#64: Visit Churches

This weekend, K and I tried out another church in our area--St. John Vianney. One of the highlights of the visit was walking (rushing) in, and K saying "Did Mike Brady design this church?" I think I heard the person walking in behind us stifling a giggle at the comment. Apparently, K is suddenly a connisseur of Mike Brady's architectural style, which I had to quiz him about later. (?!)

So, Church #2 pros:
--sign out front says "All Are Welcome" and they seem to mean it.
--random people were nice to us and friendly, but not in a creepy recruiting sort of way.
--Smaller church than the last one we visited, so it was easier to find a place to park.
--Congregation & church officials seemed more casual & easy-going, if not a tiny bit disorganized. (Much more my religious & personal style.)
--Children's choir cracks me up, esp. when they sing off-key. Off-key solos = bonus.
--Shorter, more to the point sermon than we experienced at the other church we visited.
--At the later morning service, the mass is interpreted in sign language for the deaf church members. Ever since my mom took some sign language classes when my brother & I were younger, I've been fascinated by sign language and wanted to learn it. It was interesting to watch the interpreter, esp. during the songs. Also, good lip-reading practice.

And the cons:
--Church is all hard surfaces, even the seats. (i.e., no cushions, curtains or rugs--it was all wood, stone & marble/granite) So when the priest/reader/whoever is speaking, there is a lot of echo and sometimes they are difficult to understand. The priest has a slight accent, which I think exacerbates the problem a tad. Sounds made anywhere in the church (fussy baby, etc.) are also overamplified, and I felt bad for a couple of parents who were carrying crying kids into the cry room.
--K found the hand motions of the children's choir distracting. (The choir did a performance in front of the altar towards the end of the service. The director--who was squatting down in front of them--kept motioning for them to spread their arms wide during part of the song. But, since the kids were shoulder to shoulder, they couldn't spread their arms out. It didn't bother me, and I may have mentioned to K that I thought it was odd that this bothered him.)
--Incense overload. I understand it is part of the Easter-season tradition to use incense during the service, but they were swinging it around like it was going out of style. They even refilled the incense ball (the technical term, I'm sure) halfway through the service. It gave me a headache.
--Second morning service is at 11, instead of 11:30.
--Further north than other church visited, but only by a few miles. Other church was less than 10 minutes from our house.

K thought the last church we visited looked nicer, and I agreed that the other church was beautifully decorated and looked a lot like a cathedral from a movie. Yesterday's church is much more modern-looking, but I still thought it was nice--lots of natural light. Still, I don't really care much what our church looks like either way, and I don't think it's really a big deal for K, either.

Verdict: We like it better than the last church we visited, but don't love it. Will it grow on us? We went to the last church twice, so we'll go to this one at least twice, too. There's a church in Pflugerville we'll try, and I may try to convince K to give St. Theresa's a chance, too, depending on how long it actually takes to drive there from our house.