Raintree Christian Church

October 7, 2007

Now that I've taken you all backwards in time to trace our journey of church visiting since August, we are now caught up and back into current time and experience. It should be a little easier to keep up now as I'll have a whole week to blog about each experience before the next one rolls around!

We didn't know a whole lot about Raintree, but it was suggested to us by my dear sister Lynsey as she and Robby attended worship services here for a time after they were first married. As usual, I got online to check out their website - which is a pretty good one. Go to http://www.raintreechristian.org/ if you are interested. I like the fact that one of the main things on their homepage is "Before you Come - what to expect." It shows that their webpage is focused on folks like us who are looking at their church from the outside. It had really helpful things like worship style (there are different services to choose from), what kind of clothes folks wear (these seems insignificant, but is really important when you've never visited before), childcare, directions, etc. All my questions were addressed and answered up front which gave me a really good feel for what to expect and encouraged me to feel comfortable visiting.

From the website I learned that the minister, Brent McCall, has roots in the churches of Christ and that one of our friends from college, Amanda Roberts, is the children's minister. This led me to believe that our experience would be comfortable and possibly much like a church of Christ service with instruments. While we worked in Kenya, we got very acquainted with Christian church missionaries and appreciate our common heritage very much. All church of Christ and Christian church workers in Kenya actually work under one church registration - there is no official distinction between the two and lots of the Christian church workers attended our annual missionary retreats and we likewise attended their annual All-Africa missions conferences that were held in Kenya. I've kept up with some of the unity movements in the recent past and appreciate the move toward being more unified, especially since these two church fellowships share a common Restoration heritage.

That is also one of the reasons we have been hesitant to visit Raintree. As we have been searching for a church home, our main criteria is finding a place that is Spirit filled and full of people that are actively seeking God in their lives. I suppose that we have been somewhat cautious about pursuing churches with a Restoration heritage since we have observed very few that live out a Spirit-filled life. I don't want to pass judgement here or suggest that we have totally abandoned our Restoration heritage - it's not that at all. We just want to be very careful about the church we choose and find one that matches up in many significant ways (none will totally) with our theology and practice.

As we approached Raintree, there were lots of people outside visiting - presumably because we were between the 2nd and 3rd worship services. We were privileged to have Jill's parents along with us on this church visit. We got our groups together (we came in separate cars) and entered the building. We met a greeter at the door and she directed us to the children's department, which was right down the hall. I had forgotten that our friend Amanda was the children's minister there and she took Avery for us. We proceeded to the auditorium and though several people were friendly and said hello, no one made an effort to actually meet us. This auditorium was very different from most we've visited lately. It was obviously a church by the decor and I don't know how long its been since we sat in a pew. (Well, I take that back. The Episcopal church had pews with no padding!) It had a beautiful stained glass window at the front of the room with pretty wooden staircases that led to nowhere up the sides of the stage. I seriously couldn't figure out what those staircases were all about. There was a greeting on the two big screens as well as a timer indicating how many seconds to the next worship service. While some people find that attractive, I find it rather tacky and annoying. Our culture is so time driven that it would be nice to find a "sanctuary" from that - especially in the church "sanctuary."

I knew it would be a great worship time when the ticker ran out and the worship leader came to the mic - barefooted! It was great! He wore a black, un-tucked polo shirt, khaki's and NO shoes or socks. He welcomed us to worship and when his prayer was done, the whole worship team was on stage and ready to go. We started out pretty smooth and simple, but soon got cranked up and had quite the rockin' worship time! They led us in several popular Third Day type songs, which I really enjoyed. The drums were turned down to the perfect level - you could hear them, but they didn't overpower everything else like in most churches. (And they didn't even have the clear wall around them) I thought the electric guitar was turned up too much here, but I really enjoyed the worship leader's enthusiasm as he led the songs and encouraged us to worship. Knowing that Jill's mom doesn't care for the instruments too much, I wondered how she was doing, but soon got swept into the worship and was able to fully concentrate on singing and praising God. (I love you for going with us Carole!) That's the kind of worship I enjoy - an environment and music that gets me out of myself and into a place where my heart can truly adore God without being burdened by all the everyday stuff that constantly roams around in there. I liked Raintree for drawing me out of me and into worship.

