A Comparison

Yesterday I was at Grace Community Church (aka John MacArthur's Church, also GCC). I was thinking about how it compares to my home church, Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Edmonton (GRBC).

First, size:
If we had the same sized choir, with the orchestra, music minister, and pastor at home as they do here, there would be about 30 people, max, left in the pews...and they would all be children. I have no idea how many people attend GCC. You need to consider that only half the people are in the service at once; the rest are in Sunday School classes. They switch for second service (well, some of them do for sure; I don't know about all of them). The Sunday School class we attended seemed to be about as large as our congregation on a regular Sunday, although again minus the children. Plus, we meet in a few rooms in the basement of a hotel; GCC has a whole complex with a sanctuary, chapel, information booth, gym, Sunday School building, courtyard, and book store, plus whatever else I've never seen.

Next, music:
In the service, the choir sings alone about as much as the congregation sings. It's straight hymns, which is okay by me. I would prefer to sing more, though. In Sunday School we sing a bit more (Sunday School is more of a service, but more informal) and there are more modern hymns (like praise choruses only with better lyrics). Between the two services, then, we get a lot of what I hear (and sing) at home. It's nice.

Most importantly, the message:
The sermon in the big service could have been preached by a certain elder at my church: it was about God's wrath and justice. It was very, very good. He talked about sin and how God doesn't mark on a curve but on a pass/fail, and about hell. He tied it into our need to reach the lost because God's wrath is real and hell is a real place. He also talked about 1 John 2:1-2, about how we have an intercessor who bore God's wrath for us, so we have reason to rejoice. In Sunday School they are going though the requirements of an elder in 2 Timothy, which we have also done a year or so ago.

Conclusions:
I like GCC; it's interesting to see how a very big church runs and see how much is the same as our small church, just on a larger scale; plus, they have a bookstore! Still, I love my own church best, probably because I belong there and I know and love the people.