From Purpose Driven to Presbyterian

My friend John writes quite a bit about the Presbyterian denomination to which he belongs, including this piece today on why he’s sticking it out despite the problems which are causing declines in many of their churches. I mention that because this past weekend I attended two services at Presbyterian churches that seem to be doing quite well.

Saturday night the HolyCoast family attended a Christmas musical evening at Trinity United Presbyterian Church in Santa Ana at the invitation of my cousin who sings in the choir with her husband. The building was nearly packed, and the program included a very large choir and two excellent bell choirs (one of which was made up of high school age kids). This Presbyterian church appears to be doing quite well. I don’t know what their weekend services look like, but based on the size of the choir, they must be doing something right over there.

Sunday morning the Mrs. and I visited Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo. We’ve been watching them build their new sanctuary for some time and wanted to see it and get a feel for the church.

Parking there is somewhat limited, so we parked in the shopping center across the street and made the trek to the church along with many, many others. Presbyterians still dress pretty nicely for Sunday morning services, something we haven’t been used to for awhile.

We attended the 9:30 am service and the place was pretty well packed. They had a large choir and lots of wonderfully traditional Christmas music. Their very talented organist is an acquaintance of mine from another church in the area where we had worked together on a couple of concerts. He really makes that pipe organ shine (he ain't bad on the piano either).

I’ve been somewhat vocal for awhile about my distaste for what passes for church music in most churches these days, and after a particular Christmastime debacle last year, have been keeping my eye open for a church where people like me could feel like they had attended church, and not just a pop concert followed by a “Christianity 101” type sermon. The service we attended Sunday morning was of the style that I’ve been looking for, but not finding in a decent sized church.

I didn’t really know what to expect because early this year we visited another Presbyterian Church a few miles from us and had a very different experience. That church is also doing fairly well in terms of attendance, and I like their pastor, but the worship service included a lot of ritual and call-and-response stuff that was familiar to regular attenders, but completely foreign to visitors like us, and that tended to make the service uncomfortable. I felt like I was acting in a play but hadn’t been given a copy of the script. Their choir was very small, largely elderly, and frankly unimpressive. With our family’s emphasis on music, that just won’t do.

Our experience Sunday morning was very different. There weren't any awkward moments for visitors, the music was excellent (including a trio that sang a wonderful rendition of my favorite Christmas song O Holy Night), the pastor seems like a neat guy and did his entire message without any notes at all, and the overall atmosphere in the church was friendly.

My wife wants to get back into a good choir, and the choir we saw Sunday morning would probably be right up her alley. Given the quality of the musicians and singers we heard there, the emphasis on good music is evident and that's a big plus for us.

What about the “traditional” service at my old church? Frankly, it’s a disaster. There are fewer attendees on an average week than there were choir members this past Sunday morning. The music is supposed to be traditional, and every week they set out hymnals which generally go unopened. The guy tasked with directing the “traditional” music is a nice guy and well meaning, but when he got up a few weeks ago and told the crowd that we were going to sing All Hail the Power of Jesus Name…even though he had never heard the song before and didn't know it…it sort of makes you wonder just how traditional the music will ever be under his leadership (geez, I know both melodies to that song and probably three of the verses by heart – it was song #1 in two different Nazarene hymnals that I can remember). “Traditional music” to them is singing praise choruses written before 1990.

I haven’t made the complete leap from Purpose Driven to Presbyterian, but that may not be long in coming. Thanks to my singing schedule I won’t be able to attend there again for three weeks, but we’ll give it another try in a non-holiday time and see what their regular services are like.