This morning we went to church with Jenny and Josh down in Cool Springs (Brentwood), a southern suburp of Nashville. This church is a part of the Foursquare denomination and meets in an industrial office park in a warehouse, using several surrounding buildings for childcare, etc. Its name is New Song Christian Fellowship and attendance runs about 775 in two Sunday morning services. It is contemporary in its worship. Here are some observations:

• Early service started at 8:45 AM and ran a full two hours (worship 40 minutes).
• They have children’s ministry during the service up through grade 6. 7th grade and up are in the service with the adults. They do have occasional or seasonal morning worship times for youth that opens up the sanctuary for more adults.
• Attendance in early service was about 400 and it was 95% full. Age span was equally spread from 20-60, although I saw about 15 folks older than me who all sat in the front 4 rows (great examples). A small number of teens sat with their parents, not off in a back row.
• Although Nashville is a multi-racial city, the church was mostly white. In a downtown store you might see 50% whites, but this church was clearly white, located in an affluent area.
• The volume was cranked up much louder than New Hope. You felt like the praises you were singing filled the room.
• Color was a big thing in the front compared the plain white we have at New Hope.
• They celebrated a new church plant that started the previous week in a theater in Murfreesboro.
• This church made good use of video testimonies on the topic of thanksgiving. Good job.
• The pastor, Dale Evrist, did a good job with the word, although a little different from my expositional style. I’m more of a teacher, and he’s very motivational and builds community well.
• We saw some folks we knew there: Kevin Rowe, formerly from Angola, and Sue (Graber) Dettwiler, formerly from Auburn, who, along with her husband, is on staff there. The Dettwilers have just adopted two boys from Brazil.

In all, we enjoyed the service and will attend again when we’re down here again. We would consider making this our church home if we lived down here. But, we look forward to be back at New Hope this week. What are your observations of a church you visited?

Tags: church