The Church Hunt

So in my last post I updated you briefly on my experience at the first church I tried. Now for my Sunday morning experience.

This morning I decided to attend the Evangelical Free Church here in town. It's a pretty small church in a pretty humble building, so I figured it'd offer me a slightly different perspective from the large church I attended last night.

Wow, was I right. If I was looking for something similar to home, though, this place was not the place to go. Built close to the water, it is on the north side of town. Getting there was no issue, but as I drove down the one-way street that led me there, I realized getting back home might be another story.

I walked into the building & realized it was larger than I was expecting it to be. Although the auditorium was by no means filled with chairs, they do have room to grow, at least as far as the sanctuary is concerned. This church also had a stage, although it was significantly less showy than the first church. I picked up a bulletin from the front table - no greeters here - and went to find a place to sit down. At 10 the service started with the worship team - nothing out of the ordinary. No piano on stage though - so either they don't have a piano, or they do but have no one to play it. ;)

When the service started the sanctuary was quite empty and I was wondering how they manage to keep their doors open with so few people, but people quickly came in and filled in many of the empty spots.

I was immediately struck by the low-key atmosphere. There was no attempt to put on a good show, no attempt to be professional, and little or no barrier between the person up front and the people in the pews.

When the pastor got up to preach, he realized he had forgotten his sermon notes in his office...so he walked out of the sanctuary to go get them. It was quite the moment, let me tell you. Every laughed and joked & it was really quite amusing. Throughout the sermon, the pastor cracked numerous jokes, often including members of the congregation in the fun, and no one was shy - many would joke right back at him. It was a small enough church that although the pastor had a mic, when the ushers came up to take the offering, one of them prayed without a microphone.

I guess this church is planning to move somewhere else in Bellingham where they will be able to have more of an impact on the community. They are already on the outskirts of town, so I am assuming that they are going to be attempting to move closer to the heart of the city, but I could be wrong. They have already started signing the paperwork and everything, although they don't know where they are going.

I liked this church. It was small, much smaller than even my home church, but the people had an obvious bond, and everyone seemed to not take themselves too seriously. Also, there was a huge push for evangelism it seemed - especially with the upcoming move in mind. These people seem to truly desire to reach their community with the Gospel.

So, I might keep going there for now, and hopefully plug into one of their small groups. It wasn't exactly what I was looking for, but when I was there, I found myself feeling surprisingly at home.