An Interesting Worship Experience
I visited a former college roommate in Atlanta this past weekend and worshiped with his family Sunday morning. He had warned me prior to my arrival about what I should expect. I actually received several warnings of preparation and began to wonder if I would see snake handling or have both hairs on my head blown by a mighty rushing wind as everyone began speaking in tongues. My friends previously worshiped at the North Atlanta Church of Christ and then participated in a church planting conducted by North Atlanta. They stayed with that new congregation for little while and then made the move to the North Point Community Church in Alpharetta. Andy Stanley (Charles Stanley's son) is the minister and had a great message that morning to accomany two baptisms (husband and wife). The worship leader was an acoustical guitarist leading a full band in playing worship songs. I had never heard the first two songs, but they had great messages of musical praise. The third song was an oldie that they put to music but, because of senility setting in at the age of 38, I'm not able to tell you the name of it. Anyway, it was a very interesting experience. Communion takes place in small groups on Sunday night where it is a more personal and sharing experience.
I talked to my friend about his decision to worship there because I know some of the teachings there are not what he was raised to believe. There are a few things where he says he has to agree to disagree. Overall, he is very happy with the direction of that church. They currently have three services on Sunday morning and will be planting another congregation very soon so people can move to the new location and make room to grow. They already have two auditoriums where people worship simultaneously. Two separate worship bands play but Andy Stanley preaches in person in the East Auditorium and is broadcast on screens in the West Auditorium. When the next location is planted and established, Stanley will be broadcast there as well.
I enjoyed the time with my friends and being able to worship with them and see how excited they are about North Point. It was a good experience for me to be exposed to something different. I look forward to another different worship experience in the near future when I attend a conference in San Antonio. I plan on worshiping at the Oak Hills Church where Max Lucado preaches. I think that will be just as interesting as this past weekend and will once again open my eyes to various worship styles. I'll give you a report at the end of the month.
posted by Ryan Adair @ 7:28 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Ryan, I'm so disappointed you were here and didn't let me know. If you're ever in town again, let me know and let's try to get together.
Secondly, North Point is awesome. I go there when I can and am a regular part of 7:22 on Tuesday nights which is their singles gathering of about 2500 or so. I can't begin to tell you enough good things about that church. I could talk your ears off about the great things going on there.
I think it's awesome when people try out new ways to worship. It keeps things alive and interesting, and also opens eyes to other ways to praise God. I want to visit Atlanta at some point to see all the things that Jon has talked about. It's always great to see how other people function and to see the different ways there are to praise God. I'm glad you had a good experience.
I'm a christian and currently a member of the church and the way I was taught was that instruments in worship was not accepted. I don't know what the people of the church are thinking these days. Instead of causing so much controversy in the church, they should be teaching people to truth about what the Bible really says. Of course no where in the Bible does it say not to worship with instruments in the church but it does say to sing making melody in your hearts. Instruments may create a good emotion in people and may make them feel all tingly on the inside but that is not the reason why we come together to as a people. We come together to praise God and worship Him and not to do what feels good to us. I find it sad that members of the church are straying away and doing what feels good to them instead of doing what Gods word teaches. Yeah you can say well nowhere in the Bible does it say not to bring instruments in the worship service and it doesn't but it also doesn't tell us that we should bring them into worship so in my opinion it's better to be safe with the word of God than to have regrets on judgement day. It seems to me instead of trying to open your eyes to the various worship styles and doing what feels good to you, it would be better to go by the Word of God and follow His word. He doesn't teach in His inspired Word that we should go around experiencing various worship syles but rather to worship the way He taught us to when He gave us His Holy Word. Christianity was not meant to be split up and done in different ways. We were meant to be unified and to all teach the same thing.
Ryan, you still need to update.
And I disagree with ameanguitar. I'm sure he's a nice guy, but it's a bigger issue of hermenuetics. Just let me know when you're in town again so we can go to NPCC together.
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