Finding a Church Home- Visit Five

The week after I moved here I decided to attend Riverside Community Church's service at the movie theater.

First impressions
Walking into a movie theater without a ticket definitely made me fell as if I was doing something wrong. I walked past a couple small groups of people who were talking to others, I'm not sure if they were all the greeters or not. There was a table with snacks and then a table with information & books for sale where I stopped. At this table I was talking to the hostess about the new book the church is going through in the fall and she treated me as if I wasn't new but part of the church all the time. It made me wonder if the church is so large that people don't know everyone or know when someone is a visitor, or if it's just her. One of my questions was about things for young adults and she didn't know, even though she identified herself as belonging to that category. She did get another women to help me and I learned that the small group they had for young adults is up in the air right now. They did offer me a popcorn container welcome packet which I took and carried around.

The service
There was a band of about ten people of various ages in the space between the first row of seats and the screen. They played popular worship songs that I knew and some I didn't. There was prayer interspersed in the early portion of the service and it ended calmly with a song after the message.

The message
I don't know if this is usual or because someone couldn't make it that day, but the sermon came via video from the senior pastor preaching from their main campus. While I didn't cringe at the message and it was on spiritual gifts. During the sermon I was very distracted though as people, including the worship band, came in and out of the theatre which I could see clearly from where I was sitting.

The church
Especially considering I was carrying around a welcome packet I found that other than those two people at the table I approached no one reached out and welcomed me.

Overall
I might visit them again just to be kind and give them another chance, but I have no desire to return there.