Church #25: Northeast Community 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: 8.
BRADLEY: 7, it was a very normal church

3. Picture(s) of the church

4. Name/location of the church:
12079 Lebanon Road
Loveland, OH 45140
http://necconline.com

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
No; it's on the way to my grandmother's house.

6. Time/duration of services:
10:45--noon.

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

8. Who did you meet?
Dan, Erik, Margaret, Paula... a whole slew of people introduced themselves-- by name-- but I can only remember so many at once...

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

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

ERICA: I liked this church immediately because it felt like Christmas. There were Christmas carols playing and the auditorium was decorated with Christmas trees and lights. I'm a sucker for that stuff. (To back up for a second, the place was really easy to navigate-- a lot of clear signs.)

When we sat down we were welcomed immediately, and from all sides. The pastor welcomed us and told us to "be ourselves"-- I think it was the first time someone's actually said that to me in a church.

Then the music started, and I was incredibly happy when they started with a carol. I knew the words! I could sing along (and annoy Bradley in so doing)! It was "Come, O Ye Faithful," and it set the mood for their Christmas message. There were a bunch of other songs, too, which were performed well... upbeat and all that.

The sermon was pretty traditional, and it focused on joy-- what it is, what it means in the Bible, how you can achieve it, etc. Nothing too surprising, especially for a Christmas message, but it got me thinking anyway.

Where can I find a place that helps me be a better person... for humanity's sake? I loved everything about the church except for the idea that I need to be a better person because of God. This is *not* a criticism of the church-- how could it be? But what turns me off time and time again is that I never hear mention of doing good things because we share one world, because we are all human. It's always about praising the Lord, living through Jesus... concepts I'm okay with, but can't it be both? Can't I honor my parents and respect my mentors and love my neighbor... without the middle man?

This is going to get me hate mail, I'm sure. I'm basically saying I want to be a Christian without believing in God. But I feel like if you want to be the best person you can be, you have two options: become a Christian, where they'll give you interesting ideas of how to grow every single week, or not be a Christian and try to glean it from Oprah or something.

The pastor was energetic, articulate, and funny... but I could not connect with the message that told me that being a good person only counted if I was a Christian. (These are not his words, but that's what I drew from it.)

Brad: It's very interesting trying to describe this church. This was a very normal church, a very plain church. Now don't get me wrong, that can be a great thing. I think it would be easy to get carried away as a church, and strung up with ideas, be them classic or modern.

Anyway, it was full of Christmasy things, and even had some great tunes, with a band leader who seemed a little to "into" it. The sermon that followed was very good. I guess the reason most of the sermons given I like, are because you can't become a preacher if you aren't a good speaker. He didn't really raise many questions in my head, or provoke any thoughts-but maybe that's a good thing. I do, however- love when a pastor ties in personal moments into his sermons, and it always makes a sermon feel more "in-depth".

Like I said, I find it hard to reach for words, because this church was just a normal church, maybe THE most normal one I've seen yet.

Church #20 (Lutheran Church of the Resurrection) revisited

This post actually made me lose sleep last night! Haha... I couldn't stop thinking about all the things I needed to say and how it was already Tuesday night.

Okay. First off, thank you all for commenting. I really, truly appreciate all the support. Hopefully you can tell that this project means something to me (and to Bradley, but I let him speak for himself). I hope you'll keep reading, and maybe even posting from time to time.

Secondly, the post! This week was a special situation, and I don't feel it should really be forced into the template that we usually try to follow. We revisited the Lutheran Church of the Resurrection. Since we first visited (Church #20, for those of you keeping score at home), I'd been in touch with Pastor Zorn quite a bit. He snail mailed me, then we kept in touch through email, then I met up with him in person, etc. He had concerns about the project. ...Don't we all.

After talking with him in person, Pastor Zorn asked that Bradley and I come to their contemporary service some time (as we'd already been to the traditional service). I assured him that we would do our best, and this week it just worked out for us.