During our worship time we had a communion service that was fairly similar to a church of Christ. After a blessing, the ushers passed the tray - that was one difference. The gold plated communion tray had the little plastic cups around the edge with a bowl in the middle that contained the bread. It was traditional Christian Church bread, which is tiny little rectangles of pre-cut and baked unleavened bread. It's totally different than Matzo's, but I thought it was cool to take them at the same time. (I sometimes secretly do that anyway during a cofc service!) Also, you didn't take it immediately - you kept your cup to take at your leisure and then placed the cup in the little round holder in the pew. I'd always visited churches that had those holders, but never been to one that actually used them. During the communion they played a beautiful piano composition that was calming and reflective - just appropriate for such an occasion in my opinion.

After the worship period, the minister made a few announcements while they passed the contribution plate. And after that, we realized quickly that our online research was a little incomplete! This was the second lesson in a series called, drum roll please, "The naked truth about pure sex." Oh my. I'm all for the topic, don't get me wrong, but you might be remembering at this point who is sitting beside us... Needless to say, I dared not turn and look down the row at my in-laws. I think I was a bit too red to face them. Anyway, I got over my embarrassment and tuned into the message - which was really good. He proposed that we are neither animals nor angels as our culture and church culture tend to make us believe. That is, sex is neither JUST a biological function that we can't control (animal instinct) nor are we created to be sexless like the angels. We are created human and need to enjoy the way God created us, which is to stay in the middle of the road between the animal ditch on one side and the angel ditch on the other.

As the message wound down, the worship team returned to the stage and ushered us into an invitation time and closing song. It was a very poignant and touching worship service to me, though I'm not sure anyone else in my group shared the level at which it affected me. We wandered back to get Avery and I visited with an acquaintance from Abernathy for several minutes as Jill and her folks located the girl. Apparently that wasn't as easy as you would think. Since the children's minister Amanda had taken her to class, Jill wasn't exactly sure where she was, but the teacher of the 4 year olds didn't even know who Avery was. Jill nervously asked around and it turns out she had been placed in the 2 and 3 year olds class for some reason and she had been allowed to go outside and play on the playground after class. (I don't know if this was supervised or not). Anyway - after our other experiences of churches that have rigourous check-in and check-out procedures in place, this was a little disarming.

We didn't stick around to visit much as we were running short on time to get to a Dr.'s appointment. We said our goodbye's to Jill's folks and left Raintree Christian Church. My overall impression of the experience was good. I enjoyed the worship and the preacher (which is rare) and the church seemed to have some things on the ball. I doubt we will be back, though, as we are more and more convinced that a Lubbock church just isn't the best option for us right now. Who knows - we are still seeking God on this and looking for a place that fits us best. No place will be perfect, but some are certainly better than others!

Trinity Church

August 5 and 19, 2007

We began our "church search" two months ago now. Our first visit to Trinity was born not from a deliberate choice to begin looking for a new church home, but out of a frustration with where we were and a need to experience something different for a change. One of Jill's good friends had been visiting Trinity and invited us to go with her, so we accepted.

We had been to Trinity before - usually at Christmas time for their special dramatic presentations. Avery always says "Look! There's the camel church!" when we drive by it on the loop, for she hasn't forgotten that Christmas play 2 years ago where they brought a REAL camel into the auditorium during the play. Now this may be a dumb question related to nothing of any significance, but would your church allow a camel inside??? To me it may seem irrelevant, but it communicates something about the heart of this church - they are interested in communicating the message to people's hearts and are willing to go to extreme measures to do so. That is something valuable in a church.

I suppose that Trinity is the only church in Lubbock that might come close to being classified a "mega" church. I've heard their membership is over 7000, but that is difficult to really know without asking someone in the know. Either way, it is a big place with LOTS of people and that can be either intimidating or comforting - depending on your point of view. If you are not really looking for a church home, it can be nice to just blend in and enjoy a worship service without special attention being brought your way. On the other hand, it can be incredibly difficult to meet people in such an environment if that is what you are really after. It made me really wonder how you would become involved with a church like this and what the attraction is for the mega-churches around the country. Perhaps people enjoy being anonymous and coming to get a worship-fix on Sundays. That wasn't my overall impression of this church, but I did have to wonder how all those people could realistically be integrated and active into church ministry.

