Category: Visiting Churches

My wife and I visited 52 churches in a year. Then we attended a bunch more. Here is what we learned.

Reflecting on Church #13: Lunch After Church

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 9, 2020

Enjoying a Shared Meal

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #13.

If not for a prior commitment, this pastor and his wife would have invited us over for lunch. I would have enjoyed getting to know them over a shared meal.

Yet, I’m relieved it didn’t work out. I would have felt guilty receiving their generosity when we have no plans to return.

52 Churches: A Yearlong Journey Encountering God, His Church, and Our Common Faith

Such is the dilemma with only one Sunday allocated per church.

This husband and wife team inspire me in many ways. They pour themselves into the church they serve. They complement each other thoroughly. The way they mesh for a common purpose amazes me.

Their church is small and their congregation older. From a human perspective, the future is bleak. Surely the work must be discouraging.

I pray they will persevere, that God will bless their efforts and provide the strength they need to press on.

[See my reflections about Church #12 and Church #14 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront status quo religion and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, minister, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #12: Focus on God, Not the Minister

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date July 2, 2020

Make Sure That What Draws People to Your Church Is What Matters Most

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #12.

This United Methodist Church drew me. I wanted to make a return trip, attending for a full month. That would allow us to experience their variations of service styles.

However, when I learned the pastor left, I lost all interest in going back. That’s when I realized I wasn’t drawn to the church but to its leader. Her style in conducting worship had a peaceful demeanor: full of wonder and respect.

Although it’s common in our hero-worship culture, choosing a church based on the minister’s style and personality is a bad idea.

When the minister leaves, so will most of the people who attend because of him or her. The focus of our church attendance shouldn’t be on the minister, but on God.

[See my reflections about Church #11 and Church #13 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, minister, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #11: Charismatic Lite

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 25, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #11.

At this charismatic church, most of the attendees were middle-aged adults. The few youth present weren’t engaged in the worship or the message, as they measured time until they could leave.

This disappointed me. They lacked the supernatural fire of their parents, who seem to have failed at passing their faith unto the next generation.

When I think of charismatic, several words come to mind: passionate, alive, and free. I didn’t see much of that, which left me confused. Sadly, this scenario would repeat at some of the other charismatic churches, too.

I call this experience “charismatic lite.”

[See my reflections about Church #10 and Church #12 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, charismatic, reflecting on church, supernatural, youth

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #10: The Gift that Reflected Badly on the Giver

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 18, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #10.

We attended this aging Baptist church on Fathers’ Day; they had a gift for all the dads: a book.

Although I appreciated a free book, needing to go forward to accept it was uncomfortable. Still, the gift of a book is a meaningful gesture to me.

Titled 199 Promises of God, it provided, without commentary, 199 verses from the Bible with the apparent theme: promises from God.

My excitement diminished when I saw it quoted the King James Version of the Bible. I don’t speak Old English and need to work hard to understand it.

Of course, the KJV is in the public domain in the United States, so using it avoids the need for the publisher to obtain permission and protects them from copyright violation.

As I read it, some of the verses, although offering encouraging thoughts, didn’t seem like promises at all.

Maybe the promises were too deeply disguised in the centuries-old verbiage or perhaps the editor wasn’t diligent enough in his selections.

Although the book is only a few thousand words long, I gave up before I finished it.

Overall, my experience at this church was positive, but my most lasting impression of them resides in this disappointing book.

[See my reflections about Church #9 and Church #11 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, Bible, Father's Day, gift, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #9: A Potluck Builds Community

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 11, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #9.

In a word, the potluck at this church was epic. Between the delicious food and making connections, it remains a significant memory of our journey. Sharing a meal helps build community. And this church showed how it should be done.

Although an older congregation (which does not excite me), many of them act young (which does excite me). It’s a busy church, with lots of community outreach.

On the fourth Friday of each month, they hold a community dinner, which is legendary among area Christians.

With a guest speaker on the Sunday we visited, I wanted to make a return visit to meet their pastor and hear her speak, but a few months after our visit, she retired.

However, I do want to check out one of their community dinners. I suspect it will be like their church potluck, only more.

When we visited they had two Sunday morning services. Now they have just one. I wonder if they’ve lost members or attendance is down. I hope the situation is temporary.

[See my reflections about Church #8 and Church #10 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, community, food, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #8: It Only Takes One Person to Make a Difference

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date June 4, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #8.

My memories of this church are positive, and I want to revisit them. I even recommended it to someone who was looking for a church. However, her experience was disappointing.

