Church Attendance - 091003 - Broadmoor Again

We went back to Broadmoor Baptist Church today.

Part of the reason I wanted to go back there today is that this coming Thursday I have an appointment with their senior pastor and their new worship pastor to share with them some of my observations garnered from visiting many different churches.

Over the last year, I think I've attended nearly a dozen different churches, mostly to see their music programs; and I've been amazed at the wide variety of programs, how very much difference there is in the music program from one church to another.

I've come to several conlusions, but those are topics for another posting.

This posting is to tell about Broadmoor today.

It was a drizzly rainy day today, and the weather seemed to be reflected in the mood of the congregation.

Everyone seemed at least half asleep.

The service opened with the worship pastor, Mike Haight, offering the welcome and an opening prayer, over an organ drone with occasional piano arpeggios. It was nicely effective, but didn't yet do much to dispel the atmosphere of lethargy.

This moved smoothly into the first song, "Made To Worship," which was done only with the singers and keyboards for the first chorus; after this, the guitar, bass, and drums came in, and things seemed to liven up a bit, but not enough.

Even as the "life" of the song picked up, and the choir joined in, I looked around at the congregation, and although most were standing, from where I stood, there were far less than one person out of ten actually participating. Most were simply standing and listening, and about twice as many people had their arms crossed as were singing.

I did not sense antagonism or boredom, but the energy level certainly did not overcome the drizzly morning bleahs.

The music itself was fine, and the visuals were excellent. There was nothing about any of it that would have gotten in the way of worship. I could hear the lead singers and read the words on the screen, and nothing distracted me from focusing on the main purpose for being there.

Mike then offered the morning prayer, then we went into the next two tunes, "Take My Life aand Let It Be" which went directly into "Hosanna," which became quite upbeat and raised the energy level in the church. I could see more and more people getting into the singing, although at a relatively low level of involvement.

Pastor Rob then offered the welcome, and we then went into the next song, "Here In Your Presence."

It was during this song that I finally began to see the congregation waking up to the Spirit of the Lord, becoming involved in the music and in the worship, and I attribute this to the excellent leadership of Mike Haight.

He does not merely stand in front of the congregation and wave his arms like a music director. He gets totally involved in the music, like a leader demonstrating to the congregaton (and to the choir) what involvement in worship should be.

It wasn't long before I saw first one member of the praise team tentatively raise her hand up, then another, then more confidently. By the end of the song, several members of the choir had joined in this expression of praise, although I did not see any members of the congregation do this.

In another example of good leaderhip and sensitivity to the moment, Mike continued this song and the involvement it generated for a longer time than planned, I think, and they skipped the planned next song to stay on time.

Pastor Rob was also very aware of this level of involvement, and did a masterful job of relating the words in the song to what we were all here to do, before moving on to the offertory.

Of course, the congregation sat for the offertory, which was a very nicely done solo, "The More I Seek You." I'm sorry, I don't know the name of the lady who did such a wonderful job singing that solo. But just as I was thinking it would have been good, after they finished passing the offering plates, to get everyone involved in singing that tune and pouring out their own worship, the soloist sang one beautifully poignant last verse, which led all of us seamlessly into the message.

Pastor Rob continued today his series on "Sanctuary." This series is particularly apropos because they are hoping to have their first service in their beautiful new sanctuary on December 13.

Pastor Rob taught mostly out of Exodus chapter 25, explaining the structure and specifications of the temple, and drawing parallels to how we can use the same sort of rituals in our own prayer lives. Personally, I could have used more examples of exactly how to do this, but that's probably just me.

As a teacher myself, I am always looking for ways to use the things I learn, especially how I can apply the Word of God in my everyday life.

All in all, it was a good service, and I do look forward to meeting with Pastor Rob and Mike Haight this Thursday.

I hope you all had a wonderfully blessed Sabbath today!