Orlando North Community Church

Becka:

OK, there’s really only one thing I want to say about this church. They are a church plant (that’s not the one thing, that’s just a set-up), so... they are friendly (that was the one thing). By far the friendliest church I’ve ever been to. This is what it should be like in every church. And I bet this is what it used to be like in every church. Before they got big. Or before they never got big, but before they had an established community. This church, the entire church, is still actively pursuing relationships. Heck, they adopted a missionary family whose previous home church had closed down. This happened during the only service the missionaries had been to at this church, less than a week before they left the country. The first service I went to (Kailey and I have been to two now), no less than five people came up to say hi… and all of them would have sat down and had a conversation if there’d been time. It was just exactly like they were interested in knowing me, not just being nice. And I therefore return the complement. Orlando North, I would like to know you too. And to commence our nascent practice of handing out points, I hereby bestow on you 5 tiny white plastic church-shaped coin banks. I always liked those things.


Kailey:

My laughter in this service (which was to flow in abundance) began almost immediately when Pastor Rob made fun of the Christian vernacular, “traveling mercies.”
I mean, who can take that phrase seriously, really?



The inside of the Orlando North space (which will be moving to a place called the Loft on August 23rd), might look something like the setting for an office seminar, if not for the band equipment and multi-color fabric cross backdrop on the modest stage. To the left there is an art piece next to a small table, which is set with communion elements. There are pillows arranged on a square of carpet below, and I watch as a stray person here and there kneels down to take the sacrament while worship plays from the front.
Before the sermon begins, Pastor Rob takes the time to explain that the church has purchased backpacks loaded with school supplies to give to families in need as their children return to school. The stage is riddled with them. Contrasted with the makeshift pews of individual blue upholstered seats and the grey board room carpet, I am pleased to observe this congregation has invested their resources into something of more lasting value than sweet stage lights. (Which are certainly great, too.)

I am charmed by this church, and continue to be, two weeks I a row. I will give you some reasons in list form, because I am a bookkeeper, and I like to see things in list form…

1. We were greeted at the door by several friendly faces. Once inside, we were further greeted by Gary, Glen, and Patsy, in rapid succession. Week two, we were re-greeted by some of these same people, who remember us and seemed genuinely happy to see us again.

2. The church is small—perhaps 100 people. It allows for an intimacy in worship that I think can be lost on larger congregations. This also made Pastor Rob very accessible, which is incredibly refreshing.

3. The congregants laid hands on the new children’s ministry director, to commission her. The second week, they adopted two missionaries, and laid hands to commission them as well. (As an aside, I am incredibly uncomfortable in super-pentecostal settings, where there’s a lot of showy dancing and banners, and pointing to the ceiling with one’s index finger while singing, and laying hands and speaking in tongues, etc., but I felt surprisingly comfortable with these commissionings—and even took part. I cannot identify the exact quality of the people in this church that struck me as so genuine, but they just seemed spiritually honest, if that makes sense. I believed they touched these people because they loved them and wanted to participate in a symbolic “setting apart” of each individual for the work God is calling them to. There was nothing showy about it.)

4. There was a man behind us who snorted every time he laughed. It was hysterical.

5. Pastor Rob commented on the man snorting behind us. Everybody laughed, including the man, who again promptly snorted. I believe laughter should be a part of worship, and the comfort in this church made laughter easy. I think it must warm the heart of God. (Unless you’re laughing at a child who has fallen off a bicycle, or an elderly person whose dentures have become unglued.)

6. Pastor Rob is an incredibly gifted communicator. I have enjoyed the teaching thoroughly, and plan to attend the remainder of the series.

They took a moment in the service to “detox,” as they called it. A woman read a passage of scripture, and the congregation simply took a moment to reflect and meditate on God’s enormous glory, as opposed to presenting petitional prayer. I liked that. I need to take more time to detox and reflect on the goodness of God.

I award this church 197 stone tablets—plus one bronze snake because the worship leader forgot the words once. But the people there laughed with him, and they are friendly and graceful and forgiving, and it was a pleasant reminder that there are things far, far more valuable than aesthetic or auditory excellence.

Okay. I take the bronze snake back.

*CORRECTION: It was not a man who was snorting behind us after all, but a woman. Thank you for the correction, Pastor Rob. And my sincerest apologies to you, miss. I thought it would be tactless to turn around just to satisfy my own selfish curiosity about what you might have looked like. ;)