Church #4: Summerside United Methodist Church

1. Who attended? Bradley & Erica... Bradley's comments will have to wait for a bit because he is out of town until tomorrow night.

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.

Brad: 3. This Church lacked what it needed.
ERICA: 3. I wasn't uncomfortable, so to speak... I was completely unmoved.

3. Picture(s) of the church



4. Name/location of the church:
Summerside United Methodist Church
638 Batavia Pike
Cincinnati, OH 45244
www.summerside-umc.org
(P.S. This church has a yahoo account. Boo. summerside_umc@yahoo.com)

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
Nope-- we had very little time this morning so we picked a church that was very near our house.

6. Time/duration of services:
8:30am--9:30ish am

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

8. Who did you meet?
Nobody. They even skipped over the "peace be with you" part, even though it was in the service program.

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


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

ERICA: "That was weaksauce."

Those were Bradley’s first words when we left the church this morning, and I couldn’t agree more. My guess is that the later service—10:40—would be more upbeat or colorful, but the early service was incredibly bland. There was a guest speaker, I believe, because the normal pastor was out of town. She was alright, but she was very…matronly? And she told the kind of stories that a grandmother would. Stories about the darnedest things kids say. That sort of thing. It kept a pleasant smile on the face of the congregation, though, which I would guess averaged at 50 years old.

Basically what I’m saying is that the service was targeting an audience much older than us, so maybe it was perfect for them. I can’t fault them for that, but it definitely wasn’t my speed.

Their service program was helpful, like the Lutheran program, in that it was labeled when I should stand, what page the hymns were on, where visitors should sign in, when the collection plate will be passed, etc.

The church itself was pretty enough, if you could ignore the fact that it looked out at a Marathon station. It was a pretty basic setup, and they had a copy of the floor plan at each pew so I could see that it was a pretty massive church. Basic pews, basic hymnals and Bibles, basic altar, etc. They had some crazy rainbow stuff happenin’ on the crucifix… not sure what that was all about. Just exaltation, I guess.

Oh, and finally a church without a band! This one only had a creepy, creepy organ. (Which wasn’t being played all too well, by the way.) We came in to hear “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” which struck me a really weird though I guess it shouldn’t have. The hymns were standard and annoying to me—I guess I’ve been spoiled by churches with bongos and electric guitars. Again, not their fault, and probably perfect for a geriatric crowd.

Brad: Ok, I've always seen this Church as I drove by Summerside road. I've also always wondered what it was like inside it. It had the basic set-up most churchs of it's time have, the large facing wall to the street. When we went in, the cold feel of a bad church was as thick as smog. The pastor, who was (contrary to the sign) an older woman, gave one BORING sermon, and really lacked direction, thought, and all-around common sense.

This church was indeed, weak sauce, and needs to get it's stuff together. The mass and other people seemed to be a collective age of one million. But despite the lousy sermon, the older folk, and the less than fun preacher, the overall church wasn't that bad. It was a fairly clean place, with bright colored fabrics stretching across the room.

I would say this church would do in a pinch. But not my first choice.

Church #3: Grace 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: 6. This church was friendly almost to the point of creepy.
Bradley: 7. I could tell this church made a good effort to reach out.

3. Picture(s) of the church


4. Name/location of the church:
Grace Church
11020 Lebanon Road
Loveland, Ohio 45140
www.LovelandGBC.org

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
Nope-- it was in the same area that the other churches have been.

6. Time/duration of services:
9:50--11:30ish

7. What type of religion did the church cater to?
Here's the thing: I'm not sure. I *think* it was Baptist, and the only reason I guess that is because their URL says GBC, which I assume stands for Grace Baptist Church. I'm not really trained in differentiating the different sects of Christianity, and that's my best guess.

8. Who did you meet?
We met a lot of people. Everyone seemed really eager to say hi to us, welcome us, invite us to the picnic. We were asked, "What made you come to Grace Church?" at least a dozen times. There was even a ten minute greeting period, like an extended "peace be with you" session. And we were clearly the only non-regulars present, and everyone seemed to be pretty curious about us. Regardless, everyone was overly friendly and hoped we would come back again. (I didn't bother to break their hearts.)

