St. Louis church update

Some of you might have been wondering what happened to the weekly church search updates. Well, I’ve decided to attend and most likely join Memorial Presbyterian Church. I liked the location close to campus, the organ music, the science and faith discussion group, the presence of seminary students to offer deep insights into Scripture, etc. But what cemented my decision was the strong focus on reaching out to the “creative classes” of the central corridor of St. Louis. This area stretches from the Arch in the east to Clayton in the west, and is home to the majority of the young urban professionals and the educational, medical, media, artistic and cultural institutions of the St. Louis region. Memorial is in the process of renovating matthewschapel Center for Music & the Arts (and other capital campaign projects), which will be used to:

• foster a Christian ministry of presence in the arts & music scene
• serve local artists and musicians
• tear down the walls of suspicion that at times have separated artists and musicians and the church

The hope is that this will be a free venue for local community theatre, independent music, recitals, speakers, discussions, debates, film viewings and art exhibits, featuring Christians and non-Christians alike. I was reminded this weekend that the early 1980’s hardcore punk bands featured in the documentary “American Hardcore” often got their start playing in church venues, so this could be almost like coming full circle. I think it’s a very interesting ministry opportunity and I am eager to see the chapel open in November.

Looking back at my previous blog entries, I realize how insecure I was during my first couple of weeks in St. Louis. I was very unsure whether I would be able to find a church here, considering how long it took me to decide on GraceDC. I kept looking for reasons why I shouldn’t go to the first church I tried, because I was hoping to do another comprehensive church search and be very sure that I had made the right decision. I realized pretty quickly in mid-August that I simply did not have the time or mental energy to aimlessly try out a new church every week for the next few months. But now I feel pretty plugged in at Memorial and am more sure that I belong there and can help bridge the gap between the church and the university.

New City Fellowship in St. Louis

I had heard many good things about New City Fellowship, given its similarities to Faith Christian Fellowship in Baltimore. Not only is the church located only a ten-minute drive from my house, but it is a PCA church reaching out to a primarily African-American neighborhood. For those of you familiar with University City, the general consensus is that the residents of the area south of Delmar Boulevard are primarily white, and that the residents of the area north of Olive Boulevard are primarily black. I am not sure if this racial gradient is a function of the concomitant housing price gradient, or merely a remnant of historical segregation.

Anyway, the church has an outreach to West Africans through efforts to incorporate French and African songs into the worship music, and a side-by-side translation of the Bible passage in French. The music was all contemporary, and the worship team was multi-racial. The congregation was also multi-racial, and multi-generational. The church has a definite focus on providing for the needs of the poor, with an extensive food and clothing donation center. The sermon, well, was neither overwhelmingly expository nor completely practical, but rather, an overview of Jesus’ resurrection as presented in the gospel of Matthew. The communion time at the end of the service was unique in that everyone formed a huge circle around the auditorium and the trays were passed around the circle.

That being said, I don’t think this church is right for me, despite my very deep desire for racial reconciliation in the church. I found the church to be large and intimidating for visitors. I was barely greeted as I was handed a bulletin when I entered. It may be hard to identify visitors, but I can vouch that people sitting alone are almost 100% likely to be visitors. There were two empty seats on either side of me, and I sat in the very middle of the very long row when it was completely empty (perhaps I should re-think my seating strategy and sit right at the aisle, but I’ve always thought that was rude to latecomers). Partly, this spatial separation may be the result of using folding chairs instead of pew benches. There was no designated greeting time, but rather, a very vague and long break in the middle of the two-hour service where parents brought their infants to the nursery and other people talked to the other people they knew. After sitting awkwardly alone for a few minutes, I whipped out Beyond Charity: The Call to Christian Community Development and read and reminded myself why I am here in St. Louis and living in the neighborhood that I am. For someone like me that is craving genuine Christian fellowship and evaluating churches every Sunday, this relative lack of contact, coupled with the non-intellectual bent, was not what I was hoping for.

