my church experiment
i am doing an experiment in church tonight.
never in my life have i gone to a church where i did not know a single person there. up through my college years I was a pastor's daughter...i was immediately connected. even when my parent's moved to Maryland, the first time I went to their church wasn't anything close to the experience that a regular visitor would have. i got announced. I WAS AN ANNOUNCMENT.
so, i am taking advantage of my unabashed newness in this city and am going to attend a church tonight that I have never been to, where I won't be an annoucement during the evening, and I am going alone.
Did I mention its a churh of 14,000?
I think this will be good for me. I entered the Mars Hill community of 10,000 knowing a lot of people and was instantly connected there. I never understood the feeling of "the sea of people" and "feeling lost in the crowd" because I never experienced it, even in a place that huge.
So tonight, its me and the thousands of folks who already go to McLean Bible.
Will anyone talk to me?
Will I feel like a number?
Will I feel a sense of community there?
I will do my best to not compare it to Mars. It will be difficult, but I think I can manage.
I'll let you know how it goes.
never in my life have i gone to a church where i did not know a single person there. up through my college years I was a pastor's daughter...i was immediately connected. even when my parent's moved to Maryland, the first time I went to their church wasn't anything close to the experience that a regular visitor would have. i got announced. I WAS AN ANNOUNCMENT.
so, i am taking advantage of my unabashed newness in this city and am going to attend a church tonight that I have never been to, where I won't be an annoucement during the evening, and I am going alone.
Did I mention its a churh of 14,000?
I think this will be good for me. I entered the Mars Hill community of 10,000 knowing a lot of people and was instantly connected there. I never understood the feeling of "the sea of people" and "feeling lost in the crowd" because I never experienced it, even in a place that huge.
So tonight, its me and the thousands of folks who already go to McLean Bible.
Will anyone talk to me?
Will I feel like a number?
Will I feel a sense of community there?
I will do my best to not compare it to Mars. It will be difficult, but I think I can manage.
I'll let you know how it goes.
posted by Julie at
11:04 AM
2 Comments:
Julie, I can't wait to find out how your experiment went! I hope that you were able to get connected. I'm on staff at MBC so I understand the challenges we face of getting new people to feel welcome. It is always disapointing to let people slip through the cracks.
In Christ,
Brandon
Brandon...i hope you are not offended by my honest recap of my experience last night?
You all do a great job of giving the opportunity to a new comer to connect. I think its a matter of the new person being willing to go to the new person room. I like the balance it requires...you all open the door, and the person must choose to walk through it. I appreciate that.
And like I said in my results blog...10 points for McClean's diversity. : ) The ratio of women to men on stage was 3:3. That is unusual and awesome and spoke volumes to me.
Thank you for reading...
julieq
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