Sunday in California

Yesterday I went to Mosaic for church. The band played about four songs which very few seemed to know and even fewer seemed to sing. Then there was a short comic video while they got the band off and a chair and table on the stage. McManus came out and offered a prayer and then delivered his message. Then another guy they called the campus pastor joined him for a Q & A session. Then they took up an offering and gave a few announcements and that was it.

I didn't get the worship. It really didn't seem like worship and a lot of people seemed to view it as prelude as i would say more than half the crowd came in during the set. It just wasn't m thing but apparently a lot of people like it that way.

McManus is an intelligent, practical, and compelling speaker. If your looking for exegesis you better choose another church. He may be very good at it but he doesn't focus on it. On this day he was talking about relationships and I think he connected very well with his audience.

During the Q&A you could text in your questions but I don't think they were actually taking them live. They answered several questions that seemed to have come from a previous week but maybe I missed something. I thought it was a good format overall.

I would guess that a lot of visitors leave underwhelmed. My guess is that there is a lot of stuff going on during the week and with small groups that really attract a lot of people. Other than that the main attraction is McManus himself. I know I could listen to him every week. I would just miss a corporate worship experience.

We also went to China Town yesterday. There are tons of shops there selling tons of Chinese products for not much money. It is definitely a cultural experience. We bought some crap and enjoyed the day before riding the train back home. I think if I lived here I would use the train a lot rather than face the traffic every day.