Quest for the Perfect Church: Marley Park Nazarene
Ooh! We go to a new church now: Marley Park Church of the Nazarene. It has three services, a traditional one with a choir, a contemporary one with a full band, and a blended service with an orchestra and an overhead projector.
The first two times, we went to the blended service. That was good; we knew the songs, and met someone we knew from somewhere else, which is always helpful. Some of us young upstarts wanted something a little more rockin’, though, so on the third Sunday, we all squeezed into the van and tried the contemporary service. My grandmother decided to skip her church and come with us to see what all the fuss was about.
It should be noted that Dad is very particular about the kind of music he — and by implication his family — listens to, so I was wary of his reaction to the “modern” style of music. Surprise: he liked it! And, so did my grandmother. And my mother. And of course my brothers and sister and I certainly liked it.
The problem is, I’m so used to participating in the music at whatever church I’m involved in, that it’s all I can do just to stay in my pew. So a couple of weeks ago I asked the bass player (so far the coolest person I’ve met .. but that may be because he’s still the only person anywhere near my age to speak to me unprovoked) what one needed to do to volunteer for the praise band. He invited me to sit in on a practice just before the service, which I did. But that wasn’t really with the approval of the leader, so there I sat, and there they played, and nothing really came of it.
However! Last week Dad had lunch with two of the pastors, and offered that his family kept asking when we could start volunteering for stuff. So on Sunday during the shake-hands-and-greet-one-another-moment the worship pastor stepped down to ask me to come to practice Wednesday night. Since he’ll be away the next two weeks, they’ll need someone to play the keyboard with the band (But he doesn’t play the keyboard … so I haven’t yet figured out how those two things are connected. Have you?). That means I’ll have to drive down to Baltimore tomorrow evening, but I Do Not Care. 
Discussion Question: During the contemporary service, Pastor Bolerjack preaches from The Message (PDF sample, start at page 35). Is this a good idea? Explain.
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