Monday, June 30, 2008

Field Trip: Highlands Church

Sunday my uncle and I visited a church, Highlands Church, in my hometown. I had heard from him that it was meeting in a theater and used media in their services. This intrigued me, as you might imagine. They are currently doing three services 8, 9:15 and 10:30 in a 200ish seat theater.

I loved attending Sunday. It felt enough like home for me to settle in and I was particularly excited to see a church like this in my hometown. Young leaders, alot of energy in the service communication and music selections and a clearly communicated focus on the community. They hosted a flag football camp for over 150 community kids recently, reported back the results of their giving to Life Water in Africa, lots of young families, students and even some older people in the room.

The set list was "Everlasting God" "No One Like You" "How Great is Our God" "He Reigns"
A couple of ideas/learnings for me...
Called their family business "Feedback" which i liked because it communicates that we're letting the church know how what they are doing is impacting... the leaders are reporting back...
called their offering "giving back" = nice.
During the offertory "Waiting for the World to Change" (John Mayer) two trumpet players stood up from the seats in the house and played the bridge :-)

After the services my uncle introduced himself to the Pastor. They have met twice very informally but he remembered his name (how very Ron Kincaid) and when my uncle introduced me and mentioned where I work he recognized Sunset and immediately connected me to someone on their steering team who is responsible for worship. It was cool to get to talk to him, if only briefly. I love the small local church and am really excited about what this one is doing in my hometown!

Came home and googled the church and found this article. So, if you're ever in the booming metropolis of Paso Robles I highly recommend you check out this church!

1 comment:

Christina Groth said...

LOVE the idea of the trumpet players playing from the house seats! I imagine it would lend a sense (for the congregants) of interaction/involvement that might not be as felt with platform only instruments.