Sabbatical visits: Cedar Ridge Community Church, spencerville, md

what was your first impression as you entered?

Sometimes when visiting a church, it's confusing to know where you should enter. (That was, in fact, my first impression the first time I came to St Mark’s. The question at St Marks was, "is it the architecturally obvious, ceremonial entrance that leads one to the information foyer with access to the restrooms?" The answer was, "oops, no... Now you have to exit and enter another way, or wander through the entire nave looking confused, or just tough it up and sit there.") My first impression at cedar ridge was, "ahhh... they make it easy on us." The entrance is obvious from the parking... and there were smiling greeters who both held the door open for us as we entered and welcomed us. The entry foyer offered information, a manned information booth, places to sit, and restrooms, all obvious and accessible. There were lots and lots of people, all hanging out and talking excitedly in the entry foyer, clearly demarcating the "chatty" area from the worship space, which was quiet and offered a creative invitation to reflective worship. My first impression was, "this is great... this is very well thought through and I’m happy to be here."

How long was the service?

They offered two services, 9 and 11 am. We went to the 9 am, which lasted about an hour and a half.

How was the service structured?

The service was definitely based on the two-part structure, familiar to us Episcopalians: the ministry of the word / ministry of the table. This is not to say that they used rite II, nor that the structure was obvious (my own family did not recognize it). However, it definitely corresponded to what some of us call "rite III" -- that is, intentionally or unintentionally, it corresponded exactly to "an order for celebrating the holy Eucharist" (click here) on p 400 of the Book of Common Prayer.

Brian’s sermon lasted 45 minutes. My family thought it was a fascinating discussion, but that it wasn't a real sermon. I disagreed. I thought it didn't fit their expectations about sermon structure or style, but was a terrific sermon. We all agreed that it occurred too soon in the service... that we needed some scripture readings or something to help us prepare / transition into the teaching.

Most of the worship music occurred during the communion, at which time we were invited to participate in other creative acts of worship, such as writing prayers. An abridged version of Eucharistic prayer A was offered by someone -- (a staff pastor? A lay person?), communion stations were set up around the room, and people lined up to receive bread and grape juice (in tiny, plastic, individual cups).

Following the communion were invitations to become engaged in ministry and children recited psalm 23 which they had memorized. The service ended with a blessing and dismissal.

What did you like best?

1) for me: Brian’s sermon. it was gracious and gentle, interesting, inspiring, fascinating. I loved it.
2) I equally liked the projected illustrations of the 23rd psalm that accompanied the children's recitation. I was guessing that these were done by the children themselves, but we weren't told where they came from. the illustration of "a table spread in the presence of my enemies" included the Frankenstein monster. it was hilarious.
3) their worship band was superb. neither too loud nor intrusive, they struck me as leading us, not performing for us, and were just wonderful.
4) their projection system was perfect: large, legible, but subtle. the visible focus of the gathering was the cross and communion table, not the projection screens.

What did you dislike?

1) in spite of the fact that they had great production values in their use of projection and music, their sound system for speaking was very poor. it was fuzzy. we were all quite astonished by how poor it was, and wondered why such poor quality was tolerated.
2) in spite of the fact that it had more liturgical depth than the usual non-demominational service (as mentioned above), it felt liturgically shallow and weak. it lacked the mystery and liturgical depth that I experience in catholic worship (Anglican, roman or orthodox).
3) the updating of language in traditional hymns. (I don't like it when our Episcopal hymnal does it either.) hymns are works of art. if the piece of art no longer has value for us, because culture has changed, than rather than altering the artist's work, I’d prefer we just use a different work of art.

What were its greatest strengths that you’d like to import?

Brian’s gentle, respectful, thoughtful values, the worship band, their projection system, and their intentional "make it easy on the newcomers" system for welcoming visitors.

If you were looking for a church, would this be it?

My spirituality and faith is anchored in word, liturgy, sacrament, community, and ministry. I loved their worship band, but I don't believe that music is or should be an essential (although I recognize that music may be highest value expressed my many Christians). it seemed to me that CRCC does community and ministry really, really well, but there were insufficient word, liturgy or sacrament for me to consider this as the kind of place for which I’d be seeking. you might find it sufficient, but honestly, I’d keep looking.

What did you learn from this visit?

Apart from the basic structure of word/table and technology advances in projection, worship at Cedar Ridge was nearly identical to what we were doing at Fellowship Bible Church in Texas, 20 years ago. I really expected some cutting-edge creativity, and what I felt was nostalgic familiarity. it is becoming clearer to me that the baby-boomer generation is the "hinge" generation... the transitional generation. the baby-boomers, rather than the GenXers, are the first post-modern generation. perhaps the difference is that the boomers are pomos raised in the modern world, while the GenXers are pomos raised in an emerging pomo world. there are huge differences, to be sure, but perhaps it is not that case that "...between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' Cedar Ridge is concerned about their need to become more intergenerational. I’m looking forward to experiencing their experiment in a more intergenerational service later this summer

is there anything else you want to say?


This is my opinion; I could be wrong.

The Lord be with you.