The Church Hopper

On Sunday, November 20th, I visited Central Boulevard Church of God for their 10:45am service. 

Now, y’all already know the deal with me and doors at churches…. (if you don’t, read any of my previous blogs.) 

When you pull up to the church, you are pulling up to the back of the building… And there are doors EVERYWHERE… There are four individual doors and a set of double doors just at the back section of the church. I walked up to the double doors first, as they seemed like the obvious ones… Nope, the doors were open but they led me to a dark fellowship hall. Next, I saw another church go-er using one of the other back doors. I followed him in and he led me through a long hall past the kitchen. Sidenote: If you visit this church, drive around to the front of the church and use the doors on the side of the building… not any of the back doors! 

Once I finally reached the narthex area, I approached the lady handing out bulletins at the door. I told her that I needed one, because I came in the wrong door. She smiled and said, “It doesn’t matter what door you use as long as you are coming inside!” She was very welcoming, and then pointed me to the sanctuary.   

The bulletin did not have the order of the worship service in it at all. It only contained announcements, their TV schedule, prayer concerns, the list of people serving that day, and a devotional. The service was about an hour and a half. They had a large choir for the amount of people that were in attendance – I thought. Before the sermon there was a mixture of solos, choir songs, and congregational hymns. It is very typical for a “Church of God” church to have a great focus on music. 

The pastor preached his sermon at the pulpit in his chair. I personally don’t have any issues with pastors sitting while preaching. Afterall, most of Jesus’ biggest messages were when he was seated with the people! However, this pastor seemed to be seated due to his older age. His sermon had a lot of great points – but none of the points seemed to connect. Early into the message he lost one of the pages of his sermon, so he skipped over it – then later found the page and read it. Disclaimer: While I personally get the feeling that his season in pastoral ministry may need to be evaluated due to his health and age – please know that is just from my one time visit. Everyone can have off days!

The way the service ended did make me feel uncomfortable. He asked for everyone that was saved to come to the altar. Now, if I wasn’t a saved person that would make me feel very pointed out – or I would walk up front to save myself from being embarrassed. Neither of these things are ok! No one should feel that way in God’s house! It is also insensitive to those who were unable to walk to the front. The congregation has a large number of older members who have trouble walking. Also, many folks sat up in the balconies which caused a long pause for them to come down. Regardless of all of that – I just did not like that type of “altar call”. I left feeling very disappointed… Not just in my experience that day… but that we have churches that are taking part in closing moments like that, where they may be pushing someone away from Christ versus offering them a welcoming chance to get to know Him more.