In A Nutshell: A small, familiar Knox-like church that is kind of far from home.
Church Overview
Affiliation - Evangelical Presbyterian Church (wiki, official site)
Attendance - 75-100 people
Demographics - Completely white, multi-generational with a good number of high-schoolers and male young adults.
Sunday Service
Overall, if my time at St. Andrew was extremely familiar and comfortable. As I describe below, other then an interesting candle-lighting "ceremony" before and after the service, the service was extremely similar to a Knox service. St. Andrew had a time of fellowship with some breakfast food (bagels, donuts, and orange juice) between the worship service and the Sunday school, not unlike the time in Knox hall that we have. The lady who say behind me in service, whom I introduced myself to after the service, took really good care of me and introduced me to a ton of different people in the church. I got a chance to meet the pastor, who actually had spent some time serving in Taiwan as a missionary, and learned that he actually was very familiar with Pastor Mike Frison from Knox!
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| MCCC really needs more colorful builletins. |
The music was simple but familiar. There was a piano, drums, and three vocalists on stage. The songs we sang were some of my all-time favorite classic Christian songs, so even though I was at a new church and didn't know anyone there, I was really able to focus on God and worship him. We sang songs like This is My Father's World, 'Tis So Sweet to Trust in Jesus, and How Deep the Father's Love for Us, which I really enjoyed. To me, the musical worship was a great balance between contemporary Christian and traditional hymns, much like the worship at Knox!
The sermon, titled "Can I be Sure" from Hebrews 6:4-8, was a talk on assurance of salvation (which is a topic that seems to be popping up a lot in my life). Assurance of salvation is always a difficult topic to speak on (thought I really enjoyed John Piper's sermon series on it), and Pastor Glen really went down the "a good tree must produce good fruit" route, but I thought it leaned a little too heavily towards moralism. Again, I know it's a really difficult subject to speak on, but I wish the cross was emphasized more heavily as the means and assurance of our salvation. As I said in my last post, I recognize that pastors here are probably used to speaking to completely Christian congregations, but to me, I still think that the gospel needs to be preached every week. To be honest, I'm more willing to give Pastor Glen the benefit of the doubt, as he is friends with Pastor Mike, and the church really does seem more gospel-centered than the other ones I've been to. Talking to one of the ladies, she said that it was probably just this Sunday that Pastor Glen decided to approach assurance of salvation from this angle.
I was pretty excited for Sunday School when I learned that they were studying Revelation, and it did turn out to be extremely enjoyable to me. The class turned out to be more like a directed discussion, but I thought that the conversation that we had was a perfect mix between head knowledge and life application, especially when it is so easy to get caught up in over-analyzing passages in Revelation. I was pleased that I felt like I was able to contribute to the discussion and felt honored and respected, despite being the only one in the room that was under ~45 years old. I was very pleased that the members of this Sunday school really knew their Scripture and knew what they were talking about, and it was obvious to me that the members of this church were sufficiently intellectual in their approach to Scripture (which really isn't always the case, especially in this culturally Christian, more blue collar sort of city).
Reflection
What I liked
Familiar Worship - Maybe I just got lucky with the song selection, but I really enjoyed the music and found it easy to worship. Even though there wasn't really much of a praise band, and it didn't actually seem like the singing was very loud (probably because the sanctuary was around half full), but it was just a good time to commune with God privately, which is what we Asian Americans like to do!
Sunday School - Sunday school was fun, and as I mentioned before, I felt like my voice mattered and I was able to be part of a lively, well-informed discussion. If I came to this church, I would still want to have a more teaching-focused type of class, and it was obvious to me that the teacher was definitely knowledgeable enough to make the class that way if he so chose.
Conferences - After Sunday school, one of the ladies in the church asked me told me that I seemed interested in Reformed theology (I really have no idea how she knew from the limited interactions we had, and I don't think I really gave much away during Sunday school), and she introduced me to and invited me to a bunch of different conferences, such as The Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology and Together for the Gospel. I probably won't be able to make T4G because it's in the middle of the week, but I'm going to be going to the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology next month with this church! I'm super excited to go to one of these "adult" conferences, and even if I don't end up at this church, I'm sure that it will be a good experience.
What I didn't like as much
Far from where I live- The number one reason I am hesitant to join this church is that it is half an hour away, making it hard for me to really be a part of the mission of the church. I want to join a church that I will be able to invite people to and a church where I can serve during the week. I feel like it would be hard for me to really feel like I'm part of a church that I live so far away from. I wouldn't really be able to contribute to the mission of the church if the church doesn't specifically reach out to Fort Wayne. In other words, this church would probably be good for me to be fed at, but may not a good church for me to serve at.
Lack of young adults - This isn't a very new problem for me visiting churches, but after meeting the guys that I did the previous week at Providence, I was a little disappointed not to really get a chance to meet any young adults. I knew that there were one or two young adult guys, but I didn't really get a chance to talk to them.
The Verdict
St. Andrew Evangelical Presbyterian Church was a very comfortable, familiar church that I probably wouldn't mind making my home church if I can't find a good church here in Fort Wayne. I want to go back to hear another sermon to make sure that the teaching is okay, but the focus of the church seemed to be good, and the people I met really knew their stuff and were enthusiastic about the Word. I'm really glad that I'm able to go to a conference with some of the people from this church, and I see myself growing spiritually at this church. However, I would still much rather join a good, missional church with good teaching that is closer to home so I could be able to join qthe church in reaching out to the community.
Next up: Northpark Community Church (2/26/2012)
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