The Quest for a Church Home, Part II

Since we were out of town last weekend, Alison and my church search was put on hold for a Sunday but today we worshipped at a large Baptist church in Waco. They are well known for their emphasis on missions and strong youth ministry, so it intrigued me a little before attending this church.

I feel like I need to put a disclaimer out there before I go any further with any posts of this sort. Sometimes I may come across as a cynic and critic of a church (seminary can do this to a person), but this is not my intention. Within the past year, I have come to the realization that it takes all kinds of churches to reach all kinds of people. What really matters is whether or not a person's "DNA" (for lack of a better word) and the church's "DNA" connect.

With that said, this church is really not for us. We were greeted kindly, the people seemed nice, they have a full church staff, they had a band, but it honestly felt too big for us. This congregation is one of the "mega-churches" in the Waco area and we're looking for something more intimate and personal. And maybe it was a bit too traditional for my liking. By traditional, I mean stuck in a system of doing church and unwilling to be forward thinking. This goes beyond having screens and doing praise choruses in your worship service. That stuff doesn't really matter to me anymore for the most part. I could care less if I had to sing from a hymnal as long as it is authentic worship.

I think the other thing that we disliked about the church was that it felt like church, in the bad sense. After the service, Alison and I discussed that the church seemed to be going through the motions, so maybe today was a bad Sunday. I had the impression that everyone was at church because "that's what you do on Sunday mornings." We're looking for a place that we anticipate attending each week, not a place to go for the sake of habit.

On another note, they had an electronic drum set. It seriously gave me the chills. I think churches are the only people who buy those crappy things in a way to please the teens and 20's (which it doesn't) and appease the senior adults.

With all that said, we probably won't be attending this church another Sunday and the search will be put off for another week since I'll be hanging out at Kevin's church for a DNow. Until next time...