I love this church, I've been attending several years now, and I think I'm a rare breed of…read moreMillenial who enjoys attending a traditional church service without a band and without a big projector screen. I didn't grow up Lutheran, I grew up generic Evangelical, so for me the traditional structure of the service, called the "liturgy" is fascinating and unusual.
I feel like I get in touch with the roots of the early church when we kneel and start every service with confession & forgiveness, sing short songs between parts of the service, stand for the reading of the Gospel, give each other a sign of God's peace by shaking hands and saying "Peace be with you" with the folks around us, sing from the hymn book, and take communion every Sunday as part of the eucharist. (Roman Catholics reading this are probably like "hmm, sounds familiar")
The music is wonderful, with both piano and organ at every service, plus a great vocal choir and handbell choir during the school year. If you love to sing or listen to music, try this church because we sing at least 3 hymns every service, plus 4-5 voluntary hymns during communion, plus 3-4 short pieces of liturgical music during the service. Haha, if you hate hymns...don't say I didn't warn you!
I feel like it's easier to hear "the still, small voice" of God in this beautiful sanctuary with its amazing stained glass windows (when's the last time you saw stained glass that included people of color? And a space shuttle? And Frank Lloyd Wright's midcentury icon, "Falling Waters"?)
While the service format is traditional and might even be easy to compare to a Roman Catholic service, the ELCA denomination is refreshingly progressive, allowing women to be ordained as ministers since 1970 (the current head of the church in the US is a woman) and allowing pastors to marry. This church welcomes people of different orientations with the radically inclusive love of Jesus Christ - although be aware that like many beachside churches, there aren't a lot of young people who attend, but I've still felt welcome.
Pastor Jay's message is always Christ-centered, and I love that he backs up his sermons with scripture and also takes time to educate the congregation about historical norms when Jesus was alive, and also tell us about the different meanings behind the ancient words and languages the Bible was written in. You can listen to his sermons on the church website. Every July he does sermons based on questions from the congregation about Christianity in general. I love this transparency and willingness to entertain questions about something that some people think is "unquestionable" like faith and religion.
I also always feel better when I attend, I found the people there to be friendly, but not overwhelming. I started to attend when I was in a place where I didn't know if I wanted to attend church at all, but every time I attended a service I was filled with a sense of peace and well being, and that kept quietly drawing me back for something I didn't realize was missing in my life.
