In the age of unwelcoming churches, have congregations
turned a corner? With last week off, this week we attended a new church in
Sandwich that, much like the first church and the End Times church, was welcoming. Surprising indeed. The church
is not a seeker church – it’s in fact a church that has been around since the
first Europeans arrived in Massachusetts and rich in history.
We went to the traditional service. Like many mainstream
‘traditional’ churches it had a welcome, liturgy, and hymns. Some unique
aspects of the service were a liturgical prayer and a Lenten moment that
happens each week. There weren’t any awkward moments and as visitors we weren’t
asked to raise our hands.
Of course the one problem about visiting different churches
is that when you arrive you aren’t sure whether the service or the regular
pastor will be there that particular Sunday. This week the normal pastor was
gone and a visiting pastor gave the sermon. The sermon was wonderful, but it
doesn’t reflect the regular week-to-week service. Although I suppose if the
visiting pastor had a bad sermon it may reflect badly on the church.
We really enjoyed the worship. But we will have to revisit
the church to get a better overview during a regular Sunday. Look for a blog on
this church again in the future. Next time we go we will be attending the
contemporary service. We’ll be looking for little kids (none of which were at
the traditional service) and the regular pastor.
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