Highlands Community Church

This morning we went with Jeff & Jan to check out Highlands Christian Church. Honestly, my preconceived notion was that it would be annoying with the kids allowed to be in service. I have a hard time concentrating.

We did not have a hard time finding parking and found across the street there is parking that probably not too many people are aware of. We were greeted at the door by two greeters, but really those were the only people that even spoke to us.

It's really dark in the worship area. The heat (it's an older building) was hot, so we moved to a cooler location. Yes, the kids after they started working on their packets were moving about, but they weren't really loud. Well a couple were talking, but it wasn't as bad as I suspected.

It's always hard for me to worship the first time in a new place. I enjoyed the music, but it was more to listen to for me than worship with. Their videos are freakin' funny. They did a great job explaining gel (with one L) groups...but made me think they were saying jail groups, serving, foster parenting and volunteering. It was a great infomercial which I guess helped you understand the church. He didn't really preach this morning.

They did children's time which was very traditional and I felt the woman doing it really probably talked above the children's heads. They aren't going to understand going to the chocolate lounge with a friend and how that relates to God if you pray first (there was more to the story, but I don't think I can do it justice).

They explained why children worship with their parents (intergenerational) and why their gel groups aren't segregated. Why they don't have a single's ministry, etc. I understand you don't have a building, it's hard to correlate all of those things when your space is limited, etc. So how do you talk about the hard topics if children are always there? How do you have a PG or PG-13 service when you have 5-year-olds in the room. Frankly, I don't want my child exposed to certain topics (although now she is at age 11 being exposed) but I feel they are necessary to talk about at church.

The statistic of emotional affairs via the internet, porn via the internet, loveless marriage, and singles marrying for the wrong reason is staggering. How do you ever go deeper and touch on any of these topics if children are always present?

I'm sure parents who love being surrounded by their children 24/7 will love this type of ministry. I love my child, but think she learns much better on a level of her own with her peers (or maybe she should just go to work with me every day and learn the way I do..sarcasm).

That's just my 2c. My perception!