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


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

ERICA: This church was really interesting to me. Bradley and I had been considering Grace for a while, but they didn't have their service times posted outside or on their door, so we really had no way of figuring out what time to be there. Today we were shopping around Loveland and Bradley saw that a lot of people were suddenly going into Grace, so we decided to just bite the bullet and walk in.

Everyone was really, really friendly right off the bat. And we noticed that the congregation was really... young. There were some parents and grandparents, but I'd say at least half of the congregation was younger than me. The atmosphere was really relaxed... even the pastor was in jeans, because right after services there were heading to their church picnic.

There were the standard (or so I'm learning) Christian pop songs... really upbeat hymn-like ditties that everyone seemed to know. These songs make me feel really weird sometimes. Especially with men singing at the top of their lungs about being Jesus' bride. This is something I guess I need to work on getting over.

They had a type of prayer open mic, where people would come up to the microphone and talk about things that they were going through or people that needed a-prayin' for. I thought that was an interesting way to build community, and it didn't drag on or anything.

Then there was the actual sermon, which seemed really long even though the pastor was a pretty good speaker. I'm not sure why it seemed so long... maybe because he was trying to touch on every part of the Bible. He was talking about "faith under pressure," and seemed to want to give every Biblical example of someone showing faith. ...And there are a lot of them. Also, he made fun of evolution, which if I wasn't turned off before, I certainly was then. It wasn't in a really mean tone... just the type of "Can you believe there are people who still believe that stuff?" Yeah. Yeah I can.

My final note was that the actual physical church was kind of odd-- there were no pews, only nice folding chairs. And there was no pulpit, only a music stand with a Bible on it. Now this was obviously a pretty well-to-do church, so this seemed really odd to me. No pews means no Bibles or hymnals-- everyone brought their own. I guess this is because people in the community are invited to use the church space for other functions, so it could be disassembled pretty easily. Or something.

All in all this church was pretty alright. They never took our address or anything, so no "thanks and come back" letter this week. I hope their picnic went well.

Bradley: Ok, we all know how mad I get when I get dressed up, and no one else does. Well they finally had a good excuse. They were going to a picnic afterwards, so everyone was dressed casually, which I slowly got used to. Anyway, my first impression of this church was "low-budget". But when I walked in, I must have confused that with just boring decorating, because I could tell that they really reached out to the junior-church-going crowd. Many people there were right around my age (including the really bad drummer).

The pastor seemed really weird at first (Erica said he looked like Steve Carell), but I soon warmed up to him. Half-way through the million hour long sermon I was bored of him again. He started off strong, but that man needs to learn when to cut it off. I did give this church a little better rating than Erica, because of there unintrusive methods. Everyone was very friendly (maybe too friendly) and they wern't all about the tithing. I was actually kind of nice. I would say, if you have teen-age kids, this would be a good place to try, it seems like they know what they're doing in that field.

Prince of Peace: thank you letter

Sorry, guys, no church this week. Bradley woke up with what he thinks might be strep throat... I regret having to skip one so early in the program but I could tell by his face and voice that he was better off getting some sleep.

There is some news, though: Prince of Peace sent us a thank you letter! I suppose that's protocol, but I appreciated it nonetheless.


The letter is clearly a form letter, but whatever. The Methodists have spoiled me. :) It reads:

Dear Bradley and Erica,

Thank you for joining us in worship this past weekend. Prince of Peace strives to be a welcoming family of faith that provides many opportunities for people to receive and share God's gift of grace in Jesus Christ.

Wherever you are in your life of faith- visiting, wondering, seeking- I hope that you join us again soon. Please let us know if we can assist you in any way as you get to know our congregation. If you wo uld like mroe information about our various ministries at Prince of Peace, you can visit our website (www.princeofpeaceelca.org), stop in at our welcome desk, or contact me.

Thank you again for visiting. May God's rich blessings be with you this day and always.

In Christ,
Pastor Jonathan Eilert