| rev:text
| - This church fits all the worst-possible stereotypes of a "box" church.
The building itself is a big cinder block behemoth; the main area of worship is essentially a giant auditorium with rows of identical seats, a massive, bare stage, and totally bare walls. The architecture is more like a Wal-Mart than a church, and it is totally devoid of artistic content as well as homey elements that would make a person feel comfortable or relaxed.
The service is incredibly long and incredibly boring. There are no fewer than THREE sermons, each of which is unusually long for a sermon, and none of which gave me any meaningful insight into anything. The only thing that I remember about the sermons is the one preacher stating: "I mean, this God stuff is real. This isn't like make-believe stuff." Honestly? He didn't sound convinced himself...it was as if he was trying to convince himself that God really existed...and I don't blame him because going to a church like this could cause someone to develop serious doubts about whether there really is a loving God.
The music? Really bad, pop-influenced, sappy, empty Christian praise music. There is no harmony--which is probably due to the fact that no one attending this church would have the skill or talent to able to sing in harmony. The words to the songs are meaningless...there is no depth or complexity to them. I found it utterly painful to sit through. Many members of the congregation raise their hands and sway back and forth to the God-awful music.
There is a sort of cult-like mentality to this congregation. Everyone is happy and friendly but in a shallow, conformist way.
As a plus, I did not encounter any outright hateful or negative messages from this church...but at the same time, there was nothing to ensure or prove to me that there were no negative or hateful elements lying beneath the surface. The theology, overall, was heavily fundamentalist and simplistic, based on the idea of "accepting Jesus as your savior" without ever talking about what Jesus actually taught or what He stands for. From my experience, churches with this mentality will often have rather severe homophobia and often other forms of bigotry masked beneath the surface of good feelings and smiling faces.
I found it interesting to visit this church...as I would have never imagined that a church like this could exist. I can say one good thing about this church--it lives up to its name. Attending this church certainly shattered my worldview...to realize that churches like this actually exist and people (and massive numbers of them) happily attend them required me to drastically adjust the way I look at the world. The problem is, I'm not sure this change is for the better...overall it was a rather disturbing realization that made me look more cynically on Christianity and on humanity as a whole.
I would be very happy if I never set foot in a church like this ever again, and I would recommend those who want to have a positive view of human nature and religion in particular to avoid this church like the plague.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)