I also realized today many things about my own giftedness for ministry. When I lived in Boston, I chose to be involved in campus ministry because that’s where I was living and what I was doing already as a graduate student. When I lived in DC, I was no longer a student, so I chose to be involved in urban ministry, specifically in tutoring and mentoring of elementary school children. I realized that I chose this area of service/outreach not because I feel that I am necessarily called to provide for the general needs of African-Americans living in economically-depressed neighborhoods, but because I am very well suited for education and outreach. The reason I liked STEP Tutoring so much is because I really liked my student Crystal. She is highly intelligent and eager to learn and eager to please, and thus I knew that I could help her excel in her studies despite her less-than-ideal financial situation. If she had been highly rambunctious or openly defiant, I would not have been as emotionally willing or able to help her. Confronting my own limitations helped me realize that although I am an evangelical Christian first and foremost, and an academic second (or third, or fourth, etc.), I need to use the gifts God has given me in an appropriate context, given my limited free time away from the job. I feel called to be involved in campus ministry because there is not a strong Christian presence on the Washington University campus. And, for now, that’s where I am going to try to put my efforts and focus.

Memorial Presbyterian Church in St. Louis

One of the things I most anticipate and dread (at the same time!) about moving to a new city is finding a new church home. I’m always fascinated by how different churches conduct worship services and how they approach service and missions. At the same time, I feel like I’m bringing out the worst critic in myself in that I am necessarily judgmental and non-committal in how I evaluate churches that are admittedly imperfect and whose congregations are composed of sinners just like me.

Last Sunday, I visited Memorial Presbyterian Church, which is just south of the Washington University campus. From the get-go, the church reminded me very much of Park Street Church in Boston, which I love for three reasons: Gordon Hugenberger, organ-centric music, and commitment to urban ministry. Memorial has a pastor who graduated from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, an organist, and a commitment to urban ministry. Even the layout of the church building was very familiar. Plus, they have a discussion group that meets to talk about faith and science.

But, I happened to find the pastor neither as academic or droll as Gordon Hugenberger, nor as creative or animated as Glenn Hoburg of GraceDC. Rather, he was much more soft-spoken and willing to admit his weaknesses to the congregation.  Plus, this is an admittedly subjective bias, but I would hope that any new visitor to a church would get a personal contact within the week. Not just the standard form letter, which every visitor gets and which for Memorial I found a little self-aggrandizing, but an e-mail or phone invitation for lunch or coffee with a member of the staff. After a week, the trail runs cold and I believe the window of opportunity has closed. This may be a tall order, but one which I believe is vital for attracting seekers and new believers, and even for old-timers like me. I remember failing at this when I used to be on the exec team of the MIT Graduate Christian Fellowship; we were always bad at following up with visitors.  I liked Memorial overall and would go back, but I will be visiting another church this morning.

Faith Christian Fellowship in Baltimore

Last Sunday, a small group of us from GraceDC went to Baltimore to check out Faith Christian Fellowship. We had high hopes and were not disappointed. The congregation was certainly multi-ethnic and appeared to span several generations and socio-economic strata. The worship service was more informal than GraceDC’s, and the music had a more gospel bent. That being said, the sermon was very thought-provoking, focusing on “The Law of Freedom” from Exodus 19:1-8 (the foundation of grace, the focused affection, and the sacred mission). After church, we met over lunch with two long-time members of the church and the youth minister. We had so many questions to ask and in the end, we learned so much and reflected deeply our discussion on the drive back to DC.

We had been wondering about the nature of “racial reconciliation” versus “integration”. They encouraged us to think about the issue not simply as white and black, but rather as dominant and subdominant. While the racial divide is perhaps the most prominent given the history of slavery and civil rights in the U.S., there are other examples as well. For example, the youth pastor is from the South, which is evident given his accent. Native Baltimore residents would perhaps hear his accent and automatically assume certain characteristics of him, which may not be true. In this case, he would be fighting against the dominant prevailing stereotype of Southerners.

One thought that struck me was the notion that the Reformed church is actually the perfect starting point for reconciliation. The idea of “total depravity” means that we are all completely sinful and helpless without God. We have all of these cultural sins and biases that we are often unaware of how they developed within us. However, we realize that all humans bear the image of God. Thus, we are called to be a diverse church body in order to unify and get a fuller picture of God. In a sense, every church is called to work out reconciliation; we are not living in the Old Testament times, when one particular people group was singled out as God’s chosen. Yet, this does not mean that we should become a melting pot and ignore our racial, ethnic, and cultural distinctiveness, but rather, we should embrace these differences, encourage cultural interaction, and seek to understand the core issues that define people groups.

