church-capades 2006

A few months ago, I decided (God told me) I needed to start going back to church regularly. Since about Easter, I've been trying to drag my lazy bum out of bed on Sunday mornings and go to church. Fellowship in Lowell is, so far, my favorite in Northwest Arkansas, and when I get back in August, I think I'm going to make it my official church home.

The problem with summertime, though, is that I'm not in Northwest Arkansas. I'm in Georgia. So, since I've been here, I've gone to a few different churches, and I'd like to share my experiences so far.

Sunday #1:
Tabernacle Baptist Church
Carrollton, GA
Tabernacle had a few good qualities. The people in the congregation, albeit a bit older than me, were really nice, and one couple even e-mailed me later in the week. However, it was very "high church." For instance, on the ceiling hung four ridiculously sized bronze chandeliers; the choir members wore robes; an old guy played the organ; the acoustics in the building were very echo-ey, etc. I made it a point to sit right behind the sound booth (my dad would be proud!), and it still sounded like a big pile of poo. The song selection was also a bit dated. We sang such classics as "Majesty" and "I Surrender All," which are both fantastic songs, but I prefer a little more variety and a little less vibrato.
On the plus side, though, they do have coffee in the lobby (although I don't think you can take it into the sanctuary), and they have projection screens on which they project not the lyrics of the hymn, but the hymn number so it can be easily located. I guess if I don't find anything better, I could venture back to Tabernacle, but in all, it's still a little too traditional for me.

Sunday #2
Christ Church Pentecostal
Nashville, TN
(evening service)
I'm not going to go into much detail here, as I'm a good Southern Baptist girl and this, as you can see, is a Pentecostal church. Also, I missed the music part of the service because I was busy driving around Nashville with my mom trying to find Vanderbilt Law School. Props to Christ Church for the outside windows in the sanctuary. I don't think I've ever seen that before, but it worked really well. I really liked a lot of aspects of their space, and I think more churches should go in that direction. However, there were a few times we were afraid someone was going to break out into spontaneous tongue-speaking, in which case we were going to excuse ourselves and declare them legally insane (we would back up this claim with scripture, of course). Also, this church is in Nashville, which is several hours away.

Sunday #3
First Baptist Church
Carrollton, GA
I had high hopes going into FBC of Carrollton, but they quickly began to wane when, 10 minutes prior to the service, the place looked completely dead outside. I was surprised to see a few hundred people in the sanctuary (it was almost at capacity). While I didn't notice the light fixtures in this particular building, I did notice the enormous pipes mounted on the walls on each side of the choir loft. Needless to say, an organist was present, and he must have been in a booming mood because I couldn't hear the piano through the entire service. But, in the organist's defense, that is how most organs are; however, that is the reason I don't care for them that much. The song selection at FBC was straight from the hymnal; we sang such stuffy classics as "Faith is the Victory" and "A Mighty Fortress is Our God." The song service was so traditional, we didn't even skip the third stanza of any hymn we sang. The choir was very good, but they belonged in Switzerland singing alongside the Vienna Boys Choir.
However, all the above is definitely excusable if the sermon is worth listening to. Unfortunately, the sermon left a lot to be desired. I guess I'm just spoiled by the good preachin' at the East Side Baptist Church in Mtn. Home, Arkansas.

This Sunday, I'm venturing out of Carrollton.