Late Church

So I've attended Savannah Christian's late church a couple of times...not a big fan. I have attended Savannah Christian a few times with a couple of friends of mine--both are great guys, and they have also recently joined the church. I cannot say I really enjoy it, however.

Here are a few thoughts:

1. Worship music is accompanied by too many bells and whistles, like smoke/fog and fancy lighting. They also take up a tithe, which is standard for most churches, but both me and my girlfriend agreed that we thought our money would not be best spent on keeping their fog machine and lights running.

2. They do communion every week, which isn't necessarily bad, but it's too impersonal. In the New Testament, believers would gather together for a meal, and communion would accompany this meal--so that it was actually the body of Christ coming together in communion with the Lord. Savannah Christian is too impersonal of a setting for communion to be anything like that...it is an individual and private thing there, and as such, seems to lose a lot of its meaning.

3. The church service is too impersonal. I noticed there were several individuals who were sitting off to themselves trying to soak it all in. However, you don't need to go to church to do that. One could simply download an Andy Stanley sermon online (which actually would probably be more rewarding) rather than waste their time going to a place where you just show up, keep to yourself, and are not bothered by other people trying to be all friendly and getting up in your business. I've talked to many people that like this type of church setting, because of the very fact that they can come and not really be bothered, and just blend into the crowd and do their own thing. What's the point? Church is about finding real Christian community with other believers and coming together in that community to seek and worship Jesus.

4. The church service seems like a show. See points 1 and 3. Also they meet in a theater, and for some reason everyone insists on standing. This poses a problem, however, as the floor itself is sloped downward, which means that this theater was not intended for standing, but sitting. But there are always those few annoying people who think it is their spiritual duty to insist on standing for every song, thus shaming everyone else in the building to stand as well. Darn you people.

5. The guy speaking was talking about spiritual gifts, and his intention seemed to be to get people plugged into the machine that is Savannah Christian Church. I usually get wary when churches start talking about spiritual gifts, because usually they are looking for someone to help them out with their programs and to keep the machine running. I think Christians ought to be able to develop their gifts, not simply to serve the machine that is the church, but to actually become creative individuals who make a difference in this world.

It would be good to take this with a grain of salt, since I am often very cynical when it comes to church. To their credit, I have heard Savannah Christian has done a lot of good in the community around Savannah. Although I must admit, I have been cut off a couple of times in traffic by people with the Savannah Christian Church decal on their window.

Did I mention that I think it is absolutely moronic to promote your beliefs with your vehicle? No one is going to look at how you drive and think, "man I wanna join that group!" The only thing you will succeed in doing in making somebody angry every now and then, and they'll usually just associate their negative feelings with whatever ideology you are trying to promote with your car.