Well, let me give you a quick rundown of what we ended up doing Sunday: We were able to sleep in a bit, then we got up and made pancakes. After that, we put our coffee in travel mugs, then we went out and drove around town for about an hour. When we returned home, we went swimming for a while, then we went to the mall, had some lunch, and then finally returned home for the rest of the Law & Order:SVU marathon on USA.

What a great day that was. Rest, relaxation, and coffee. But I guess you’re wondering about church. Oh, we went….Saturday night. Man, I could get used to Saturday night church. If anything, it made my Sunday the most definitive “day of rest” that I can remember having. Unfortunately, the church that we visited is only meeting on Saturday temporarily. Too bad. Because now I’m a fan of Saturday night church.

So let’s talk about this church. I found out about it via The Ooze again, but as soon as I saw the website, I realized that I knew more about it than I thought. I knew we had friends there, plus I knew the worship pastor. It’s a new church start and it’s not far from home. So, it was obviously something we wanted to check out. But I should mention again that this church’s website was impressive. Something that I’m learning is that I can figure out what kind of DNA a church has, just by perusing their “Recommended Reading” list. Now, not all church websites have this, but I’ve found that’s it’s extremely helpful. I understand that this can be “judging a book by it’s cover” (pardon the humor), but hey, when you want to know as much about a church’s identity/DNA as possible without having to use a Sunday to visit it, it can be very useful. It’s going to save me time if I can rule out church possibilities because I can see that they’re beginning a year-long study on The Purpose Driven Life, or have a small group reading The Prayer of Jabez. This may be judgmental, but I’m ok with that, alright?

So we went to church Saturday. They meet on Saturday because they are currently meeting in another church’s facility. We were greeted at the door, received out “handout”, and we immediately found our friends there. We stood around and caught up on things, while I perused the church’s “core values” as described in the handout. From what I could tell, this was going to be a good experience. The service began with worship music, led by someone I know and respect as a worship leader. I can’t tell you how comforted I was to know that the guy leading worship was not only talented and passionate, but that he had a great theology and understanding of worship and of church. It’s just nice to know that the person leading this congregation wasn’t just a musician—he was a pastor.

After one song, the lead pastor got up and greeted the crowd and invited us to greet each other. Then we continued to sing. The music was great, with a full band, tastefully and reverently done. Song selection was very good (this is probably due to the fact that my taste in worship songs has been partially shaped by this worship leader).

After the music, we were seated and the pastor began his sermon. For one thing, I was glad that the pastor was actually going to preach, because we got ripped off in that area with some other churches we visited. It turns out that this pastor has been going through 1 John and he picked up where he left off last week. It was also really comforting to know that this pastor preaches via exposition. If anything, it communicated to me that this guy was at least devoted to the Bible. He did a great job preaching. He’s a great communicator, very dynamic, a little like a college pastor. This doesn’t bother me, but it’s just how I would describe him. He knew his Bible, and obviously studied a great deal in preparing the sermon. He was biblical, funny, and passionate. I did noticed a few teary eyes towards the end, and I don’t think it was just “over-emotional” people. I think God was really convicting His people through this message.

At the end, they took communion, making us 4 and 4 on communion and visits. This church takes communion every week, which I am learning is pretty common among the newer churches I’ve looked at. They also offered juice and wine, so you could have your beverage of choice to compliment your breadcrumb.

At the end, I was able to chat with the worship pastor some and visit again with our friends. We hung around a while, until we were almost the last to leave. I was hoping to meet the pastor, but I never had the opportunity. Well, actually he found his way into our “mingle bubble”, but he never introduced himself and neither did I.

The congregation was fairly even for a church like this. Several young college types, but mostly young couples and young families. There were plenty of children (I was told that they launched with 20 kids, plus some infants) and they obviously had some sort of children’s program. The people were very nice and we felt pretty comfortable, considering we were visiting. This is probably due to our friends there. As a matter of fact, we were invited to dinner afterwards. We went to a local Tex-Mex restaurant with about ten people, including the pastor and his wife. Unfortunately again, they sat on the other end of the long table and they never said hi. This was a little disappointing, but not enough to really bother me.

At the end of the night, Katy and I talked and we both felt pretty good about this church. I don’t think we’re going to stop looking, but I think this church definitely moves to the front of the pack. I guess I just wish I could sit down with the pastor for two hours and talk about who they are and who we are, but I know that’s a luxury we are used to having and that is not so common in other churches. We’ll look into it more….I’ll visit with our friends more and hopefully get together with the worship pastor sometime.

Conclusion: Great church. Great worship. Great preaching. Great community. Definitely worth a closer look. But you never know—something better might be around the corner next week!