A new way to worship.

Tonight, I had my first experience at a non-denominational worship service. I am usually pretty reserved about my faith (despite what writing this blog might insinuate), so I was a little nervous about attending at first. The service was pretty much what I expected, though, and I would definitely go again!

A few of the other interns and I attended Passion City Church, a local church focused on a university-aged audience. I was particularly excited when I learned Passion is the home of Christian musician Chris Tomlin! Unfortunately, he's on tour so he wasn't singing tonight, but Kristian Stanfill was more than an adequate substitute.

Courtesy of Kristian's Facebook page - not from the service.

That was the first thing that surprised me about the service: the music. I expected a lot of songs, and I expected them to be amazing, but for the first 45 minutes I felt like I was at a concert. (Not that it was a bad thing, just surprising.) It was great to be somewhere where the congregation sang so passionately because I didn't have to worry about anyone hearing my less-than-pleasant singing voice.

Overall, I enjoyed the service. It was different than what I'm used to at my home church, but the messages shared during the sermon were the same. I found I could relate to the anecdotes, and nothing in the service made me feel uncomfortable or hesitant about my own faith. I still plan to practice my specific denomination, but I really enjoyed my time at Passion, and I will probably be back again before the summer ends.