Higher Vision Church

Denomination: non-denominational

Day attended: September 27, 2009

Service times: Saturday 6pm, Sunday 9am & 11am (I attended the 11am service)

Location: feels like the middle of nowhere, but what isn't the middle of nowhere in the Santa Clarita Valley? Though it was easy enough to find thanks to Google Maps Street View and the multitude of cars in the shopping center. Yes, it's in a shopping center.

Anonymity/visitor factor: Super easy to slip in and out of the building unnoticed. There is the obligatory introduce yourself to your neighbor bit, but I got ignored by some who were around me.

Environment: Discovered that this is only the second Sunday that they have been in their new location. And it looks new. Dim lighting for worship and sermon. Video screens everywhere (which, the announcements were done with the video screens and a voice over. No one paid attention to them). Comfortable chairs.

Worship: dim lighting. There was a band with generally upbeat music. Head pastor is also the worship leader. I personally don't like that choice because then it feels like the pastor is running the show. Too much power. He will get overworked someday. Men led and/or played instruments while the women sang. Only knew one song. Video screens were overwhelming and distracting.

Outreach: I think it was almost non-existent. There wasn't any talk about missions either global or local. In the program handed to me at the door there are several headings for ministries that cater to the personal development and growth of the people in the church. Under the headings "Community Care and Outreach" is says "Meeting the practical and spiritual needs for the church family and neighbors in the SCV" and then provides contact info. WTF?? Are we self-help Christians now? Gah.

Orthodoxy: nothing out of the ordinary for your average non-denominational pastor driven church.

Communion: not offered

Offering: Pass the double handled bag type. A lot of money talk. They prayed for the offering before, not after, which indicates to me a kind of guilt pressure more than an honest prayer to God. They also spoke about the expenses of their new facility and that they haven't met their budget yet.

Gender: Men lead men and women. Women lead women. As expected, but still not happy about it. Like mentioned under "worship," the women are only allowed to sing and be beautiful. Dance factor: one of the women danced about as she sang, which made me smile. Why can't we be more joyful when praising God?

Singles: Young adult ministry geared toward college age.

Sermon: The pastor used the analogy of Jesus being like a Custodian. It's part of a series called "No Place Like Home: Helping Families Build Happy Homes." So this week was "Home is where the Custodian is."
I liked the analogy up to a point. He said that you can't get into a building without keys. And who has the keys? The Custodian. And who is the Custodian? Jesus. So Jesus is the one who's going to open the doors to the darker parts of our life. But he didn't say what Jesus does once he opens the door. Did he forget what a custodian's primary job is? Cleaning. OMG, just because you have this nice suburban life, did you forget that custodians clean for a living? That would have been a little more impactful for me. Jesus died so he could help us clean up our lives so we could help others clean up their lives to. And I don't mean "clean up" as in living perfect moral lives to be perfectly strict moral humans. Jesus is about cleaning the deep within, not the surface-y stuff.
The pastor also had a tendency to shout when he got excited. Basic acting lesson: yelling isn't intensity, nor is it emotion. It is yelling (stole that quote from Something Positive, but it is true nonetheless).
After the sermon, he gave an altar call. I wanted to walk out on that, but I did not. I grew up in a church that gave altar calls weekly and I've grown to detest them. Mostly because I heard the same evangelism every week that it made me think I was going to go to hell every week unless I prayed this prayer every week. Again, I cannot reiterate it enough. Church is built on relationship. You are saved through relationship, not just a prayer that you pray and yay! you get to go to heaven. I'm not trying to be high and mighty about this, because I know I don't live 100% of the time according to what I say and believe. May God have mercy on all of us to guide us to better relationships with Him.

Other things:
There was a survey in the program. One side of the paper was whether or not you thought there should be a kids after school program run by the church. Their vision is that moms could just dropthe whole litter off at the church and each kid who go to his or her respective activity: arts & crafts, drama, music, sports, karate, etc. I thought it was a decent idea, but considering the fact that I'm single and without children...
The other side of the paper was asking which slogan they should use for yard signs. They explained that they will go around communities in the SCV, putting signs in yards to encourage people to come to Higher Vision. The slogan (if I remember properly) were: HV Cares, Everybody's Doing It, and...something else can't remember.
I have two problems with this. 1) The Church should be built on relationships, not attendance. I wrote as much on the survey. Posting yard signs to encourage people to go to church is about as impersonal as an infomercial. And considering the voiceovers for announcements, the whole service could've been an infomercial. 2) The slogans were atrocious! "HV Cares" reminds me of HIV. "Everybody's Doing It" is the exact opposite of what it means to be a Christian. We are here to not do what everybody's doing. And that's also the slogan that gets spouted in anti-drug and anti-sex campaigns. We're told from when we're toddlers that just because "everybody" is doing something, doesn't mean we have to do it.
There were two dances performances. One was two teenage girls doing a modern ballet thing to a Christian song. They were modestly dressed, but not the awful velveteen liturgical dance stuff I've seen other churches do, thank God. The second was a bunch of elementary school girls doing hip hop. They were wearing tight gold sparkly shirts and white cargos. It all felt like a performance for the parents in the room to say "That's my daughter! That's my daughter on that stage!!" rather than praising God with dance.

Conclusion: 4/10 stars for staying to true to at least the basics of the Gospel. However, they miss the point of the Gospel by being so inward focused.