The past two weeks, I had the privilege of worshiping from a different point of view--from the view of a parishoner/visitor instead of a pastor. There were some enlightening moments, to say the least. For this blog, I will focus on the second week of worship as my family and I were in San Antonio, TX visiting my in-laws.
After eating breakfast with my in-laws, my wife, kids and I jumped into our vehicle to find a place to worship. Yeah, I know, what about looking up stuff on the internet? What about planning where you are going to go? Well, we were being a bit spontaneous, and we wanted to see where we would land.
First of all, my first bit of advice to any church leader or pastor reading: I don't give a flying flip about cutesy sayings or what the topic of the sermon is or what upcoming neat ministry you may be doing. On Sunday morning, when I am looking for a place to worship, I want to know one thing, and one thing alone: WHAT TIME DOES EVERYTHING START? Oh, and make it easy to read. Don't put your worship times in small font at the bottom of your church sign. It needs to be big and bold so that folks can read it easily as they are driving in their cars. And as for the electronic, led stuff: give your worship time more than 10 seconds to display. I'd like to actually have a chance to see it amidst all the other distractions while driving. And while I'm on this rant: if you have other things you would like to highlight, do so, but then immediately come back to your worship/Sunday School time. That's the most important stuff on Sunday morning for drive bys.
We actually drove around for about 30 minutes trying to find a church. Several of them had worship times that started later than we wanted. Several churches didn't post worship times. Others we drove away from because we weren't interested in the worship style. I'm not opposed to holiness churches, I'm just not particularly fond of worshiping at them. We finally drove past St. Matthew Episcopal Church in Universal City. After squinting as hard as we could, we saw the worship time was 10:30 a.m. Perfect!
We parked and headed into the church. We were greeted warmly and handed bulletins. Needing the facilities, we were directed toward the restrooms. As we headed that direction, a woman introduced herself to us and in a very kind way offered the services of their nursery to all of our children even to the point of telling us her child was there at that very moment. There was no hint of, "if your kids are noisy, use the nursery" in her telling which was a welcomed thing for my wife and I.
After taking care of business, we headed into the sanctuary. Before walking through the door, another lady said, "Excuse me, do you need prepared children's bags?" We graciously accepted them. Crayons, books, coloring books. Neat stuff all in a cloth bag package. Great entertainment for the kids to keep them quiet during the "boring" parts of the worship.
We sat in the last pew and began looking over the bulletin. Within moments, another woman approached us and informed us they had Children's Church during the sermon. Our kids were more than welcome to join the rest of the kids. My middle child was ready to go instantly. We had to reel her in a little and inform her it would be a little later.
The service itself was traditional in scope. No fancy bands or instruments. Organ music well done. One hymn which was unfamiliar to the congregation. All the liturgy parts unfamilar to me. Inclusive bulletin however which made following along very easy.
The kids left at the appropriat time for Children's Church, so my wife and I actually got to listen to a sermon uninterrupted. The sermon wasn't fantastic, but it was well delivered. Nothing overly heady, and not much theological jargon.
The kids came back during the sharing of the peace, and I did have one quibble--this took entirely too long. If you were a member of the church, it was no big deal because everyone had to hug and greet everyone else. If you were a visitor, after shaking the hands of those immediately around you, you ended up standing there watching everyone else greet and hug and exchange short stories. This was the only part of the service where I felt left out.
No problems receiving communion or otherwise, and we were warmly thanked for attending at the end of the service. Several folks invited us to come back. The lady who conducted Children's Church remembered all the names of our children perfectly. That was very nice and personal. We felt very comfortable there and would return in a heart beat--especially in how they welcomed and treated our children.
But here is the part that troubled me. This congregation had all the techniques down: welcoming atmosphere, genuinely hospitable folks, concern for guests and helping them learn the ropes of worship and the goings on during the service, a decent, understandable sermon even though I wouldn't call it spectacular, quality music, and some really nice singing by the congregation (particularly during the descant of Seek Ye First). Yet, despite all these techniques bascially being mastered by this congregation, it was nowhere close to being full. It was nowhere close to being packed with people gathering to worship. It was almost enough to make me scratch my head in bewilderment.
I've been doing some major thinking as to why this is so. I know the Episocopal church is a declining, mainline denomination. I know they suffer from some of the same symptoms that ail my denomination, the ELCA. But for all practical purposes, this place should have been hopping left and right with folks.
I've only worshiped there one time, and it's obvious that techniques aren't enough to produce a church packed with people. I wonder how well the church members invite others to attend worship? I wonder how deep the congregation's spiritual roots run? I wonder how often they engage the community surrounding them and are willing to lift up the needs of the surrounding community?
So many questions.
So few answers.
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