This was really fascinating to read - I think because of the intelligence,wit and humor of the writer. On his bio he states he is an atheist - and he has created a blog which is recording his visits to local churches in our town. One of the churches he visited was Vintage Faith Church. He goes into a lot of detail and it is quite lengthy, which for me, was extremely helpful in listening to how he observed things from before he even came. It is always really intriguing to listen to how someone observes what you do in your weekly gathering. The writer of this blog, came to our evening one which is primarily young - and we have two in the morning which are more spread out in age.

I recently was reading reviews of churches across America on another web site that a Christian hosts - and the weirdest part to me, is that the church review is always about "Sunday." For Christians as we think of church, we shouldn't be thinking you visit on a Sunday and that is what you then think of the church. That is one meeting of the church. To truly understand a church, you would want to know what the church does all week long. What other meetings and community do they have?  How do the people of the church treat their neighbors? Are they respected in their community? etc. Not just evaluate the Sunday meeting..... But this writer of the blog, states he is an atheist so this wouldn't apply to him - as it is understandable you define church by "Sunday". But I hope as Christians we will think of "church" as all week long and on Sunday is when the larger group may all meet together - but church is not defined by the Sunday meeting.

Anyway - here  is the blog article that he wrote about his visit to our church - complete with good and bad things he observed. I did like that he thought I was young.

http://tinyurl.com/ydba3dx

I really appreciated his observations and humor and thinking. I hope I get to meet him and hang out sometime. I think it is quite refreshing and also wonderfully uncomfortable to get feedback like this. Even though as I stated I wish there would be a sense of understanding and definition that the "church" is not just the Sunday meeting. But loved reading how someone perceived our language, what observations he recorded as important to him, what he thought of the music and teaching etc. - the positive and not positive things. May we never cease to be looking at what we do through the eyes and mind of someone like this insightful writer.