Church #14: [Eastgate] Vineyard Church

1. Who attended? Bradley & Erica.

2. CHURCH HOP RANKINGS:
How was the experience?
1: I was so uncomfortable and/or offended that I did not stay to the end of services.
10: This church was welcoming and thought-provoking. I would recommend that others experience this church.

ERICA: 5.
BRADLEY: 6, a little low, due to the A/V output.

3. Picture(s) of the church
(Bradley first read this marquee as "Coffee, Guitars, Jesus."

4. Name/location of the church:
Vineyard Eastgate Community Church
1005 Cincinnati Batavia Pike
Batavia, Ohio 45150
www.vineyardeastgate.org

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
Nope-- we landed there because a different church we had planned on visiting started at 9, not 9:30... oops. It's right across from the third church that Gail recommended, which we will most likely visit next week.

6. Time/duration of services:
9:30am--10:30ish

7. What type of religion did the church cater to?
Christian.

8. Who did you meet?
We met the pastor and gave him our names, but I didn't catch his-- I think it was John? He was very friendly and welcoming.

9. If applicable, scans of handouts, tracts, etc

10. Church Hopper’s personal experience with the church, additional details:

ERICA: When John (?) welcomed us to the church, he asked what brought us here. Against my better judgment I told him about Church Hop, which I don't think I'll do in the future because how can you act naturally when you know you're being graded? I doubt it affected the service too much, but I couldn't help but wonder.

I hate to give the church such a low score but it was really drab to me. Even physically-- it seemed as though the church had made no effort to decorate or add any color whatsoever to the completely white walls and ceilings. While that alone is hardly a reason to criticize a church, much of the service followed suit-- the music was effective enough, but the rest was very automatic, right down to the people collecting the offering. Nothing stood out to me, and the message wasn't incredibly insightful.

Again, I wish I didn't feel that way because I was welcomed and even invited to attend other services with them. However, I could never go to church for church's sake, and this one just didn't reveal any passion to me. It's odd because I believe this is a sister church to the one we visited last week-- that was not intentional, but it's interesting to put them side by side. This church didn't offend me, as Milford did slightly, but it really didn't make me feel much of anything at all.

BRADLEY: It was kind of odd, going to another Vinyard Church, so I was half expecting to see a similar set-up, just a different size Church. When I walked into the place, It was a little dull to the eye. We were the first ones in too, so I thought we were going to be a little short-handed on the people. When we went in, they were already playing through the end of the song. I can't say that the music was bad. In fact, the music was great. I liked the songs, and the playing, but the sound quality was a little lacking. This made everything loud and crunchy. But like I said, the music was still good.

After looking at the large amount of food they had set out (I never have any, [I don't know why] but there was fruit!) we were greeted immediately by the pastor. I didn't know that's who he was at the time, because of the normal cloths. That always gets me. I will say that I liked the fact that they said "jeans" on the front message board, so I'm not going to get mad about the way people dressed. The music ended, and a few short announcements were given. That's about when the pastor got up to give his message. Without going into to much detail, I'll say that it was a great sermon, but it lacked some good quality bulk. I didn't have enough meat, but had plenty of potatoes. It's hard to put my finger on it, but the sermon needed a more powerfull message.

I guess with the exception of the audio quality and the lack of meat to the message, this was a great church. We were greeted very nicley, and even given "thanks for coming" packets at the end.

***
LAST WEEK we received a thank you letter from the Milford Vineyard Church (Church #13). It's a form letter but they also included a CD of worship music, which Bradley and I thought was pretty cool. There was a comment card to return about the church, which I haven't done yet, but isn't each Church Hop post its own comment card?! The letter reads:

Dear Erica, (Brad received his own)

It was great to have you as part of our celebration this past week. I hope you enjoyed it and felt welcome. I am looking forward to getting to know you.

We want to help you in any way we can. We believe every person is important. As you looked around, you probably noticed that our church family is made up of people just like you. (Actually, Bradley and I were probably the youngest people in the the room, during the services we attended.) We're glad you chose to attend the Vineyard.

If you're interested in finding out more about the Vineyard, our next "Vineyard Values & Vision" meeting will be Sunday, October 1, 2006 at 12:30--2:00pm. Pizza, drinks and child care provided.

Thanks again for spending time with us. I hope you'll continue to join us each week or as your schedule permits. We want you to feel like part of our family. I'm looking forward to seeing you again this weekend.

Warmly,
Steve Caperton
Pastor