Visited a New Church

I decided it was time for me to visit a new church and be planted so i made a decision I would visit at least three churches this month. This came from my wanting to be planted and I kept coming across an advertisement for a particular church called River on three different train lines so I was wondering if this was a sign for me to go there especially since I rarely take notice of advertisements. I of course went to their website to see if they had an recording of online messages so i could get a feel of the pastor. They did and honestly i was rather bored by what i heard. In the meantime online I was talking to my art teacher about the church i planned to visit and she mentioned a church she went to that was awesome that was called Forefront. I said hmm im going to put that on my list because i love hearing from someone that they enjoyed a service somewhere. In the meantime River had me feeling rather meh.


I planned to attend Forefront church on Sunday because from viewing a message online I loved the straightforwardness of the pastor. They had a late service 5:30pm which I liked. I was excited to go but of course with me lateness came into the mix no matter how hard i try to be on time. Urgh..so I was 30 minutes late. I had absolutely no reason to be late. I got caught up in a convo with J so I lost track of time. J was like at this point maybe you should try next time it will be too late when you get there and its raining. Nope i made up my mind I'm going. So I arrived and the church was in a theater located above a restaurant so since i was late I ran up the steps..little did i know the steps was literally the balcony of the church (not padded but hardwood floors). Oops. several people turned so i just stayed on the side and listened to the message trying not to be a disturbance. Then this girl came in after me and had no problem walking up the stairs in the middle of the sermon so i said i would walk too but not up the steps. i saw a leather bench which was near by and sat there. As i listened i took a look at the church. It was rather amazing to see this chill casual church environment in this small theatre which had maybe 30-40 people between the balcony and downstairs. People were on l shaped lounge benches or booth, chairs. It was rather refreshing. I love a church building dont get me wrong but i noticed this is the second church that doesnt fit the conventional church building facade and i really like it.

I was listening to the message but felt i was missing something because i missed the beginning (its like how i hate to watch a movie in the middle) but I said let me just focus on whats going on. The pastor said our cities are filled with John the Baptist rather it be colleagues, close friend, neighbors. John asked Jesus Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Matthew 11:3). In other words John was asking are you really the hands and feet of Christ? Are you all that you say you are? The same question can be asked of us..are we Christ followers? Do our actions line up with the bible? What we say/do on the weekend should line up with our actions on the weekday. Are you sure you are who you say you are? There was a survey that asked participants between the ages of 18-29 what do you think of Christians? Their response is judgmental, critical, sheltered. We are supposed to love others, sacrifice, and give to others. But many of us feel like its ok to say one thing and do another; despise those that disagree with us but we are giving a role to contribute a verse to God and healing to this world. The pastor then went back to the question John asked Jesus. He said John was about to be beheaded and he is looking at Jesus and possibly thinking this wasn’t the role I expected the son of God to play out in my life. Why am I about to beheaded? Jesus response was that the mission of God is being accomplished…..people are finding their way back to God, the lame are walking, good news is being preached to poor, the blind is seeing. Your life will be sacrificed and you will die.

For the mission of God to progress or move forward its going to require sacrifice for everyone who say they believe him. It doesn’t mean your literal life though some it is. But its about seeing a difference of what’s going on today and tomorrow because we are a Christ follower. Love, give, and serve in extravagant ways. As the body of Christ we are ask to do and say what we mean.

I thought this was a great message and something to think about!I'm going to go to the morning service next week but unfornutaley i will have to leave early because i have other meetups scheduled that day but i will be there for the majority of the service and can catch the remainder of the message online. Thankfully I also got to sample the worship team because they sang a couple of songs before the service ended and i really liked it. All in all i enjoyed my 40 minutes of service and will definately do what i can to make it on time since i see their service probably last like an hour and half.