When we got to the church (11:45am service) we noticed that there were fewer cars than there had been last time. We entered the lobby area-- not nearly as scary the second time, haha-- and signed in to the guest book again. There were no greeters this time around, but we were welcomed by a member of the congregation and then Pastor Zorn saw us and welcomed us. We were ushered in to the main auditorium and greeted again by the woman passing out programs and hymnals.

Then it got weird, because when Bradley and I were sitting down, we heard our names. Sitting in front of us were two women talking about us, and we weren't really sure why. We flipped open our programs and there, stuck in the middle, were printouts of the LCR Church Hop entry. The day's sermon was about whether or not worship should be evaluated.

I was... dumbstruck? Pastor Zorn had warned us that he was going to talk about the blog at one of his services-- I had no idea it was going to be the one we were sitting in, and that it was the focus of the sermon. ...Wow.

(I've been wrong to omit the Joyful Noise band-- there was lively music playing through the entire service by a small band up front as part of the contemporary service. Hence the separate hymnal/songbook/whateveryoucallit. They were great and energetic but Bradley and I were more than a little distracted by the goings on.)

The sermon was-- eye-opening. I really enjoyed it, though I was pretty embarrassed. Pastor Zorn didn't point us out or anything, which was great. He talked about going to church with a consumer mentality, which struck me as slightly hurtful until I really thought about it. Yeah, I guess that's what I do. Is that wrong?

That was his question too, and he didn't draw a definite line. He talked about blogs, about today's mentality in general, about what worship should be and what Lutheran worship should be. All very even and fair, in my opinion.

Then it took a turn for the personal (not in a bad way)-- he told the congregation about meeting me, and paraphrased what I had told him about the project. He treated the subject respectfully and from what I could see, the congregation didn't hate the idea of the project. I have to admit that I was worried that someone would say something horrible, not knowing that I was sitting right there in the pew. (It was a stupid thing to be anxious about but put yourself in my shoes for a second.)

Communion time. If you remember, it was after the LCR Church Hop that I asked my question about communion-- what do you do if you don't take communion? I listened when he was explaining it, then Bradley and I came forward (with everyone else) and we folded our arms. Pastor Zorn gave communion to his congregation and when it was our turn, quietly blessed us. It was a scary step but it was the least I could do-- not only for me and for Bradley, but for Pastor Zorn and for a church who were welcoming and accepting to our ideas.


In the past couple weeks, I've been given a lot to think about. This was the icing on the cake, I guess. Like most people, I have times when I want to change the world. I want to leave my mark. Especially as a writer-- I want my words to affect people. Sitting there and listening to a sermon that I clearly had a hand in-- it was crazy. I'm still not sure how to react to all of it-- I wasn't prepared, and it happened so quickly.

I have a lot to mull over. Recently I've been getting a lot of questions, and some of them will always be hard for me to answer. "What do you believe?" "What are you looking for?" "When will this be over?" I've never forced myself to answer these questions, but they're coming from other people now. I guess they'll all be answered at once-- when I know what I believe, and if I understand what I am looking for... then I guess it will be over. For now I want to push this project further. I've learned a lot so far, but what is now becoming clear is just how much I don't know.

Brad: Wow. I can't say that I've ever had a sermon that was tailored around a blog, or a certain group of people who were question the goings on of the local churches.

Coming around the second time was a lot different from the first, not to state the obvious, but I was more relaxed, and felt more comfortable with meeting Pastor Zorn, and what was about to happen. When Erica and I walked in, our heads were turned by the actual use of our names. Bradley Garwood said out loud. It was extremely weird. Despite that fact that people seemed to have an idea of who we are, it didn't hit the climax until we opened our programs. In the handout, was a copy of our exact post (via blogger) with little copies of the photos just how they are on the site.

When Pastor Zorn got up to speak-after the great band finished a few songs-it was such a great sermon. It filled my head with a wild assortment of ideas about what I believe in. Questions in my mind about the "ethics" of our church hopping. This was a great example of how our hopping effects people. I watched the heads of the people listening. Bobbing motions followed almost everything he said, as people stuck to his words. I can admit I was one of those people.

