I have finally found a place that I can sit down and access a wi-fi hot spot for free! You see, we (the Townesouth / Kernersville Bible Bowl Team) got into Atlanta yesterday and our hotel (the Mariot Marquis) requires you to pay between $9.95-12.95 per day for internet access. What a rip off. But we just got stettled into our rooms and just chilled. The other guy and I both got our hair chopped at the New Underground Mall (yeah, we realized when we got there that we were the minority, but that’s ok, people were still nice to us).

Today, we decided to go to church at a local congregation in northern Atlanta called Christian Church Buckhead because one of the other female sponsors had a friend who was a member.

First thing, we left an hour early, and it sure is a good thing because we would have been late getting there if we had not (the two females occupied the drivers and navigators seats, and I was relegated to the back, and so naturally, we got lost). We eventually found it just in time for service to start.

This congregation apparently has moved quite a few times, and are currently renting a building that the Christian Scientists originally occupied. We were warmly greeted before we stepped inside to the narrow lobby area. We met up quickly with the friend, and stepped into the sanctuary, tall and dim (most of the windows were covered).

At either entrance, there were paperback Bibles that were offered to guests and visitors who did not have one of their own. This is always a nice gesture, and I did not think anything more about it.

The auditorium (I only call it that because it was definitely tall enough) consisted of three sections of folding chairs, a long permanent stage with band equipment on it, and a makeshift stage jettisoning out in the middle of it (this is where the lead singer of the band was eventually positioned). To the left of the stage was a big makeshift black drop with a screen on it positioned at a 45 degree angle so that the congregation could see it, but it was not blaring at you. I later discovered that it used rear projection to display the content, which I assume was Media Shout based.

As we began to find our seats down front, Lifehouse began to play over the speakers their song Make Me Over from their latest CD. A single picture of two feet on a skateboard with the sides of the road in a motion blur was captioned by the word “SHIFT”. At the end of the song, the worship band began to play.

The band was made up of a drummer, a bass guitarist, a keyboardist (who also did backup vocals and I came to learn was the Worship minister) and a guitarist who also sang lead vocals. We sang the typical contemporary songs Here Is Our King and How Great Is Our God. These were all on a plain black background with white text on the projector. Then, in preparation for communion the band broke out into Blessed Assurance, calmly at first but using the full band in the last two verses.

The service led right into communion, which had the congregation walk forward to one of four stations in the sanctuary to partake of the “ancient meal” (the words used to describe communion on a card detailing information about toadys services and upcoming events). As the group partook, the band played a song I had not heard before. After a bit of looking online here, I found out that this is a song by an upcoming band called Fee (I have heard of them, but never really “heard” any of their songs), and the song is called Lift High. This was a song that I quickly became enthralled in:

Lift up your heads
Oh oh oh lift up your heads

Lift high, your chains undone
All rise, exalt the Son
Jesus Christ, the Holy One

We lift our eyes to You

After the offering, we were told that we were going to hear a sermon from Adam (again apparently, Derek the lead pastor was gone for one more week) on the last part of James chapter 3. One thing that really, really (and I mean really) impressed me is their solution to whether they should use the projector to display the Scripture that is being studied during the service. Most churches either decide:

1. No! There will be NO scripture on the screen! People should be looking at their Bibles to find what is being talked about, and if they didn’t bring one, too bad!
2. Or Yes! All scripture content and references will be on the screen at all times so that all people can see and view the Word of God no matter what!

But this church did something that I have not seen, (remember how I told you they were handing out Bibles to those who did not have one?), they put the verse reference and page number (for the paperback Bibles) of the message’s text and left it up. They encouraged everyone to actually view the reading in the text and did not ostracize those who did not own a Bible themselves. When another text was references, same deal, reference and page number only. Only when a famous quote was referenced in the sermon was there other text on the projector. This really stuck out to me as a great and effective idea.

Adam preached on James 3:13-18, elaborating on how what is inside, what exists in our hearts is what will overflow on the outside. If we want to change our behavior to be more Christ-like and beautiful, we need to change the inside first by attacking the root of the problem (our selfishness and sin) instead of the symptoms (oh, I lie, and do bad things).

After the sermon, the worship pastor (Jamie) came to the front and informed the congregation that a well loved couple was having to transfer to Denver, CO. He asked them to come up front, but they were not in the service. Come to find out, they were volunteering teaching the Middle Schoolers on their last day at the church because the youth pastor and his wife were away as well!

The service ended with prayer and the band playing an ending chorus of Here Is Our King. As we walked out, everyone conglomerated in the thin lobby area. We were welcomed again as vistors and asked to come back.

This was an encouraging visit to a church that seems to be truly striving to live together in community without forsaking the foundation of the Scriptures while reaching out to the community surrounding them.

I would love to come back again and visit if I am in the Atlanta area again.