Church Visit

This past Saturday night, Kristan, the kids and I went to a worship gathering in Goodyear. The church we attended was Palm Valley Church. They are 8 years old and meet at a high school. I thought the pastor was genuine but the worship team entertaining. I was most impressed by their emphasis on the bible reading plan. (As a side note, I think that reading through the bible in a year is guilt producing and not life changing.)So overall not bad, not good, just contemporary vanilla with lots of people.

It seems there a similar ingredients in contemporary vanilla churches:

• Good location
• Hip pastor with fashionable clothes
• Use of technology - videos, extra screens, light shows, fog machines
• Kids rooms designed by disneyland or rainforest cafe
• Starbucks
• Multiple services
• Class 101, 201, 301
• Small groups
• Colorful signage and bulletins
• Topical Sermon Series about current events or sex

I think (which means I could be wrong) that contemporary vanilla is the new traditional. As we shift from a modern to postmodern culture in 20 years there will be few churches that will be hymnal led singing or legalistic preaching. Instead people will be fighting to keep a certain style, technology, program or coffee brand.