1 /5 TXWylde: Let me start by saying I have been a Christian since I was 15 years old. We have been looking for a new church home. We decided to give church a try. In looking at the reviews, It had almost a 5 star review. Impressed with the high rating, we decided to check out the service. We were already running late, as we had a hard time parking because the lot was full. As we walked in to the building, we were greeted by a man in a red long sleeve dress shirt. I assumed he was the pastor. I figured I would grab a seat close to the back, to make it easy to get in and out. The worship music was playing. You could tell this place was Spirit filled because there were people shouting "Jesus!!!", some were speaking in tongues and one lady was on her face on the floor worshiping.
First of all, What is the deal with the flag wavers? Am I at a football game or at church? The flag wavers were a bit distracting. Secondly, I have worked Sound and Production at a Church for almost 10 years. I was even a stage manager for a while. I know how service is supposed to go. We had been standing through almost 45 minutes of music. The band usually plays 3 to 4 songs. The first song is a fast one, then it progressively gets slower. We were at the 50 minute market and the music was still going. The guitar player prayed and I thought the preacher was going to come up to start the word. The band started playing again. With almost 1 hour of worship music, the service was already going too long, especially if you have a long winded Pastor. We got up and made our way out of the building. I get it that people were worshiping and the music was good. In fact, two of the female singers were very talented. You could tell whoever was working the sound either did not know what she was doing, or was not paying attention because the Microphones of both female singers were "clipping". The drums and bass also sounded very muffled. I had joked that I could "fix that issue in 5 minutes". At almost an hour without the preacher getting on stage, we were done with this service.
I am sure your church is wonderful and is very spirt filled. After an hour of worship music, you start to lose people. It was also very distracting that people were "visiting" with others while the music was playing, not to mention the music was entirely too loud. I usually have decibel meter I use when I work production. I know if it started getting over 100 dB in the past, people started complaining. The music was way over 100 dB. My Apple Watch even said it was entirely too loud as I was getting warning messages. If this is your church, great. This church is not for me, nor is it what I am looking for. I have never in my life EVER walked out of a service and this was the first time I had ever done so.
