The Chapel

An article by Don Quixote    2 Comments

Michelle and I had a chance to make our way out to the Chapel this past Sunday.

Of course we had to stop by Espresso for some hot chocolate first. Umm… Espresso hot chocolate, sorry about that.

It goes without saying that it is quite the trek to make our way out there, but when we got there, wow, it was pretty big. I’m not sure how it relates to the size of say, Mount Hope for your Lansing folks, but my guess would be that they have several thousand who attend (granted over 4 different services).

I was immediately aware of several things when we pulled into the parking lot. A) I had the dirtiest car in the parking there and B) What an embarrassing situation when someone else in the church has a Hummer the same color as yours.

The building was quite extensive and branched out in many different directions. It was a little overwhelming to say the least. I felt at one point that I was walking through an airport terminal. All through out the complex (I’m not quite sure what else to call it) there were various information booths and bulletin boards. There were so many in fact that they must have a minister of bulletin boards just to keep things current.

Polished is the word that comes to mind when describing the Chapel. From all the well dressed smiling people, the décor, and all the snazzy video clips during down times it was a well produced production.

This was one of the things that bothered me. Worship felt so disconnected. It might have been a mix of me personally (I didn’t sing a whole lot at the beginning as I didn’t know the songs) and the set up, but I just wasn’t plugged in. The stage show consisted of over 50 people including violins, brass, keyboard, piano, choir, drums and song leaders. But the sound was only coming from the stage, not from the voices of those standing around me. Instead of being immersed in the worship of God I was standing around watching these professionals perform. They would break out into solos and again you would watch from the stands. While this isn’t a deal breaker, its certainly something that unsettled me as I feel worship is a very important part of my church going experience.

Since we plan on visiting again, we will change which service we attend to see if that makes a difference in our experience.

The sermon was good. The “pastor” was well spoken and paced with a clear message. He assumed his base audience was education at least some college and spoke at that level (which I appreciated) and balanced in appeal to both the seeker and the saved. After the sermon they took questions (which were submitted on cards during offering) and prayed over written prayer requests. Total running time was an hour on the dot.

I was a little bothered by some of the doctrine (I’m not much of an ask Jesus into your heart kind of guy), it is certainly a place that we’d like to see at least once more.

I was impressed with their operation and their attention to detail (we had a letter from the church by Wednesday) and their desire to minister to its members. However, I did notice a lack of focus on the poor or the community (though they did just get back from a mission trip to Haiti).

This week I believe we will be visiting the Church of the Lamb. I’ll let you know how it goes.