Our friend had told us how to find the children's department and we were able to get Avery situated very easily. She was super excited to see what was going on in their and having her friend Kaidance in class was an added blessing. We sifted through the mob of young families toward the "sanctuary" and were greeted at the entrance with a hand-out which outlined the morning's service for us. It was a nice full-color print-out with announcements, class descriptions, meeting times and places, etc. all inside. We found a good seat towards the middle of the room and settled there as we awaited the worship service to begin.

The musical talent at Trinity is pretty impressive, especially since we hadn't been to an instrumental service in quite a while. They have, on occasion, a full orchestra setup for special worship events that is extremely impressive. This particular Sunday was not really a special event, but they did have a stage full of guitars, bass, drums, keyboards and an assortment of other instruments. The musicians tuned up and eventually the worship leader and backup singers came onto the stage with a warm welcome to enter into worship together. They have two huge screens at the back of the stage with the words to the songs easily visible for everyone in the huge auditorium. The songs were very upbeat - some were familiar and some not - and the music had a very different feel to it than what I expected. There was a lot of Southern Gospel feel to it, more so that what you'd hear on contemporary Christian radio say. I guess I was expecting more of a rockish or folkish or refined sound. Anyway - it was good, uplifting and encouraging despite not being my favorite music style.

At some point during the service, we witnessed several baptisms. They have a baptistry behind the stage, like most churches of Christ do, and there was a deacon who escorted the white robed baptismal candidate, as they were called, into the water. It was interesting that the preacher took their confession, though he was 30-40 feet away from them and obviously watching them from a video screen as he faced the audience instead of looking at them directly. Once that was done, the deacon baptized them and everyone applauded. You could also watch the whole thing in larger than life-size on the two Jumbo-trons in case the real thing wasn't good enough.

That leads to my only real critique of the service. While the pastor was preaching, he was broadcast onto the two Jumbo-trons in case his actual size wasn't good enough. My mind bounced between the three images as the cameras struggled to keep up with his lightning paced stage crossing. I appreciate a speaker who moves around, but the camera chasing broadcast on the big-screens made it seem like a blur of activity. It was very hard to concentrate on the message and I wasn't really sure why his face needed to be broadcast like that anyway. I'm pretty sure even the people in the back had a clear view of the stage. It would have been much more helpful to have the sermon outline or Bible verses or things like that projected up so we could follow along. I don't really remember what the message was about, but that isn't uncommon for me. I'm not a big fan of preaching in general and rarely take much away from a speaker's message. Perhaps that is indicative of a spiritual deficiency in me - I'm not really sure. Either way, he wasn't a particularly gifted speaker but I do remember his message being encouraging. Not challenging, but encouraging - and maybe that is what you have to offer when you are speaking to a couple of thousand parishioners whom you probably don't even know personally.

While Trinity was extremely friendly - all the people around us made an effort to meet us - it felt like a really difficult place to get involved. I know there aer a multitude of small groups and classes to join, but that is all quite daunting in such a large church where we don't know anyone. Well, I say we don't know anyone. I did see someone there I knew from Broadway and one of my customers in the parking lot. But among a crowd of several thousand, would you ever really see them again??

The overall impression - a super church to visit. Great worship, great kid's program, on the ball place, but too big for us. We want to be somewhere that we are needed and can contribute to the ministry. I think there are plenty of folks at Trinity that can handle this without us.

See more at www.trinitytoday.com .

Harvest Christian Fellowship

August 12, 2007

During our church search we felt like looking at church's in Plainview might be a good option for us. It makes more sense to worship there, since I work in Plainview and would be more able to participate in activities throughout the week and could make some good friends right there in town. We decided to try Harvest on a recommendation or two, though we weren't quite sure if we'd chosen the right place or not. We have some good friends here in Abernathy who told us they attended a Harvest church in Plainview and one of the partners in my business also told me about the Harvest church he attended. When we started looking online Saturday night to get the meeting times, we discovered there are 2 Harvest churches in Plainview - Harvest Christian Fellowship and Family Harvest Church! What to do? It was late Saturday night and we didn't feel like waking anyone up over our dilema, so we chose Harvest Christian Fellowship and went for it!

Harvest meets in a non-descript building in the center of Plainview. I have no idea what the building was originally, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't designed as a church. It's low and stucco and has pretty trees along the street. We parked in the parking lot out back (not in the "guest" parking, of course!) and headed for the door - a little concerned that there weren't too many cars there yet. The entrance was wide open on this sunny morning and two friendly people were propped against them greeting folks as we came in. The lobby was warm and inviting - it kind of felt like coming into someone's home, but in a commercial kind of way because it was big with stained concrete floors. We asked about the accomodations for Avery and the gentleman who greeted us was kind enough to leave his post and escort us around the building to the kids section.