We asked about intentional steps FCF had taken to achieve their goal of a multi-ethnic church (or, as they dubbed it, carrying our their missional vision in a cultural context). They responded that a multi-ethnic leadership team was essential. One of the co-pastors is white and the other is black. They stressed the importance of leadership development for the subdominant culture. The worship team too is multi-ethnic, which is vitally important as they are the most visible congregants while on stage. The gospel/jazz music style was intentionally chosen to reach out to the residents of Pen Lucy (i.e. the subdominant culture). The goal is not to make everybody happy all of the time, but rather, to make everybody happy 75% of the time.

Of course, not every church is perfect, and the members of FCF freely admitted that they needed to constantly slow down and refocus on the mission and vision of the church, instead of becoming too idealistic and spreading themselves too thin ministry-wise. In that vein, they mentioned a desire to invest even more into community development and outreach, in terms of getting more members involved in building two-way personal relationships with the residents of the Pen Lucy neighborhood.

To help us explore these themes in more detail, they recommended several books for us to check out:

• Urban Ministry: The Kingdom, the City, & the People of God (Harvie Conn and Manuel Ortiz)
• United by Faith: The Multiracial Congregation As an Answer to the Problem of Race (Curtiss DeYoung et al.)
• Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (Michael Emerson and Christian Smith)
• Free at Last?: The Gospel in the African-American Experience (Carl Ellis)
• More than Equals: Racial Healing for the Sake of the Gospel (Spencer Perkins and Chris Rice)
• Winning the Race to Unity: Is Racial Reconciliation Really Working? (Clarence Shuler)

We hope to get a group of people together soon to pray regularly for GraceDC, FCF, and the vision of a church plant in DC that would make racial reconciliation one of its core values.

Racial reconciliation and the PCA church

Many of us came to GraceDC because we were attracted to the church’s vision for urban professionals to engage the city through ministry and outreach and intentional community. This vision, combined with the intellectual preaching and liturgical worship style brought together a community of young, well-educated people who all shared core beliefs. In a sense, GraceDC met us where we were and are right now, and this affinity cannot be discounted.

But, gradually, we have noticed that there is a vast racial and economic divide between our congregation and the rest of Washington, DC. This segregation may not be intentional on the part of GraceDC, but may be the result of the long history of the PCA as a white, Southern, and conservative denomination. It could also be a result of the music, political affiliation, and staff diversity, among other things.

With that in mind, we were wondering whether it would be a worthy goal of GraceDC to intentionally reach out to the African-American community of Washington, DC. We know that GraceDC is a center-city church, not an inner-city church, and we are not sure whether this emphasis on multi-ethnicity would overshadow the core vision of our church. But, this could perhaps be a vision to consider for a second PCA church plant in the city.

We found out from the Garriott family that there is a multi-ethnic PCA church in Baltimore, Faith Christian Fellowship, that has made racial reconciliation one of its primary missions. It is located in Pen Lucy, one of the most economically depressed neighborhoods of Baltimore, with a median income of $10,400, an entrenched drug trafficking and violence problem, and a 50 percent poverty level for children. Over the years, FCF has worshiped, done justice, and pursued unity in this neighborhood, and by all accounts, has been very actively involved in transforming and stabilizing the neighborhood. That’s why we wanted to visit the church, talk to some of the founding members and leaders, and see if we could get some ideas that could be applied to Washington, DC.

The PCA’s position on racial reconciliation is:

Whereas the heinous sins attendant with unbiblical forms of servitude-including oppression, racism, exploitation, manstealing, and chattel slavery-stand in opposition to the Gospel; and,

Whereas the effects of these sins have created and continue to create barriers between brothers and sisters of different races and/or economic spheres; and,

Whereas the aftereffects of these sins continue to be felt in the economic, cultural, and social affairs of the communities in which we live and minister;

We therefore confess our involvement in these sins. As a people, both we and our fathers, have failed to keep the commandments, the statutes, and the laws God has commanded. We therefore publicly repent of our pride, our complacency, and our complicity. Furthermore, we seek the forgiveness of our brothers and sisters for the reticence of our hearts that have constrained us from acting swiftly in this matter.

Walking into a cult?

What should one do when confronted with the challenge to find an authentic African-American church in DC? Well, in my case, I came across the United House of Prayer for All People, located in the Shaw district of DC. With a name like that, and a cafeteria next door to boot, how could I go wrong?

