DISCLAIMER: I know that every church has its own weaknesses and strengths, and that every denomination has its own weaknesses and strengths. No one is perfect, neither is any church. I also know that most churches have ministries to the community that you cannot see from visiting, nor can you judge an entire denomination by one church. Furthermore, I am a Baptist, so I am approaching each of these churches with a Baptist’s belief system. I do not mean to attack anyone, just I have heard people ask me about my experiences and I wanted to write about them, positive and negative.
I moved into Dallas from my little suburb town and thus left my church that I had been a member of since I moved to the Metro-Plex, due to commute time and gas money. At the end of the semester, I had several preaching opportunities, as well as a couple times to lead worship through music ministry; this prevented me from church shopping, and then I went home for surgery followed by the holidays. After visiting a few Baptist congregations upon my return, I decided it would be insightful to spend a few weeks visiting other denominations, since I have only ever been in Baptist services (minus a few times when I went to Mass). I decided to use the “main” or preeminent church of each denomination as my destination of choice.
I started with the First Baptist Church of Dallas, pastored by Robert Jeffress. As I walked through the Criswell Center, I marveled at the size of the building. I found my way into the balcony of the historic sanctuary and spent ten minutes just enjoying the beautiful architecture inside. For how large the other buildings were, it shocked me how “small” the sanctuary was. I also noticed that seats seemed to be put in every possible place, and almost all of them were filled.
Once the service started, it immediately struck me as a grand production. Everything was perfectly orchestrated, even the singers in the praise chorus (which had separated from the choir) had tape marking off where they were supposed to stand.
The musicians were talented, but nothing to write home about. The Worship Pastor seemed to think his job title was “Lead Soloist”, by the way he sang—leaving the melody to go do his own thing. The talented orchestra added a lot. I could not really even tell there was a choir there, except that I could see them standing.
As an extra feature, they had a guest speaker—the colonel in charge of the capture of Saddam Hussein. I found problems with the church giving a standing ovation when talking about the harm his soldiers did to another human being, but that is a discussion for another time.
Robert Jeffress’ sermon was not the best. He preached from Ephesians on having your feet properly shod. He did go back to the historical use of Roman soldiers’ shoes, and how they had spikes to help them hold in place in battle. He had quite a bit of psychological aspects in the sermon—somewhat hard to describe.
At the invitation, a few people joined the church, which showed that people obviously enjoyed the service and preaching.
I honestly could not get over the 115 million dollar new buildings that are being constructed. They were a major place where attention was pointed in discussions, and in the large model of the new building, and the massive tv dedicated to only playing information on the new building. I could never be a part of this church simply because I can’t see any way to justify so much money on a building.
I moved into Dallas from my little suburb town and thus left my church that I had been a member of since I moved to the Metro-Plex, due to commute time and gas money. At the end of the semester, I had several preaching opportunities, as well as a couple times to lead worship through music ministry; this prevented me from church shopping, and then I went home for surgery followed by the holidays. After visiting a few Baptist congregations upon my return, I decided it would be insightful to spend a few weeks visiting other denominations, since I have only ever been in Baptist services (minus a few times when I went to Mass). I decided to use the “main” or preeminent church of each denomination as my destination of choice.
I started with the First Baptist Church of Dallas, pastored by Robert Jeffress. As I walked through the Criswell Center, I marveled at the size of the building. I found my way into the balcony of the historic sanctuary and spent ten minutes just enjoying the beautiful architecture inside. For how large the other buildings were, it shocked me how “small” the sanctuary was. I also noticed that seats seemed to be put in every possible place, and almost all of them were filled.
Once the service started, it immediately struck me as a grand production. Everything was perfectly orchestrated, even the singers in the praise chorus (which had separated from the choir) had tape marking off where they were supposed to stand.
The musicians were talented, but nothing to write home about. The Worship Pastor seemed to think his job title was “Lead Soloist”, by the way he sang—leaving the melody to go do his own thing. The talented orchestra added a lot. I could not really even tell there was a choir there, except that I could see them standing.
As an extra feature, they had a guest speaker—the colonel in charge of the capture of Saddam Hussein. I found problems with the church giving a standing ovation when talking about the harm his soldiers did to another human being, but that is a discussion for another time.
Robert Jeffress’ sermon was not the best. He preached from Ephesians on having your feet properly shod. He did go back to the historical use of Roman soldiers’ shoes, and how they had spikes to help them hold in place in battle. He had quite a bit of psychological aspects in the sermon—somewhat hard to describe.
At the invitation, a few people joined the church, which showed that people obviously enjoyed the service and preaching.
I honestly could not get over the 115 million dollar new buildings that are being constructed. They were a major place where attention was pointed in discussions, and in the large model of the new building, and the massive tv dedicated to only playing information on the new building. I could never be a part of this church simply because I can’t see any way to justify so much money on a building.
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