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!