Worship on August 2, 8 & 9

Before talking about my latest worship experiences I need to clarify (apologize) for some comments that I have made concerning my vacation’s worship experiences.
• It has been a joy to worship at many different churches. The Lord touched my heart at each church. The people and pastors at those churches love the Lord and seek to serve and worship him.
• Secondly, scripture says that steel sharpens steel. Pastor’s have very few opportunities to see what other churches are doing. I have learned a lot from attending other churches. My comments concerning my worship experiences were not meant to be harsh, demeaning or critical. I am truly sorry if my comments offended or hurt anyone. I know that there are Sundays where the music at Evergreen isn’t as good as it should be. I know that there are times when people will say that the sermon was boring. The problem is that people very seldom ever tell the pastor!!! I hope that people will lovingly tell me when things in the service don’t go well. I think that we/I should strive to give Yahweh our/my best effort EVERY Sunday – and every day throughout the week.
• Third, I hope to implement some things I have experienced at other churches at Evergreen!!


Worship at Beit Tefillah
Beit Tefillah is a messianic congregation in Gig Harbor, Washington. The “pastor” (my term, not theirs) of the church is Brent Emory. Brent is a good friend and has preached for me when I am out of town. Our churches have celebrated the Seder together. Brent came to the 10th anniversary celebration that Evergreen gave for me and he came to the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Evergreen’s chartering as a Presbyterian Church.

Beit Tefillah means “house of prayer.”

Things that I learned/was reminded of at Beit Tefillah:
• Jesus’ Bible was our Old Testament! Jesus was a student of the scriptures and quoted them often. Without the Hebrew Scriptures we would not have a New Testament (Apostolic scriptures to my messianic friends).
• Most Christians (including me) are woefully illiterate concerning the Old Testament – this is unacceptable. The New Testament clearly states that we are “grafted” into the root of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Jesus said that he did not come to do away with even the smallest of the laws of the Old Testament. Scripture clearly tells us to study Torah and to teach it to our children.
• Beit Tefillah has a “potluck” lunch following every worship service. A common meal helps to bring people together and build community.

My only concern is going to make me sound like a broken record – the lack of being welcomed by people in the church. Brent and his wife did a good job of welcoming me. Brent welcomed me from the front of the church at the beginning and end of worship. He even asked people to greet me -- and the other visitor. And yet, not one person said a word to me until I sat down at a table to eat lunch. I talked to the other visitor until some other people sat at the table. I talked with a couple of people while eating. The conversation was all about “them” – they didn’t try to learn anything about me! Had I not stayed for the meal, the only two people who would have spoken to me were the pastor and his wife (and I know both of them). This experience has happened at most churches I have visited!


Note: The next to church were visited specifically because they are “satellite” campuses of a church. Evergreen has a sister church in Kake, Alaske -- a small Tlingit village in Southeast Alaska. (Note: our youth groups is in Kake this week leading a vacation Bible school.) Kake Memorial Presbyterian Church is so small that they might never have another pastor. There have been some very preliminary discussion about video taping Evergreen’s sermon for use in Kake.



Mars Hill West Seattle
Our experience at Mars Hill West Seattle was VERY favorable. Their worship team used several old hymns (that have been arranged in a newer style). The church was filled with young families. They meet in an older church building that have done a good job in making it “feel” a lot like the original Mars Hill. Those who like a traditional church will not like the way they have used curtains/drapes/cloth to cover most of the traditional platform area. I am sure that they do this (in part) to manage the ambient light entering the sanctuary – they need to control ambient light to have high quality video. Mark (from Mars Hill Ballard) preaches via video. Until a month ago the message as streaming live. They discontinued this due to technical challenges. All of Mars Hill’s satellite campuses show the message from “last” Sunday.

Things I learned:
• “Streaming” the message is very difficult. If Mars Hill has challenges in streaming the message from one side of Seattle to other sites in Seattle then it would be nearly impossible to have a good experience of streaming a message to Kake – with Kake’s spotty internet service.
• The family in front of us “welcomed” us and talked with us!! This was the first time this has happened all summer!!!!!!!!! Yet, they were the only ones to talk to us.


Light House Christian Center Gem Heights (Puyallup, Washington)
Light House started as a church worshipping on Saturday nights in Puyallup. They have grown so much that they added several Sunday morning services at their main campus. They added another service several miles south in a junior high school. There has been tremendous population growth in that part of Pierce County. We had a good experience at the church!

Things I learned:
• They had a good plan for welcoming visitors! The two greeters quickly determined that we were first time visitors and IMMEDIATELY got a person to talk with us!! This person talked with us before and after the service. He did a good job of telling us about their worship, video message, etc.
• They have a greeting time/food and coffee time during the service. We had been told that we were free to have food and coffee before the service and that there would be a short time in worship for people to greet each other and to get more coffee and goodies. They served coffee from a neighborhood coffee shop.
• A high school girl (who sings in their worship team) walked across the worship area (during the break) to welcome us to worship!! She was very friendly and welcoming.
• We knew all of the worship songs. A person who listens to Christian radio or worship CDs would know the songs.
• Videoing the message is not easy. The “sound” on the video did not match up with the lips that were talking. I spoke to our “visitor greeter person” and he said that it was a regular problem. They contact the tech people at the home church when it happens. This is something Evergreen will have to be careful about if we video our messages.

Concern:
• Here goes the broken record. Let me begin by saying that this church has been the best of all the churches we have visited in dealing with visitors. Still, only one “unofficial” person talked to us! The original greeter at the door (who took us to the visitor greeter person) sat two rows in front of me during worship. During the greeting time (or after worship) he never said a word to us – even though he knew we were first time visitors. The person sitting in front of us never said a word to us. I know that most visitors want to remain fairly anonymous; still, I think a certain amount of general friendliness to visitors should be the norm – not the exception! Once again, a big “THANK YOU” to the high school student that came over and welcomed us!!!