Uh, okay. Singles. Ministry, Right.

Okay, so here is the deal, I went to the thing for singles at a large church near me yesterday evening. And I learned a couple things:
1. I cannot turn off my internal critic.
2. I need to find a small group because the big scene just isn't for me.

I would say that the thing was okay. I am always a little hesitant when a ministry is clearly trying to be something different than it is. I think what this group would like to be is a large gathering for single folks in the greater Nashville area. They want to think large and they want to be the cool, hip happening place. What is came off as is a not great effort trying to be something they aren't.

The music was your standard big band worship. 2 electric guitars, an acoustic guitar, a bass player, a keyboard player and drums. They were okay. The lead worshipper did what most lead worshippers do, which is talk way too much and completely lose the flow of worship. (Sorry to all you great worship leaders out there. Just my two cents.) The whole big sound and lights for a gathering that was 100 people tops was just weird to me.

The speaker was a speaker. His message was very "youth group" to me and smacked of elementary faith. There were some historical, theological, not to mention scriptural, issues with what he said. I let it pass. As Nic Cage said in Con-Air: "It's your barbecue."

So I doubt I will be back much. Certainly I won't be back for their big September 11th bash, which sounded like a rah-rah for the conservative Republican agenda. The guy who ghost wrote a book about Todd Beamer, one of the heroes of Flight 93. (I doubt they will talk about Mark Bingham.) And if you know me, always ends with me wanting to be Gideon and go pyromaniac on the idols of our fathers...so I will stay home, for the benefit of us all.