methodist

~TYPE OF SERVICE
   *Traditional
   *Contemporary xxxxxx
   *Blended

~SIZE OF CHURCH - Large

~FRIENDLINESS - This church didn't come across as friendly to us. In addition to the door greeter only two people shook our hands

~AVERAGE AGE OF CONGREGATION 45-50

~DRESS ATTIRE - Casual to dress

~GREETING - There was a brief greeting during service (30-45 seconds)

~MUSIC - Live band (full band)

~BALANCE OF MUSIC VS WORD - Started off with two songs and ended with two songs. The overall balance of music and Word was pretty good considering the length of the praise and worship songs.

~TECHNOLOGY UTILIZED
Power Point, You Version Bible app, preacher used tablet, two screens above platform so congregation can better see minister.

~ACTIVITIES/PROGRAMS OFFERED - The church offers several Bible studies throughout the week for men, women and moms, refreshments and fellowship after service on Sundays, they also provide other studies throughout the week for those interested.

~BIBLE VERSION USED- NIV

~PREACHING STYLE-  Conversational

~USE OF SCRIPTURE - Minister ministered from text.

~RELEVANT MESSAGE - Very relevant message on spiritual growth. An outline of the message was provided in the bulletin for the congregation to follow.

~LENGTH OF SERVICE 55 minutes

OBSERVATIONS/COMMENTS

Interestingly enough, the service started off with an old rock song. In fact, as the service was dismissed the band played and sang the same song. The song title was the message title.  No one was singing along with this song. It appeared to me that the congregation was being entertained. I will be curious to find out if this is the case in other institutional churches today.

After this first song, the band played and sang one worship song. Utilizing the power point, the congregation did participate in singing this worship song. We observed a few people even lifting their hands in worship to God. I must admit I wasn't aware people in the United Methodist Church did that.

One area of concern was they baptized two babies and a teenager using sprinkling as the mode of baptism. I do not see a precedent for infant baptism in Scripture. I also do not see sprinkling as a scriptural mode of baptism. The Greek word for "baptize" in the New Testament means "immersion" or "to immerse". So this is an area of concern for me.

Little was said about the offering before it was received. However, this being a tech-savvy church, they do have in their bulletin three easy ways to give electronically. They are using your debit or credit card at a kiosk, giving through their website by e-check or credit/debit card or an automatic bank transfer on a weekly or monthly basis.

All in all it was an interesting experience. Not altogether good, but not altogether bad either.

Stay tuned for our next adventure.

Until next time... enjoy the journey!

Ray

NEW ADVENTURE

Here we are in 2015! Wow, where did 2014 go? When I was younger I used to hear others who were older talk about how time is flying by. Now that I am older I am saying the same thing.

I would like to start by giving you an update on our ministry from 2014. Last year was the busiest year we have had as the New Jerusalem Singers.  We sang in institutional churches, various events, fairs, festivals, senior hi-rises, retirement homes, nursing homes, gospel sings plus we hosted a number of gospel sings around our area. In total, we ministered and lifted up Jesus through music 84 times! We praise God for the opportunity to serve Him.

As good as last year was, its in the past and we are living in the present with an eye to the future. We anticipate 2015 being an even greater year lifting up Jesus through music. As we usually do, we are taking January, February and half of March off.  this is normally our time to begin scheduling for the year. We usually produce a new recording that we release in March. Things don't always work out that way, but that is our "norm".

This year has started off as anything but normal for this ministry. Cindy ended last year with a detached retina which has sidelined her for three weeks. Thankfully we got her to the doctor in time as there is a narrow window to get this tended to before the loss site in that eye would be permanent. We are expecting a complete recovery. She my still have some issues for up to six weeks. Also, Sharon (who takes care of our product table) will be having knee replacement surgery this Monday.

On the bright side, both of these ladies should be in good shape and ready to go when it comes time to start singing in March. We praise God for. that.

In the meantime, Cindy and I are going to visit some area churches over the course of the next several weeks.  I will blog about our experiences at each church so be sure to check out my blog often.

Until next time... enjoy the journey!

Ray