Church visits : Sunday Evening Church: Trinity Presbyterian's '7:07'

Church visits

Visiting: As a student of religion, I've seen how various factors in a church visit affect spiritual growth and religious attitudes as one searches for a church home. I visit churches to observe, firsthand, how they present themselves to visitors. My visits, with a few exceptions, focus on Christian churches. This blog contains accounts of those visits, and related posts. I look for the following in my visits:
• Friendliness and warmth
• Genuine welcome, true Christian hospitality
• Effective, well-delivered bible-based main teaching
• Music deepening the worship, not just entertainment

Map to churches I have visited.
My email: churchvisits@gmail.com

Contributors

Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson, an amateur biblical scholar and student of religions, is a member of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Society for Biblical Literature (SBL). He enjoys AAR/SBL where he studies, first hand, with worldwide religious scholars. A management consultant, skilled in all aspects of 360-degree feedback programs and human resource management systems, he practices these skills as Workforce Consulting. He lives in Anchorage.

ON THE WEB

Google map with visited churches

As I visit churches, I'll post their locations on this map.

Sunday Evening Church: Trinity Presbyterian's '7:07'

Posted by Chris Thompson

Posted: July 23, 2009 - 10:46 pm

Trinity's 7:07 ServiceSummary
This is the second in a series of blog posts about Saturday or Sunday evening services I've located which offer identical sermon/message content to Sunday morning/afternoon services. Church Visits has received queries from individuals looking for more convenient alternative service times.
In my quest to visit churches with evening services, as described above, I visited Trinity Presbyterian Church on July 12. They offer a service called 7:07 which oddly enough starts at approximately that time. The group was primarily 'twenty-somethings', about thirty-five in number. Everyone was warmly greeted. The music was provided by drums, guitars, and bass expertly played by a mix of summer interns and Trinity young adults. Pastor Tom Letts' message was well-delivered, covering the same material from the morning sermon. Based on John 3, and the story of Nicodemus (nike=victory + demos=of the people), Letts unveiled two streams and eight parables hidden in this scripture passage. Stylistically, Letts encouraged participation by inviting individuals to read passages in John 3 and in teasing out observations from those present. I enjoyed this service very much.Pastor Tom Letts Makes a Point

What I Liked
-Good, relevant music
-Scripture reading was participative
-Topic same as main preaching earlier
-Discussion format
-Very casual dress
-Used comfortable chairs around small tables in lobby area
-View of green hillside through picture windows
-Friendly, warm and welcoming group

What I Disliked
-More people were not taking advantage of this
-No offering taken (just kidding)Oh, that sweet music.......!