Church Hopping (Updated)

This morning, I went to Mars Hill U-District. Mars Hill is an enormous church spread out among at least a dozen campuses. Its headed by a famous senior pastor, Mark Driscoll, who's known for stirring up some controversy. It's a very young adult oriented church, and makes its sermons available online as podcasts, but that's not the only way they light up itunes charts. There are a number of Mars Hill bands that lead worship with a lot of original songs each week.

I decided to check it out because I was familiar with it.

I don't think I'll be returning.

I liked that someone, Jamie - 2 years out of school and in civil engineering - invited me to sit with her and her husband. She told me a little more about how the church works and invited me to her community group this week.

I liked that even though I had no chance of knowing the music, I was still able to pick up on the words. This is always, for me, a mark of Spirit-led worship.

I LOVED seeing husbands and wives praying together over communion.

However.

I did not like that music very much. There was a bizarre rock version of Be Thou My Vision and that was as close as it came to what I'd be comfortable with.

It did not feel like a family. At RVC, people knew each other and they talked and the old and the young all meshed together and were involved in each others lives.

I did not like that we watched a screen of Pastor Mark preaching at another campus. I want to know the pastor who is teaching me each week.

While I thought much of what he said was biblically consistent, there were some elements that I did not find to be accurate, nor did I think some of flippancy was anywhere near appropriate.

The gospel was not explicitly preached and taught

I did not like taking communion individually.

So, although it's tempting to be at a church where I could meet other people my age very easily, I'm going to have to move on.

What's great about living in a younger person oriented area is that there are a lot of churches with evening services. So I'm actually going to hit up The City Church tonight. Stay tuned.

UPDATE

I did go to the City Church and it was better but not enormously better.

First off, I think that going to church in U-district may be the problem. The churches are all geared toward younger people and even though I am one, I don't usually like those churches that much. I'm going to be moving, though, so I'm not sure how invested I want to get before I figure out where I'll be living. I do need somewhere to be fed in the meantime though.

I liked that a girl named Felicia met me at the door and got to know me a little, including introducing me to other people there, and showing me around the building.

I liked that I was familiar with most of the worship we did. There was also a joyful freedom. I received pictures while we were worshiping, and it was definitely Spirit-filled.

I liked that I got a card for a free latte at the coffee shop during the week.

The gospel was at least mentioned. I felt like the pastor missed a number of opportunities to be more explicit, though.

I did not like the screen preaching. Seattle, what's up with you? Despite the dozens of churches I've visited, I've never been preached at from a screen and now twice in one day!

The preaching pastor had a lot of fluff. I don't like fluff in church. A little, sure, but 1/3 of the sermon time, no.

This might be an ok summer church. I'm not trying to be picky, RVC did everything I could have wanted, I think.

Bible believing
Gospel preaching
Missional
Body
Community
Fellowship
Traditional and contemporary worship
LIVE pastor who knew me and made an effort to know everyone in his church
Lots of opportunities to be involved
Prayer focused
Discipleship oriented
Communion explained, Scripture read, taken together
Baptism explained, testimony shared (believer's baptism)

If you've seen one of these in the Seattle area, please let me know.