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.

Overhaul?

Sorry guys, no new church today! Bradley and I had company in from Columbus and we elected to take some time off.

BUT!

I do have a question for you, oh loyal readers. I really want to overhaul Church Hop soon (first of the year seems as good a time as any). What are we missing? What would you change? What aren't we pursuing enough? Read through the charter and the questions we answer each week, if you get a chance. Then leave a comment (or email me, redrabbit[at]gmail.com) with your suggestions.

Changes I'm considering:

*It's pretty obvious that we need to branch out... haven't even hit a Catholic church yet, much less a synagogue or something.

*Removal of the rating number. In our heads, the rating number is a scale of how welcome we felt in the church. However, we have heard mention that the rating seems like a comparison of churches, and that's not what we're aiming for at all. Is there a better way to scale something like this, or should it go away altogether?

Church Hop has quite a few readers, so I hope that you guys will chime in and help to shape where this project is heading. I am surprised, to tell you the truth, that it's still running at all. Back in April, I wouldn't have guessed that we would find so much of a journey behind the project but we've had great support and enormous interest, so onward we go.

That being said, Bradley and I absolutely invite your feedback.

Church #24: Eastgate Baptist 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: 6.5.
BRADLEY: 5. This was a very average church.

3. Picture(s) of the church

4. Name/location of the church:
Eastgate Baptist Church
717 Barg Salt Run
Cincinnati, OH 45244
http://eastgatebaptistchurch.com

5. Was it recommended to Church Hop?
Kind of... by a giant electronic billboard that can be seen from 275.

6. Time/duration of services:
10:45am--12:20pm. Yikes.

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

8. Who did you meet?
Sorry, had to high-tail it after services.

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

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

ERICA: First off, this church is hard to find. I knew it existed because of a giant electronic marquee that you can see from 275. However, I had no way of actually finding the church, until the marquee finally finally flashed its address and I was able to reverse-engineer some directions out of it.

The first thing I noticed when I pulled in was that there was designated "widow parking." This was a first for me.

We were greeted warmly (I need a new adverb) when we arrived, and it was clear where we were supposed to go because people were swarming in. We found a seat with some personal space but for the most part the church was fairly full.

There was a lot of singing. There was a mini-sermon/speech and then the real sermon, delivered by a traveling preacher. I liked this guy; he had moxie. Toward the end it took the standard turn toward "it's time to accept Christ, if you haven't"... but I didn't mind it much, because I really liked the personal stories and message that the guy brought with him. The only reason I was kind of itching to go was because we were heading for the two-hour mark. (Coincidence: a sermon about sacrificing things for the church, as I am sweating because I'm late enough to practice that I need to skip lunch, haha.)

Then more songs. More talking. Then *four* baptisms. I hated feeling like I had to hurry hurry hurry because I felt that I really had to miss a warm moment. All four kids were in the same family and they seemed very sweet. I wanted to really enjoy watching this rite of passage but I was already looking for my way out.

On the whole the church was inviting and really operated like a community. While I don't think that Baptist is "the religion for me," they seemed to have their hearts in the right place, from organizing their missions to trying to make guests feel welcomed.

Oh! Just remembered... ack. When Bradley and I first got to our seats, we looked for the visitor cards. There were none, so we put our info on a tithe envelope. Then, after one of the songs when the congregation was standing, the pastor asked that guests raise their hands to get a visitor card to fill out. Uhhhhh... no. I'm typically not a shy person but with everyone standing there, looking around to see who raised their hands... that was not going to happen. I felt so incredibly put on the spot by that. I think that if you don't keep your visitor cards in the pews or in the weekly program, you ought to just make mention of where to find them as you're leaving. Being singled out when you're in a strange new church is a terrifying feeling, and I doubt I'm alone on that.

BRADLEY: Earlier, Erica was talking about the large sign out out front that made this church had to find. While this had us looking around for a while, trying to find the church, we finally pulled into the "visitor" spot-and headed in. Despite the friendly greetings, and the large amount of people, everyone seemed to wrapped up in their own little worlds, talking about family and friends.

We got in and took some seats near(ish) the front. After a forever of songs, they headed into the announcments-which felt ackward to me. The man giving the announcments kept talking about the Mexican children that the donations were helping. In my mind, the way he was saying that just didn't feel right. Anyway, when sermon time rolled around, I was very happy with how it went.

The speaker was a king older gentleman, who was just sooo cool. His voice had a strange little accent to it, and his stories were amazing. The message finally formed into a sad shape by the end, but everything wrapped up in a nice little package. While the sermon was amazing, the actual service started to run very long. Maybe the longest we've been to yet. And then, on top of that, they were haveing four baptizms. While this wasn't a problem, it did however, compound the time. But finally, the church service was over, and left me feeling good.

I loved that sermon.


*****

Also! We received thank you letters from First Church. You're welcome to read it... let me know if you need me to transcribe. It's a form letter, which is why I'm not writing it out, but we definitely still appreciate the gesture of getting something in the mail as a follow-up.