I should have been alerted by the big gold dome atop an octagonal prism, and the names of the founder C. M. (Sweet Daddy) Grace, successor W. McCollough, and the honorable bishop S. C. Madison prominently displayed in gold lettering on the side of the building. Perhaps it’s a good thing there aren’t many more successors, else there wouldn’t be enough room to write the other names. Anyway, the most prominent architectural features indoors were the brightly colored stained semicircular glass windows and the pretty spiral staircases. It was truly a marvel to behold. Until, I looked at the front of the sanctuary and saw, instead of a cross or some other traditional Christian symbol, three portraits in a row (presumably of the founder, successor, and bishop). In fact, the only places where I saw the faintest resemblance to a cross were the stained glass windows.

I was also surprised that, while the service supposedly started at 11:00 am, the sanctuary was virtually empty at that time. The only people there were these female “ushers” all dressed in white, and two male “worship leaders” singing along with an organist. I must admit that even these two singers were able to fill the expansive hall with their voices. They asked people to give their testimonies, all while singing something to the tune of “testify”. So I suppose it was charismatic to say the least. For someone who is used to starting church on time, I was flabbergasted that people, even those in prominent positions such as the choir and band and ushers, were still trickling in at 12:15 pm.

What disturbed me the most was that they kept praying to “Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” and “Our Sweet Daddy Grace”. Even if they pretend to read from the Bible and speak in other Christian-like language, they should not be praying to any human being (that isn’t Christ).

In its defense, the Sweet House of Prayer did have enough aspects of African-American churches to satisfy my curiosity. The singing-like prayers, well-dressed women with matching hats, bugle corps (well, mostly trombone band), all fit within the stereotype of Pentecostal churches. I think I would have felt the experience more if more people had been there during the whole service, but I guess even cults don’t necessarily have that many worshippers all the time. On a final note, the church cafeteria, which is open to all, serves Southern soul food, including pork chops, macaroni and cheese, collard greens, and red velvet cake, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm daily.

Grace Presbyterian Church of Silicon Valley

Since I am at the Stanford EMSI (Environmental Molecular Science Institute) meeting this week, I took the opportunity to visit yet another church. I went with Clayton to Grace Presbyterian Church. Yes, it is related to GraceDC; both are affiliates of Redeemer Presbyterian Church. It is still a church plant, meeting at the Jane Lathrop Stanford Middle School, but it will particularize in September. GraceDC just particularized two weeks ago.

In format and style, it reminded me so much of Redeemer's classical service, which I haven't written about yet but will do so soon. They had violinists and pianists, not guitarists and drummers. Even the bulletin was like Redeemer's. It's not surprising, since the pastor, Andrew Field, used to be an associate pastor at Redeemer. I quite liked the sermon, which was on Luke 16:19-31, or Jesus' parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The pastor mentioned that Hell represents separation, disintegration, and disappearance of identity. For example, the rich man's name is never mentioned. Also, he mentioned a quote from a Milton poem, "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven." In essence, non-believers are locking out Jesus. It was a good take on why one should be a Christian. It's not just about going to heaven as a super reward. It's really about our refusal to accept that our brokenness and depravity is separating us from God. Even in the end, the rich man refused to talk directly to Lazarus, preferring instead to order him around through Abraham.

I was surprised to see several familiar faces at the church. The lady manning the book table is Heidi, who I had met while working as a student assistant at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab during college. While I worked under Dan Dietderich, she worked under Bill Morris as a grad student in an adjoining lab. We shared the same metallurgy lab. I also serendipitiously met my first cousin once removed, Melinda, whose father is my grandmother's brother. I don't know how she recognized me from the crowd; she doesn't even go to the church regularly. But we had a good time catching up on what's been going on in our lives. I introduced both Heidi and Melinda to Clayton so that he would know more people at the church. Although he's only been going for a few weeks, he's quite happy there so far and feels that his church search may be over.

Mosaic Boston — Now everything’s new

While I was in Boston for Ji-Jon and Felicity's wedding, I had the opportunity to attend Mosaic Boston, which is a new church currently meeting at the YMCA in the Fenway neighborhood. Well, actually, I think they're still pre-public, but they are holding services already with about 20-25 people in attendance. Their hope is that "we become a movement of expanding communities that serve Boston and the world as gospel-renewal-agents in personal spirituality, relationships, the arts, and urban healing". The Mosaic network of churches started in Los Angeles, and has spread to cities like Berkeley, New York, and Austin.

