Amy opted to sit this one out for two reasons. First of all, we had already been to her mom’s church today. Second, since it’s Mother’s Day, she wanted to stick around and spend time with her.
So, flying solo to . . .
Week 1: Lifepoint Church, Westerville, OH.
I caught this very young (both in its own age, and the age of the people) church’s weblink over at RELEVANT Magazine’s “Church Network” database. A pretty website is always a good way to hook me into giving a place a longer look. Reading the church’s prospectus really piqued my interest, as they’re a plant of a great church I knew in Memphis.
They currently meet at the Westerville Community Center, a spanking-new facility. Walking into the building, I was almost immediately greeted by a broadly smiling young lady. We talked for a few moments, and when I got around to telling her I’d moved to Columbus from Jackson, TN, she immediately brightened up even more and exclaimed “my sister goes to Union University!” After telling her that’s where Amy was transferring from, she started introducing me to some other people there who were either from or had lived in West TN recently (there were quite a few).
Upon walking into the conference room that served as the “sanctuary”, there were snacks of all sorts and small bottles of water on tables in the back, and various sign-up sheets on a side table. About 70 people were either already in there or were in the process of coming in. Shaking a few more people’s hands (I guess a new face is like honey to a bee), I took my seat and placed my Bible and comp. pad on the floor beneath. The band (which consisted of two guitarists (one of whom was the worship pastor/male vocalist), a bass, a djembe drum, and a female vocalist) started playing, then the girl opened her mouth and started singing a song (which I did not know) based on Job 1.21: “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” WOW. This young lady had an impressive voice. After singing the chorus at one point, she began speaking about how God indeed does both give and take away, about how the good and bad in life both come from his hand, and how easy it is to praise him when he hands us good, but not so when he hands us bad. She took pause for a moment and talked about how she’d seen that personally in losing her mother 16 months ago, and that it had particular poignancy since today was Mother’s Day and how hard it was to sing his praises. Still, she did it, and beautifully.
We sang a few more “modern” worship songs I didn’t know, as well as a couple of hymns (How Great Thou Art and I Surrender All). A church that doesn’t forget its hymns is alright with me. 
Dean, the lead pastor, came to the front (dressed in a great lime green diagonal-striped shirt and jeans, btw) and prayed before launching into his message, which was based on Hebrews 12.5-11. “God’s Discipline” was the topic. I was pretty impressed: first by the fact that he was using a more literal Bible translation (the New King James Version) . . . I expect most young pastors and young churches to use the not-so-great NIV or the horrid NLT. The New King James isn’t quite my beloved ESV, but it’ll do. 
Secondly, I was impressed by what he said about God’s sovereignty and how it works in concert with our free choices. Overall a good sermon.
We finished by hearing the worship pastor sing the Byrds’ Turn, Turn, Turn (quite a biblical song), and we were dismissed. Troy, one of the guys who I’d spoken to earlier, came to me and plugged their small group ministry and invited me to come to his group. When I told him how passionate I am about small groups (and that I had just started leading one in our old church), his eyes lit up. Turns out that Troy is the “Community Life” pastor . . . the guy who is in charge of the small group ministry. He introduced me to a few of the groups’ leaders to give me a feel for the way they do things . . . I filled out a visitor card and then headed home.
Overall, a really good experience at Lifepoint. There are certainly other places I want to visit, but I won’t be at all surprised if that’s the place God ends up putting us.