Frazier Blog

I have been checking out Churches around the Eugene area. While I still think of Sunset Presbyterian as my home church I need to find a church in the Eugene area. This weekend I went with a friend to the Eugene Faith Center. I found out after the service that it is a member of the Four Square Domination. Kudos to the foursquare people for an easy to understand and biblically based explanation of what they believe. The Presbyterian website was hard to navigate and lacked a clear explanation. Now to be fair I have to say that the Sunset Pres website is clear and easy to understand but I suspect many may check out the mothership of a domination. They key linking the two churches is that they both believe in God, Jesus, and the forgiveness of ALL sins through Jesus.

As I walked into to the Church the environment seamed friendly and welcoming however there was not a person to great me as I walked in. While I sometimes find it silly at Sunset, from the a guest perspective it can help make the first connection. A man sat down next to me and introduced himself, he was very friendly.

The service started with worship. While the lights were not as dark as the new Sunset service the music was upbeat and exciting. The worship band did a great job and everyone seemed to get pretty involved. My comment to sunset is if people are commenting on it being to dark to read the program turn up the lights but keep the music pumping.

After a few songs we paused for the welcome. During the lifting up of prayer we were told to hold hands with the people next to us. While at first I found this slightly awkward it defiantly made me feel connected to the other people in the room.

The head pastor had the day off. The college pastor who also runs the Oynx house spoke. He did an amazing job. I loved his style. He kept the room on its toes the entire time. Being in Eugene he was able to weave in duck sports jokes the whole time. The part that I admired the most was his ability to intertwine his message with the bible. While this seams obvious, too often I hear messages from Christian authorities that do not tie back to the bible. While you may say well of course it’s rooted in the bible, please at least make an allusion. I have found that both EFC and Sunset Pres do a good job of this.

The talk centered on the life of David. He talked about how despite David’s sin he still was a man of God. He also mentioned how often we only focus on the Goliaths in our life and ignore the lions and bears. Overall the sermon was a homerun. One negative note was I found taking notes hard due to the quick style and minimal outlined points.

I know that one of Sunsets goal right now is to make every guest fell welcome and connected. I did feel like an outsider and Eugene Faith Center. While everyone was invited to sign up for groups I did hear anything guest specific. Sunset does make a better effort to reach guests. However my suggestion for both churches would be dedicated guest greeters before and after each service. My friend knew the pastor and EFC so after waiting for many people to talk to him we said hi. He was very friendly and welcoming. But I do not think most guests would wait or feel comfortable enough to approach the speaker and receive a great welcome.

However, no matter how friendly the staff is if they are not available they are useless to guests. My idea would be to have easy to access and plentiful guest greeters. So that if I wanted to have a conversation about the church it would be easy, not intimidating and quick.

I think Sunset has a welcome center. But in the chaos after a service gets out, the crowd funnels towards the door. Missing the guest center would not be hard. I don’t know if EFC has a dedicated guest welcome center.

I think churches should take a clue from the secular world. Have these guest greeters wear a very distinguishing T-shirt. And show a picture of said guest greater during the guest announcement. We all do it at stores, you walk into Bestbuy and know the guys in the blue shirts are there to answer questions. Yes I know we have nametags. But those are too small.

Wow, This post went way longer then I thought it would. Let me know if you have any questions. I will blog more about churches as I decide on which one I plan to attend regularly.

Later,
Paul