Well, the real reason I was attending this church was because Ali has been going there for a few months now and really likes it, and because I was the one who found this church for him listed on both the Relevant Church Network and the index to emerging churches. This particular Sunday, Jeff decided to come too, since Dr. Hugenberger wasn't preaching at Park Street Church, and Zianette came too since she hadn't seen me all weekend. So we newcomers were very exciting to the regular attenders/members/staff.

The sermon focused on Mark 9:33-38, which contained three parts: predicting the Passion, misunderstanding the Passion, and living out the Passion. This pattern also appears in Mark 8 and 10. The pastor, Joseph Kim, also had some cool insights into Jesus' disciples, also called the Talmudim. It was an honor to walk right behind Jesus, the rabbi, and get as much of his dust on one's clothes. Overall I thought it was a very good sermon. Joseph has said that he very much admires both Dr. Hugenberger and Dr. Keller (of Redeemer Presbyterian Church fame).

Although the format of the church service wasn't all that different from normal church services, with one guitarist playing a mix of contemporary songs and hymns, I was encouraged by the pastors' vision to create a church for the artists in the city. Too often churches in Boston cater to intellectuals. Also, they are not as focused on applications or three point sermons as they are focused on exploring God's beauty and the wonder of the gospel message. I am curious to see what will happen when the church goes public later this year and they are able to attract many new artists.

Church decision — GraceDC it is!

In the past couple of months, I decided on a church to attend full-time here. Grace Presbyterian Church of Washington DC, which meets 20 miles from home at the Mount Vernon United Methodist Church, really did turn out to be the best choice for me. I was drawn to the expository preaching, good mix of ethnicities and ages, and strong emphasis on prayer and inner-city missions. But, I must admit, two things kept me coming back. One was the book club, formerly studying Dietrich Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship, currently studying Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood. The other is the STEP program, where we work with at-risk elementary school students in Northwest DC. In fact, this July and August I plan to help out with the STEP book club, where once a week (Thursdays, more on that later), I'll meet up with the kids (rising third graders) at Parkview Elementary School, hear their presentations/book reports, and then gather on neighborhood porches and read with one kid. Hopefully they will increase their reading comprehension and love for books, since statistics show that if a child is not reading at grade level by fourth grade, then they'll be behind for life.

I also settled on my three (!) small group Bible studies. On Wednesdays at noon, I meet with some other people at NIST to study What Christians Believe. It's aimed at new Christians, we think, but it is a good stepping stone for further discussion. Too bad we only meet for an hour. A couple of days ago I led the discussion on "Choosing a Church", not coincidentally. I thought it went really well. What's neat is that the group is a good mix of scientists and non-scientists, from all sorts of church and academic backgrounds. I'm glad that Chris, Emily, and Stephen, who are postdocs in my research group, are in the Bible study as well.

Every other Wednesday evening, I meet with the girls from Fourth Presbyterian Church, mostly living near Rockville although a couple of them hail from far away lands such as Columbia and College Park, to study A Woman's Heart: God's Dwelling Place. We meet in Rockville, rotating between a couple of homes. I find that the book really integrates the Old and New Testaments, so I'm getting lots of in-depth Bible study. I do have to prepare beforehand by filling out the worksheets in the book, but I find it very worthwhile.

Every Thursday evening, I go to the Petworth area of DC (also where the STEP program is based at the Parkview Elementary School) for my GraceDC community group, where we are studying Acts. We're a new group which just started meeting in the first week of May. I had previously attended a group in Northern Virginia, but I really felt a call to be a part of a group in the District. I have found it very helpful to be a part of the group from the beginning, where everyone is also relatively new to the church and the DC area. On the first night, we all shared that we felt that we didn't know very many people at church, and discovered that all of us were either from California (specifically the San Francisco Bay Area, except for one girl from Southern California) or had spent significant portions of our lives there. Since then, our group has grown a bit, and we have added people with Massachusetts connections as well. I find that we don't really have that much time for in-depth discussion of Acts, since we are kind of hurrying to get on schedule with the other groups at the church (yes, this is the unified curriculum), but we do spend a lot of time praying for each other. And, every week I have come away with a new insight, which is great!

I have felt much happier and more settled since I decided on GraceDC, and my new community group there has been a real blessing in helping me feel connected and prayed for. I am also very happy that my closest friends in my research group at work are Christians, which is good for keeping me accountable. And, I am grateful for the girlfriends I've made at Fourth Pres, who are all so sweet and care for each other.

Dating the church, locally

Raise your hand if you really thought I was finished with dating the church.

