January 12, 2009

Church Experiment #2: Christian Life Center

Two hours and ten minutes.

The service lasted two hours and ten minutes.

One hour of worship. Ten minutes of announcements. A ten-minute discussion about tithing. Five minutes of shaking hands with people sitting around me. And a 45 minute message.

Two hours and ten minutes. But I digress.

Here’s the thing. Like last week, I met a lot of very friendly people at Christian Life Center (www.clcalive.org). [It looks like they have changed their name to LifeChurch West Chester in case you’d like to visit sometime.] I was greeted by a hospitable older man at the front door who handed me a program. The main room probably sat about two hundred people, and I estimated it was about 70 percent full. Almost everyone was white. Some were younger, but most people were over forty years old. During the handshaking portion of the service, a lot of really nice people walked up to me and introduced themselves, including a man named Tom who seemed like a very kind man in his early seventies. Overall, the vibe felt less “creepy” than Solid Rock Church did last week. But …

To finish reading about this experience or any of the reflections from my 52 visits, please purchase the full book here.