In A Nutshell: A small, very traditional church with sound teaching, decent preaching, and some new young professional blood.
Church Overview
Affiliation - Presbyterian Church in America (wiki, official site)
Attendance - Less than 75 people
Demographics - Almost all white, family church with a good number of kids and middle-aged adults, with fewer older folk and young adults.
Sunday Service
The church service was extremely traditional, much more traditional than I was used to. Because the church itself was kind of small, the sanctuary felt pretty full with just around 75 people, giving the church really a lively feeling.
Sunday School
Providence holds their Sunday School an hour before before their church service at 10:30, so I decided to go and give it a shot. The church is one of those smaller churches so that when you walk in, you're basically standing in the back of the sanctuary. I pointed at the sanctuary and asked one of the greeters if that was Sunday school, and he told me that it was, so I went in and sat down. I must have been only the 3rd person in that room other than the teacher (who kind of looked like Mad-Eye Moody from the Harry Potter movies, without the mad eye, of course) who was there. The teacher, who I assumed was the pastor, was speaking on James, and Lord bless him, I thought it was one of the most boring Sunday school classes I've ever been to. The teacher had basically compiled different commentaries for a few of the verses we were going through, and he basically talked through each commentary one by one, helping us have a full understanding of what James was saying in the passage. Now I must say that after meeting him afterwards and having a meal with him during the week, I realized how good of a man he is and how
he is really just sort of like a genius who doesn't do that well communicating his thoughts. I found out that he actually wasn't the pastor but an elder of the church that is an economics professor at a nearby Christian college, which explains his uber-scholastic approach to the Word.
While I was in Sunday school, I was surprised at how small the church was, with only around 7 people, and so I expected the Sunday worship to be tiny too, but once Sunday School ended, people just started to fill the sanctuary (which can probably hold between 80-100 people). I then realized that there was actually another Sunday school going on downstairs, which was the "family study" on the church Reformers. The class sounds super interesting, so if I went back to that church, I'd like to check that Sunday school class out.
The Worship
This was probably the most traditional worship service I've ever been to. Like Calvary Baptist, there was only one worship leader at the front, but unlike it (and all the other churches I've ever been to), there was no PowerPoint presentation. Yes, that's right. Hymnals, baby. There wasn't even any instruments visible from the pews, as the piano, the only instrument, was actually played from a balcony behind us. After visiting Providence, I now appreciate the technology in our worship services so much more. The entire service was like some sort of Christian treasure hunt, as I juggled the bulletin, and 3 books - the Bible, the hymnal, and the psalter(. "We will now be singing hymn 342 from the hymnal. Now get out your bulletin, and we will be reading this confession together. Flip to 1 John 4:9,10 and read aloud together. Now open your psalters to Psalm 133, and let's sing together. Now let's open our hymnals to page 846 as we recite the Nicene Creed together. Now let's open up to Leviticus 19:9-18 for our Old Testament reading. Let's read John 15:9-15 for our New Testament reading" This goes on for even more (4 more hymns and 2 more Scripture readings), but you get the idea. It just felt like there was so much going on, it was hard to just be still and focus on God until it came time for communion.
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| Look at how busy the schedule for the service is! |
The Sermon
The sermon (which you can listen to here), was alright. I'm beginning to see how rare great preachers like Pastor Chuck, Tim Keller, and Mark Driscoll really are. The sermon wasn't as mind-blowing or gospel-oriented as I've become used to, but it was still a solid sermon. One of the things that I've notice in the few churches I've been to is that the sermons are extremely targeted towards Christians. I can understand how pastors who live in such a Christian-saturated area preaching in smaller churches with few non-Christians would naturally drift to only addressing Christians, but I still wish that the pastors would have that "open chair policy" kind of mentality to continue to be missional. I'm not an expert on non-Christian thinking and stuff, but I suspect that most non-Christians would have a difficult time really understanding what was said in the sermon. This all said, the sermon was pretty good, and while I wish there was a tad more gospel in it, it was still quite clear and convicting for me.
A cool thing about the whole worship service is that many of the Scripture passages that we read I had actually JUST read. For example, the call to worship was Psalm 24, which is what I was scheduled to read that night, and I had just read John 15:9-10, which was the New Testament reading, for my quiet times the day before. The Word has really been good to me recently, and this is just another example of God making everything work out perfectly for me.
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| I'm beginning to realize how boring our MCCC bulletins are... |
On the first Sunday of every month, the church has a potluck lunch after service, and I was lucky enough to choose the right week to go! The food was pretty amazing (after eating my own crappy home-cooking for weeks, any food tasted amazing), and I got a chance to meet new people and to sit down and talk to them. I was particularly happy to get a chance to meet the young adults of the church, of which there were three. All of them had just started going to Providence Presbyterian in the last few months, and were pretty similar to me (despite all being close to 30) - they all just came out of great, missional churches (like Tenth Presbyterian and Capitol Hill Baptist) and were facing the anti-climactic switch to a smaller church. They were all excited to be a part of a church that reached out and evangelized and fed the poor and cared for the sick. We talked about how Reformed teaching is exploding all around the country, especially with the young people, and we'd really like to see the gospel and Biblical teaching grow in Fort Wayne. It's pretty cool getting to meet people for the first time that share your vision for the church. We had a great lunch conversation about the poor, social justice, and other related topics and I got home from church at around 2:00 because we talked for so long!
Reflection
What I liked
Connection with young adults - As I mentioned, I felt a sense of unity with the young adults that were already there. Also, one of them was a Taiwanese-American (who was married to one another of the young adults), and I think it was the first time I've seen an Asian-American in any of the churches I've visited! For some reason, even though everyone else in the church was white, just having someone else that looked like me made me feel a lot more at home. Both of the young men that I met sent me emails to say hi, and I got to watch the Super Bowl with one of them and then had dinner in the middle of the week with him. They had started discussing the possibility of starting a young adult Bible study or something like that, which is definitely something I would want to be a part of.
Hospitality - It might have just been because it was fellowship meal Sunday, but it was nice having people come up to me and talk to me, and getting a chance to have an extended conversation with the pastor, who turns out to be a very interesting and funny man.
Intellectually Challenging - This isn't something I directly experienced at church yet, but having dinner with the economics professor and one of the young adults who was a lawyer, its obvious that many of the people who attend Providence are highly educated and know their stuff. If I decide to come to this church, I really could learn a lot and grow a lot in my thinking.
What I didn't like as much
Traditional Worship- I really wasn't used to the extremely traditional worship. I wasn't used to singing from a hymnal and I wasn't familiar with any of the songs that we sang. I know worship isn't meant to be to rile up emotions, but I had a hard time focusing on God amidst all the busyness of the service. If I was to come to this church, I'd really need to work to get used to this worship style.
Small Group Bible Studies on Sunday - For some reason reason, it seems like all for all the churches I've visited, small groups are always on the weekends. I would much rather have small group Bible studies during the week so I have stuff to do and more time on the weekends, and it would be nice to have church stuff spread out in the week rather than just have it all on one day.
The Verdict
Even though I'm not used to the worship style and how traditional Providence Presbyterian Church is, I'm really glad that I got to meet like-minded young adults (one of whom was Asian!) that I wouldn't mind doing ministry together with. Providence is the only Reformed church in Fort Wayne, and I'd really love to be a part of a church that could be a light for the gospel in the area. If I don't find another church that I really like soon, I very well could end up at Providence Presbyterian!
Next up: St. Andrew Evangelical Presbyterian Church (2/12/2012)
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