The Church Hopper

Ok, so I did not measure the steeple. However, I can see their steeple above all the other church on Main Street. haha

On Sunday, August 28, 2022, I attended First Baptist Church located at 871 Main Street. Before attending a particular church, I always check out their website for information. Let me just say, I have never been more impressed by a church’s website. ( www.fbcdanville.com ) 

The website itself was easy to navigate, but what impressed me the most was the “I’m New Here” tab! Clicking that link takes you to a screen where you can see a welcome message, upcoming events, and what to expect when you visit.  This is a huge plus y’all! There is nothing better than having a heads-up about what the service is like! 

As most churches, there were several doors that looked like entrances to the church. Thankfully, I found an unlocked door on the first try. There wasn’t anyone at the door to greet me, so I looked around for the bulletins. An older man noticed that I seemed lost and asked if he could help me. When he realized that no one was at that door to greet people he apologized and introduced himself while handing me a bulletin. I ended up sitting behind his wife and he also made sure I met her. We talked back and forth for a while until the service started. 

You remember how impressed I was with their website? Well, their bulletin topped that!! The following message was included on a tear off edge of their bulletin: “Welcome – Thank you for joining us this morning. We are glad that you are here and want you to know that you are welcome with us. – You are welcome here if you are single, married, divorced, searching, or done searching. We welcome you if you are filthy rich or dirt poor, work too much or don’t work at all, are over 60 and haven’t grown up yet, or a teenager growing up too fast. And we extend a special welcome to all crying babies. – You are welcome here if you are just browsing, just woke up, are tired of organized religion and unsure how you found your way here, or have heavy questions that need thoughtful answers. We welcome you if you are a long-time faithful or doubter, recovering or still addicted, inked or don’t know what that means, black or white or no hablan Ingles. And we extend a special welcome to all who thought we started at 11 and came half way through the sermon. – But above all, we welcome you if you could use prayer right now, if you feel like rejoicing, if you’re broken-hearted and need a safe space, or if you just need a place to sit in awe of all that is. Welcome to First Baptist Church. – By the way, if you want to connect a little deeper one day, just use the back of this card to let us know who you are, how we can pray for you, or how we can serve you in some way. Simply fill it out, tear it off, and place it in the offering plate.” Now, I don’t know about you but that right there was a sermon in itself. 

The service that day was highlighting their partnership with God’s Storehouse. They even had two staff members there to share about their mission. Since this took a decent amount of time the pastor did not have very much time to preach – so his message felt rushed… However, I have faith that his messages are normally well delivered and impactful. While this is a Baptist church, I do know that they are not a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. He did mention, in his message, that he and their Associate Pastor (who is a woman) had just come back from their Central Baptist Conference; I believe he said.