Searching: I’ve been looking for a church that projects relevance to my stage of Christian development. In this quest I have visited and worshiped with many streams of religious persuasion. Assuming this may be an issue for many in the Anchorage area, I offer in this blog brief accounts of my visits. The criteria I use in evaluating my visits are:
• Did the church project friendliness and warmth?
• Did I truly feel welcomed?
• Did I relate to the main teaching and was it delivered effectively?
• Did music merely entertain or did it deepen the worship experience?
Map to churches I have visited.
My email: churchvisits@gmail.com
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.
Shocking Beliefs of the Unchurched - 11/30/2008 12:01 pm
Great Land Christian Church - What a Great Experience! - 11/20/2008 10:00 pm
Crosspoint: Room for Improvement - 11/16/2008 4:17 pm
A Church Visit Reader Shares Their "Looking for A Church" Story - 11/10/2008 10:02 pm
St. John Orthodox - A Spiritual Treat - 10/31/2008 3:54 pm
Guest Blog - Chris Walker's "10 Tips for Greeters" - 10/23/2008 12:57 pm
Christian Courage, It's Still Alive! - 10/12/2008 2:58 pm
More Changes Coming to ChangePoint - 10/3/2008 7:06 am
Guest Blog -Top 10 Church Website Design Mistakes of 2007 - 9/28/2008 6:01 pm
Muldoon Assembly: Friendly, Programmed - 9/19/2008 11:12 pm
Why I've Run From Churches - Guest Blog - 9/16/2008 6:58 pm
Christian Church of Anchorage...An Invitation, Refusal, and Later Visit - 9/3/2008 1:38 pm
Podcasts/Godcasts...The Darker Side Pt. 2 - 8/30/2008 12:33 pm
Christ Community Church…A Somewhat Closed Experience - 8/21/2008 9:55 am
Can a Podcast be a Godcast? Part 1 - 8/16/2008 7:47 pm
Youth Lead Sunday Evening Service…A Pleasant First! - 8/12/2008 4:09 pm
Anchorage City Church…Charismatically Quiet - 8/4/2008 11:02 pm
But what about theology? - 7/30/2008 1:42 pm
Holy Family Cathedral: Warm, Friendly and Catholic - 7/26/2008 9:50 pm
Foreign missionaries to the U.S. or even Alaska, can it be true? - 7/22/2008 2:46 pm
First church I've visited not using musical instruments, but they can sing! - 7/16/2008 10:39 am
Protestantism Declining, Catholicism Steady, and No Religious Affiliation Rising According to Pew Forum Report - 7/10/2008 4:33 pm
Posted: May 19, 2008 - 10:24 pm
ChangePoint Entry Sign: ChangePoint's presence is announced by this sign on Raspberry Road as one turns in to the church property.
ChangePoint Facility: A tasteful transition to a church from the previous occupant, ASI.I had been hearing a bit about ChangePoint prior to my visit on January 20, 2008 and wanted to experience one of their services. ChangePoint is easy to find being located in the old ASI facility on Raspberry Road just east of Minnesota at 6689 ChangePoint Drive. The 11:30 a.m. service was chosen and I arrived a bit early. No one greeted me or acknowledged my presence.
Lots of music
ChangePoint is very music heavy. According to my calculations there was 40 minutes of music performed, for the most part, by a 9 musician band, quite good, quite loud, and quite long. In many contemporary worship services today, it has been my observation and that of other church scholars, that music is used to generate a desired response in the worshipers. To illustrate, on cue, as the sermon was concluding, the keyboardist came out and started playing to heighten the mood as the pastor concluded his remarks. To this reviewer, there were no recognizable songs, but thankfully, the words were projected on screens. In the future, I’ll devote several blog posts to the controversy about trends in church music today.
Senior Pastor had invitation he couldn't refuse
The pastor this day was Dan Jarrell who started by noting that Karl Clauson, the lead pastor, would not be delivering the message, the final in a 4-part series he had been giving, as he’d been offered skybox tickets to attend the Green Bay Packer playoff game. The audience laughed, applauded, and shrieked their approval. I was taken aback!
How much different would Christianity be today had Paul, on the road to Damascus, decided to attend the Syria vs. Israel donkey pull? The message was well delivered. Taken from James, the message (Don’t Blink: Live Strong) was about dealing with trials and tribulations, advice to the early Christian church. It was easy to follow, due to the use of fill-in blanks in the bulletin, and the large screens. There was an obvious Martin Luther King tie-in to the message.
