Our first visit was to Long Hollow Baptist Church. This was not the first time we had gotten to enjoy this energetic, spiritually charged church family. We have several wonderful friends who belong to this church, and we were fortunate enough to have some of them roll out the red carpet for us on this visit.
The facilities are mega-everything: mega-big, mega-beautiful, mega-technological, mega-family friendly, and mega-faith-ful. Each of the three young children's chapels could have held our one sanctuary. The main worship room was enough to hold at least six of our sanctuaries, plus some.
Their main worship room is set up more like a lecture hall, where worshipers are invited to sit/stand/sway/raise their hands and voices in praise and worship. The band that plays songs (with the words shown on large screens for the ultimate convenience) rivals any recording/performing band I've seen. I didn't recognize their faces, but their voices could have been the same ones I hear on The Fish or The Way FM.
Their guest minister even wowed my son. David Nasser, from Alabama, injected humor, facts, and faith into a spirit-filled message that had our whole family talking over lunch. My son's comment was: "He got to the point and made it so I could understand it." (High praise from my pre-teen, by the way!)
The girls went to worship services, each with students their own age. They said they enjoyed the songs and the message. The younger daughter watched a puppet show, while the older got to experience Christian Drama.
The whole family agreed this was a wonderful place to experience God- not only through their worship, but especially through the people. Our reception was warm and welcoming, but not pushy or pressured. It was a really wonderful experience over-all.
There were, of course, differences from their service from our traditional Lutheran service. First of all, our services tend to be much, much more structured. We are more accustomed to a formal ritual of confession and forgiveness of sins, then specific bible verses read, in accordance with the Church calendar. We have formal prayers, and we have Communion every worship service.
Our ministers wear robes, and we have acolytes who light candles on an altar prior to the beginning of the service. We have an organ, as opposed to a band. And we are a pretty quiet group, unless it is scripted somewhere for us to speak/sing/pray.
Our conclusion was, we did miss some of the aspects of our Lutheran service: Communion for one thing (although my son said he was okay without it). However, we really enjoyed the more contemporary music and easy-going, come-as-you-are feeling we got from the minister and the musicians.
What a wonderful day it was! And what wonderful brothers and sisters in Christ are at Long Hollow Baptist Church. Praise be to God!
~Amen
Long Hollow Baptist Church is located at
3031 Long Hollow Pike, Hendersonville, TN 37075
Phone: Main615.824.4006Fax: 615.824.4506
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