As we walked, he showed us where everthing was - you know, the important stuff like the coffee bar and restrooms - but more impressively he introduced us to nearly everyone we passed. We me lots of folks our age, a very racially diverse group of folks, as we walked the long hall to the nursery. It was very homey - Jill really liked the throw rugs and conversation stations (otherwise called couches) along the way. The nursery attendants were very friendly and showed us the whole check-in routine, which seemed to be quite thorough. (After church, we realized that we'd forgotten to hand in the card they gave us to "claim" Avery so I returned it. The girls were visibly alarmed that they had allowed a child to go without the ticket! I thought that was pretty indicative of how seriously they take this!)

After dropping Avery, we meandered back to the coffee bar and loaded up before finding a place to sit in the worship room. It was a low ceiling room, actually it didn't have a ceiling - just open beams and air ducts painted black. The chairs were comfortable and portable - they could be easily reconfigured or moved to use the room for something else - and set-up in a big U around the stage. We found a seat and got ready to worship as the leader got up and welcomed us to Harvest. The band started their song and we were suddenly surprised from behind! Our friend from Abernathy, Jara Dubose, grabbed us and invited us to come sit with them - I think they came in late and happened to spot us across the room. It was such a relief to know someone! We really enjoyed the worship time as this church has pretty skilled musicians.

One thing I've noticed about many of the churches we visit is the number of songs we sing. I think the song service probably lasts the same amount of time a typical c of c service does, but there are usually only 2 or 3 songs. I really like this - a lot of other people don't. It means that there is a lot of repetition of the verses and chorus, which is how most new songs are written anyway. For me, this really helps me to get into the words and feel like I'm able to worship. The repetition allows me to think about the song, to sing it with heart, to enjoy offering it to God. Sometimes I feel like this means I'm a bit dense or slow. I just have a really hard time jumping into a song, singing the 2 or 3 verses and then jumping to another one. I need to let it sit, to let it simmer in my mind and at some point my mind is diverted by the repetition from whatever else it was doing to concentrate on the song. I don't know if that is a man thing or a Gabe thing, but either way I like singing the same song for 10 or 15 minutes. Call me crazy, I know...

After worship, we transistioned into commercials. That's right - commercials, not announcements. The staff had done a fabulous job of turning the boring announcements into a fun, lively, videographic (is that a word?) catchy experience. They were projected onto the screen and we watched them for 5 minutes or so. Is that a sign of the times or what? We can't sit and listen to a guy announcing stuff anymore - but our attention will stay glued to a TV screen with video images flashing by.

I'm sure there were other things during this part of the service, buts I guess they weren't significant enough to remember almost two months later. The founding pastor of the Harvest Fellowship group of churches did do the preaching that morning. He's a middle-aged guy with kids our age. He started the church a while back here in Plainview and that work has spread to several church plants over the years. I think there are "branch campuses" meeting in Lubbock, Amarillo, Seymour and Follett. He rotates around supporting the campus pastors of these churches and I think his preaching is sometimes broadcast via video to all the churches. His son-in-law is considered the Plainview Campus Pastor and has responsibility here all the time.

One of the exciting things our Abernathy friends told us is there are plans in the works to start a campus in Abernathy in the next year or two. They have a very deliberate process of getting a church planting team together, training and preparing for a plant that sounded pretty cool. So - maybe God has that in store so we can continue to worship right here in our community like we 've wanted to all along!

We enjoyed our experience at Harvest. It was one of the friendliest churches we've been to and it was obvious that the people there wanted to be there and expressed that during their worship. We love that and yearn for that so much. This was the early service and we were informed there were many more people at the late service so we vowed to return and experience that at a later date. More on that in another blog. One other fringe benefit to our visit - the partner in my business I mentioned came in and sat behind us and the financial manager from our office also attends church there. We have another couple friend from Abernathy who recently moved to Plainview and they also attend church here. We saw all them and it really felt good to know so many people from the get-go.

What a great journey we are on right now! God is good and will lead us where HE wants us to be!

If you'd like to visit the church's website, click http://www.harvestchristianfellowship.org/plainview.html .