Something hiding?
Like many of today’s mega churches, it is easy to slip in and slip out of services like this. I've heard this church has an active small group focus, which may explain some of the coldness at large group services. Maybe the real warmth is seen in the small groups. I’ve heard about this church over the past couple of years and its work in the community.
Unfortunately, as with many of today’s churches, I entered, exited, was entertained, and left feeling empty.
(I understand there have been some changes in the pastoral staff since this visit. ChangePoint will be targeted for another visit later this year.)
June 2, 2008 - 2:32pm | web_editor
On ADN judging church services
Church Visits is a community blog written by a member of the public. It does not constitute a review of the church by the Anchorage Daily News. The newspaper provides these forums so members of the community can discuss issues of interest and relevance. We support that, and hope the blogs lead to learning and discussion.
-- Kathleen McCoy, Daily News
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2 May 27, 2008 - 1:51pm | aktraveller
Look forward to your second visit
I've only been attending for a little over a year, but my experience has been very different than your's. I can't think of a single occasion when I haven't been greated warmly at the door. We have attended all of the 4 possible services just to see what works best for us. I was at that particular service that you attended and thought Dan's comment really gave a "regular guy" feel to the church. Life happens and I like the notion that there may be things that come in front of church on Sunday and not to feel bad about it.
As for the format, the two things I like most about Church would be the singing and the sermon. How great that we can attend a church where that is all you have. I grew up in a church that was regimented with page numbers for each hymn or prayer you needed to read next. I always felt like I was concentrating on what came next instead of just enjoying the service. I will agree on the loud band issue. We usually sit in the back third of the auditorium but last Sunday for the first time we sat in about the 3rd row and it was a bit too loud.
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1 May 22, 2008 - 4:48pm | A_L
Nice to see a church that is relevant to life today...
I believe that the world needs christian churches of all kinds. We need churches that use hymnals and have choirs and we need churches who have full bands and churches that use only an organ. Each person experiences God in different ways and has a worship style that is most like their personality. I for one, love ChangePoint. I feel like the music, the messages and everything that the church does is geared towards meeting me where I am in my world. I almost always leave feeling challened by the messages and I have been impressed that they dont just preach "feel good" messages, there is a lot of very deep and very challenging stuff taught. The key in a church of several thousand is getting involved. Attending the events that they have for each life stage, meeting people who are in the same place that you are. I have been in and through several churches and at ChangePoint I finally feel like I found my church "fit". I know that it isn't for everyone, but the hundreds of lives that are being changed and what God is doing there can't be denied.
I really enjoy your blog and I look forward to continuing to read about your visits to other churches in our city. There are a lot of awesome churches doing some great things, i pray that you find the environment that best allows you to follow hard after God.
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May 27, 2008 - 8:31pm | dahelib
Well, if you walk into any restaurant in town, you might find the chef and the waiterpersons having a good day, or not? But when you go to a building and expect it to be the "church" that Jesus said He would build.... then you might be in for a disappointment. If you are simply into religion, then you can choose which institutional group might be best for your "needs", or likes. But if you are a follower of Christ, then you ARE the church; whether you are meeting at Taco Bell or a big cathedral. Christ came to dwell with mankind, 24/7. How amazing is THAT!?
As soon as those who have connected and have been transformed by the person of Jesus Christ realize that they are the "church", whether they meet with a bunch of folk on Sunday or not, then that will be the beginning of life in Christ. It's pretty awesome. But religious organizations might be a disappointment, even the best of them.
Once you have been united with Christ, you will find that folk anywhere, in ChangPoint, or any other building, are pretty awesome.
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3 May 27, 2008 - 10:04pm | rbaum
Please - Religious Socialism
No offense, but you come off like a socialist. I guess every religious service should be like your version. I think the Church of England and the Vatican already tried this.
Next, you should attend one of many churches in Anchorage that are predominately African American and you'll get an idea where incorporating music throughout the entire service came from. It's a wonderful style of worship and I wouldn't change a bit of it's influence on today's praise and worship.
Also, most churches like Change Point have multiple pastors that rotate the duties, so it's really not an issue to not hear the senior pastor. Although I probably would have skipped the Packers, I don't see a thing wrong with going. It all depends on his relationship with the church. And as you observed, they didn't mind.
Finally, why would ADN be judging church services? This is ridiculous. If you can't find a service you like I encourage to start one yourself. I believe your time would be better spent serving the church than creating "beauty contests" with you as the judge.
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