I can safely say that this is one the best sermons I have ever heard.

Later in the service, we put our new-found knowledge about communion, and about just going up and bowing your head, with hands folded. This was very awkward, I must admit more awkward than sitting there, but it felt good to be doing what seemed like the right thing in most of our eyes.

Explanations

Alright. As you can see, no church again this week. A lot has been going on behind the scenes of Church Hop, and that is what I would like to talk about today.

For better or for worse, this blog has recently gotten some attention from several groups and individuals. I'm not going to mention names or groups for a number of reasons, the most important reason being because I feel I need to respond to all of them at once.

I would like to start with some general defense of this blog. At this point I would like to state that I am speaking for MYSELF-- Bradley, my brother and co-blogger, doesn't even know I'm writing this right now, so leave him out of it.

1. I have done the best job I can to keep this blog open. Comments are enabled and I have responded to almost every one individually. My e-mail address is easily found on my profile, and I have responded to e-mails personally. I leave the URL at every church that I visit, so that I am not sneaking behind their backs and "picking on them"-- they have access to the blog immediately, and they are just as able to e-mail me and comment as anyone else.

2. I gain nothing from this blog itself. We don't advertise, we have no sponsors, no one is paying us in any way to do this project. What I gain from Church Hop is personal, which leads me to...

3. ...My journey. I am being criticized a lot for going into churches with no intention of finding God. That, dear readers, is your assumption. What "agnostic" means to different people varies greatly, but for me, personally, it boils down to a search. I accept that there might be a God. That's one of many options to me, and one that I feel is worth exploring.

I come from a small, close-minded town. I grew up without religion, and no one laid the options out for me. The people I knew who went to church "chose" that church because that's where they had been going for all of their lives. What I wanted for both myself and for my younger brother was a chance to get a feel for what different churches were like, first hand. I wanted him to make his decisions based on experience, not based on habit or discomfort with exploration. That's where this started-- a small town where you have to seek out diversity and new opinions.

This is my "church." My idea of church is visiting different ones, meeting different people, getting a look at how different people praise their different ideas of God (or gods or whatever they believe). It is no more ridiculous than your ideas, no matter what they are.

4. I have been as honest as I can be while still being diplomatic and open-minded. If at any point I have been critical of an aspect of a church, I have done my best to re-state that these are my opinions. I am entitled to them, just as you are entitled to have your opinions of this blog. I have been crystal clear that I am an uneducated church-goer, and I have nothing but first impressions to go by.

5. The rating at the beginning of each entry (which will be going away soon, as noted over a week ago) expresses Bradley and my comfort level with a church. Not how good a church is, not how right their ideas are, but how comfortable they made us feel while we were there. All churches are different but they do have one thing in common: we have to make the first step into their doors. I guess I can see how you might think this is "judgment," but to me it is putting a number on how I, as a person, felt in a church, based on a number of factors.

6. I have never asked a church to change, nor would I ever do that in the future. The only reason I have pointed out the blog to them is so that they don't feel I've been doing something secretive and back-handed. I never leave it as a "here's what you're doing wrong" hint. I am a firm believer in "to each his own."

7. As a rule, we only visit churches that say "Welcome" or have their service times listed on the marquee. Maybe they're assuming that it says "Welcome Christians" or "Welcome if you're already certain what/who God is," but that's not how everyone reads it. We all have to start somewhere, whether we're 15, 23, or 140 years old when we decide to make our major life decisions.


That's all I have time for right now. There will almost certainly be an "Explanations Part Two" when I get a little more time. For now, that should give you something to react to.

To the people who criticize my blog and/or me as a person: say what you will. That's the joy of the internet, to me. It's what I'm doing and I would be a hypocrite to ask that you only say nice things. But I also invite you to say them here, on the blog, so that I can respond to them and defend myself once in a while.

Also, I ask these same people to scroll back one entry to where I asked for feedback. If there is a way that you think we can make this blog more fair, more of an exploration for everyone, please let me know.