I'm starting to feel quite guilty that I can't settle on a church here. I've been in Gaithersburg for five months now, but still haven't quite found the right fit. As much as I like Washington DC, I'm starting to feel that it is too difficult to really get connected at Grace DC since I live so far away (about a 40 minute drive or Metro ride). Even my community group is about a 30 minute drive away from home, and I'm pretty sure that's not really the intent of the group (to have its members live far away). I don't think I would mind so much if I had any sort of connection to DC. But I don't. My job is in Gaithersburg and my home is in Gaithersburg.

Josh Harris (the pastor of Covenant Life Church) has written a book titled "Stop Dating the Church". The idea is that young people in particular need to invest themselves passionately in their local church. He's posted ten questions that we should ask when selecting a church:

1. Is this a church where God's Word is faithfully taught?
2. Is this a church where sound doctrine matters?
3. Is this a church in which the gospel is cherished and clearly proclaimed?
4. Is this a church committed to reaching non-Christians with the gospel?
5. Is this a church whose leaders are characterized by humility and integrity?
6. Is this a church where people strive to live by God's Word?
7. Is this a church where I can find and cultivate godly relationships?
8. Is this a church where members are challenged to serve?
9. Is this a church that is willing to kick me out?
10. Is this a church I'm willing to join "as is" with enthusiasm and faith in God?

And, in general, I agree. However, I think I'll need to go on a few dates beforehand. The right church is worth waiting for, praying for, and searching out.

About a month ago I tried out Journey's Crossing in Gaithersburg. It's a postmodern church to the utmost, meeting in the Rio movie theaters and infusing tons of pop culture into the services. The sermon was also too basic and not really based on explaining a particular Bible passage. Maybe what biased me against it was that my friend Becky is not all that thrilled with the church's non-focus on spiritual growth and care for mature Christians.

This morning I attended Seneca Creek Community Church in Germantown. The church is an Evangelical Free Church, and the majority of the pastoral staff described themselves as Myers-Briggs xNTJ's on the church website. Today they played two of my all-time favorite praise songs: "Your Love is Amazing" and "Holy is the Lord God Almighty". I think as a seeker-sensitive church, everything was pretty good. However, I am concerned that the sermons, right now focusing on finding God's joy and blessings in your life, were not expository at all. We barely read the Bible beforehand, and it seemed to be more deductive — stating some points and finding Biblical passages to support it — than inductive. Now, I'm sure that the pastor had studied the word "blessing" inductively, mostly likely looking through a concordance to find the two main meanings (gift given away to others (Proverbs 22:9), and a consequence of obedience (James 1:25)). But I think the main point was to emphasize the application of being a blesser, rather than dig deeply into scripture. As I listened to the sermon, I kept being reminded of the sermon style at Church of the Redeemer in Gaithersburg, which I didn't really like mostly because it used the NLT and was too flashy. Perhaps if I do decide on Seneca Creek church, I'll talk to the pastor about the sermons. In the meantime, I'll see what their new Young Adults Ministry, starting in May, is all about, by going to a planning dinner this Thursday.

This evening, instead of going to Grace DC, I went to Fourth Presbyterian's evening service. I had stopped going to the morning services because I caught myself getting quite distracted during the sermons, since I couldn't follow the organizational logic. Yesterday, during a nice hike with Elizabeth and my friend Cindy from the Beth Moore small group, I learned that several of the other girls had been silently feeling the same problem. Cindy thus suggested that I attend the evening service. It has much of the liturgical feel of the morning service, with traditional hymns and prayers. However, the sermon, on John 3, was given by the assistant pastor and turned out to be much more accessible. It was actually really good, focusing on how John needed to lower himself so that Jesus could be made higher, in fulfilling the covenant. Afterwards, I ended up talking to someone who's been going to the church for several years, and he suggested that I talk to the senior pastor about some of my concerns about the sermons. Perhaps I should. The pastor seems to be a nice guy, and it may be beneficial to understand how he's trying to organize the sermons.

This brings up an interesting point as to the point of Sunday morning/evening worship services. Are they designed to be the focal connection point of bringing us believers closer in communion with God — focusing on expositing a particular passage of the Bible and tying it in with an application to our lives? Or, are they an on-ramp to inviting seekers into the community of believers — focusing on an easy-to-understand application, with the main expository Bible study happening in small groups? I am of the impression that both are important, but it is probably harder, and thus more relevant, to find good expository preaching. What do you think?