Not a single person talked to her the entire time she was there: not before, not during, and not after. She entered the building not knowing anyone, and she left not knowing anyone.

Then I realized the reality of our visit. Aside from a brief conversation with a greeter when we arrived and an extended time talking with a couple who approached us just as we were leaving, they ignored us.

The rest of the time, few people even made eye contact and those who did, quickly looked away. We were all alone in a room full of people.

What turned an isolated experience into a memorable one was one couple who reached out to us as we headed to the door, after we’d given up on any meaningful conversation.

One couple made the difference between a happy, I-want-to-return memory and a lonely, never-going-back-again pain.

Consider how you can make a difference at your church. Then go do it.

[See my reflections about Church #7 and Church #9 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, congregations, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #7: A Bivocational Minister

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 28, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #7.

Churches typically spend the majority of their money (at least half, often quite a bit more) on staff compensation but not this church. The pastor of this church is a bivocational minister.

That means he has a regular job during the week and serves the church as a volunteer. This means they can direct much more of their money to help others and reach out into the community.

I applaud this bivocational minister. It’s closer to how the early church functioned and follows the model of Paul in the Bible (Acts 20:34).

I wish more churches and church leaders would follow the example of this pastor, Paul, and what I read in the Bible.

[See my reflections about Church #6 and Church #8 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, early church, minister, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #6: A Pleasing Present and a Bleak Future

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 21, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #6.

There are many positive aspects of this church, but with an aging congregation, their future is bleak. Caught in time, circa 1960, their service would have been nice then, even inviting. Now it’s out-of-date.

When fifty-something visitors are among the youngest present, that’s a real problem.

The church’s budget is barely enough to cover operational expenses, let alone pay a pastor. Even worse, the prior week’s offering fell far short of the budget.

Their aging leader can’t receive much compensation from them, if any.

Perhaps that’s why he also pastors another church. At eighty years old, I wonder how much longer he’ll be able to lead them.

When that time comes what will they do? Will they find someone else to take his place? I worry over what is next for them.

[See my reflections about Church #5 and Church #7 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, congregations, reflecting on church

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #5: Intrigued but Frustrated

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 14, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #5.

A church growth buzzword is seeker sensitive, that churches need to conduct services that are friendly to visitors. Our experience at Mass was the opposite: inaccessible and exclusive. It was not seeker sensitive.

Not being able to follow the service kept us on the outside. Though their observance intrigued me, with mystery and awe, I left feeling empty and alone.

I was also dismayed that some people treated the reverence of the occasion with casual indifference, as though merely putting in their time, measuring the minutes until they could leave.

The two people in front of us talked during worship and their snickered whispers distracted me throughout the service. I wondered why they bothered to show up. Perhaps they were there to check “attend Mass” off their to-do list.

Last, though I recognized several people present, with only one exception their get-in-and-get-out attitude kept them from noticing me or even allowing me the opportunity to approach them.

We did get to meet the priest and one friend talked to us, but overall no meaningful community took place.

[See my reflections about Church #4 and Church #6 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, Mass, reflecting on church, seeker sensitive

Visiting Churches

Reflecting on Church #4: Focusing on What Matters Most

Post author By Peter DeHaan
Post date May 7, 2020

With our journey of visiting fifty-two churches over, I can reflect more on the complete experience. Today, I’ll add to my thoughts about Church #4.

A few years ago we visited this church when ours closed because of bad weather. At the time, they held two services and were outgrowing their building.

They purchased land and made plans for a larger facility. As I understand, some people objected, stirring up dissention and causing division. (See Romans 16:17.)

As a result, many people left in a huff, while those who remained consolidated into one Sunday service.

It’s sad when God’s people can’t get along and even sadder when their words and actions divide Jesus’ church. This is not what he desires.

Though differing opinions are inevitable and sometimes leaving a church may be the best solution, the dissidents need to depart quietly and without making a mess for those who stay.

Now, with the troublemakers gone, those who remain have formed a committed core group.

They are intent on being what a church should be: worshiping instead of being entertained, serving over being served, and pursuing God’s perspective rather than their own agenda.

They’re focusing on what matters. I am expectant for their future.

[See my reflections about Church #3 and Church #5 or start with Church #1.]

My wife and I visited a different Christian Church every Sunday for a year. This is our story. Get your copy of 52 Churches today, available in ebook, paperback, hardcover, and audiobook.

Read more in his books, blog, and weekly email updates.

Tags 52 Churches, congregations, reflecting on church