Week 32 - St. Luke's United Methodist Church

St. Luke’s United Methodist Church is another downtown OKC church we visited last Sunday. The congregation we visited last probably had 600 members. This church has 6,000. They have three services each Sunday, one contemporary and two traditional. We attended one of the traditional services. The sanctuary is stunning with beautiful stained glass, contemporary organ pipes and comfortable “movie theatre” style seats. The service was indeed traditional, with hymns being sung from the hymnal, lead by organ or piano, and pastors in formal robes. We were greeted by the couple in front of us, but with a congregation that large it’s easy to blend in and not be noticed as visitors. The service followed a predictable pattern with a very good bulletin that walked you through it step by step. The sermon was delivered well by Pastor Robert Long. He issued a challenge: “No whining, no complaining, no excuses—make today a masterpiece.” I’d like to have signs made with that saying to hang up at work and in my house. As much as I’d like to extend that challenge to my co-workers and family, I am pretty sure that message was meant for me!

Week 30 - Oakdale Baptist Church

Oakdale Baptist (formerly Witcher Baptist) is a small church on the corner of Hefner and Sooner Road. We passed by this church hundreds of times while our kids attended Oakdale School across the street, but had never been inside except for the occasional recital and to vote. There are two services, both contemporary, with a praise band led, the morning we visited, by the pastor’s wife. There were a few familiar faces there from Oakdale. There was also a sense of community and intimacy that comes with a small congregation. Honestly, it was a last minute decision to attend here and I really wasn’t expecting much from such a small church. What we found was a gem that had been right in front of us for years. The sermon was scriptural, inspiring and delivered enthusiastically. The people were very friendly and inviting and made us feel welcome in their family. I learned that morning that I wasn’t eagerly anticipating what God wanted to show me the way I was when I started this project. He reminded me that that He still has exciting things to show us and that we can still become complacent in our worship even if we are attending a different church every week. I had lost some of the enthusiasm we first experienced when we started on this journey, but I think God, in His mercy, has reignited it.

Week 29 - Faith Bible Church

Well to say I have had writer’s block is an understatement. Today I am catching up on the last three churches we have visited. It’s not that I didn’t learn anything these weeks or feel inspired; I just haven’t been able to get things onto paper. I’m not sure my writer’s block is over, but I feel compelled to update the project so here goes. Faith Bible is a church we have visited many times. It is a medium sized church, but rapidly growing. There are many things we like about this church. The instrumental music is very well done and you can still hear the congregation singing. The preacher sends you digging through your Bible throughout the sermon, which is something I really like. There’s just something great about hearing everyone turning pages and not just reading the scriptures up on a screen. The sermons are always thought provoking and there is no guessing about what they believe and why. Their “theme” if you will is “One Bible Verse at a Time” and this describes exactly how they work through even difficult subject matters. I always learn something from a different perspective every time I visit. The primary thing I learned this week was that I want to have that same kind of conviction about what I believe and the knowledge and courage to defend those beleifs. This requires a good deal of study which sometimes seems overwhelming, but it can be done “one Bible verse at a time.”