Observations after visiting churches 1-10
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• Aggressive welcoming committee experienced at only one medium-size church. We sat in their “café” waiting for the sermon to start and thought it weird that no one else was taking advantage of the open seats. Then we got approached and identified. Then they sat behind us in the service! If this happens at another church I’m going to add a new term to the Terminology page: “Café Trap.” Small churches quickly identified us as new visitors, but were friendly and merely curious.
• Christmas decorations are really commercial and sad. Christmas trees and poinsettias in lieu of real Christian symbols like a cross, angels, shepherds, verses/banners?! Maybe since I’m not a pastor I “don’t get it” but it looks silly from my perspective and a missed opportunity to add real symbolism to Christmas.
• Some churches really go all out in their pre-service coffee social. One church had lots of Krispy Creme donuts, and then only offered flavored fake coffee creamer–weird.
• The Immaculate Conception Church in downtown Portland was amazing. Choir of 30-40 people. Officiated by Archbishop Sample himself. He has a reputation as anti-ecumenical according to some ecumenical churches trying to merge Catholicism with other faiths. In person he was very personable and well-spoken.
• Mount Angel Abbey is a place everyone should visit. Oregon is really lucky to have a place like this.
• The music was very diverse. Some leaned toward the pop Christian music of the last 20 years, some were more traditional, and some were even composing their own music! We really liked the music that these bands were writing for their own church.
• Church we would probably join today if we stopped looking:
--Door of Hope or Door of Hope Northeast
--Third choice: A Jesus Church