Week 9 - East Park Church

www.eastpark.org

One of the fun things about doing this project is the opportunity to visit the churches of some of our long time friends. East Park Church is the church home of another one of the families in our neighborhood that we have known since our kids were in elementary school together. To be fair we have had several friends invite us to visit their churches but Loren is a stickler for sticking to the plan. We are starting with ones closest to our home and slowly expanding the radius as we go through the year. Most likely we will be able to accept many of the invites but some may be too far away.

EPC is affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance family of churches. As the name implies, missions is an important part of the ministry of CMA churches. This was evident during the service as specific prayer was offered for the Good News Team they support, the speaker's reference to an international service trip that several dozen members recently returned from, and the testimony shared by a 5th grade boy about his efforts in ministering to local homeless people. We really appreciated seeing both a child and teenage girl invited up to share their personal experiences being part of these activities.

The service was contemporary and relaxed. In fact many of the leadership were wearing T-shirts with superhero logos emblazoned on the front; in keeping with the theme of the current series they are teaching from Ephesians entitled "Realize and release your true identity in Christ." Piping hot coffee is available as you enter the meeting room and at the seats are full size cup holders for your coffee. Now, before you make light of the cup holders they serve an important functional purpose, the floor is sloped so a cup placed on the floor would create quite a mess if it were to spill. Seating was available for about 200 and at the early service we attended was about 2/3 full. Projection screens were located on each side of the stage and were used throughout for music lyrics, a short video, and the bible passages for the message.

Music was provided by six instrumentalists, two who also provided vocals. They performed upbeat, contemporary, songs like those found on one of the local Christian radio programs. The congregants represented ages from children to elderly. About midway through the service children and teens were given opportunity to leave for classes of their own. No formal meet-n-greet was done during the service, not a big deal given that we come from a church that practices the perfunctory 360 spin-n-greet. However, after visiting several churches that provide a significant part of the service to the greeting time not having it caused us to reflect on this a bit.

The message was provided by one of the elders, a pastor-in-training by  his own admission. His talk was from Ephesians 5:1-14 and was entitled "We are love & light." His message was thoughtful, relatable, and heartfelt. He provided a poignant object lesson by inviting his 5th grade son up to share about his conversation with a homeless man he met while ministering in the local community. His talk was an apropos challenge to hear given the tensions that are brewing at the local and national levels.

EPC is the size that doesn't overwhelm but offers something for all ages. As mentioned they have active children and youth ministries for families and evidence of active older members as well. Yet you get the feel that people know each other and recognize each other's children.