Since I admire the great work that they do in our city and I only live a few miles away, I have been wanting to visit Buckhead Church for a while and finally got the chance to go this past Good Friday. Rai and I took the kids to the nearest Toys R Us two weeks ago and I was shocked when I pulled into the parking lot and saw Buckhead Church right in the thick of things. They were preparing for the 6pm service that night and a great crowd of people was parking all over the place to get into service. It was super cool! As I always do, I forced my wife to take a tour against her will. Since I could no longer use not knowing exactly where the church was located as an excuse to not visit, we decided to visit the Good Friday service. Like the typical pastor, I went back and forth from study-the-environment mode to worship-God mode – here are my thoughts.
I love the building, the location, the main sanctuary is huge and is a great use of space, parking is surprisingly ample and was very organized.
We got there about 30 minutes before the service was set to begin and had a comical time trying to find a seat. If I was as cool as Los, I would have had a camera strapped on my head somehow as I walked through to capture the experience, but I am not quite there yet. A few things made this experience comical (for me) and frustrating (for my wife). While we are probably spoiled and not use to having to search for a seat, our church uses ushers (friendly guides) to help visitors find a seat. We scoured up and down isle after isle and row after row, embarrassingly asking people, Forrest Gump style, if a seat was available. We would see entire rows of seats with 10-12 empty seats, but we would always get the response, "Taken." It was ok at first, but it did get a little old. It is obviously a part of the fiber of the church to save and reserve seats, because everywhere we went, we would see little bitty pieces of torn paper that people would place in the saved seats to show you that they were taken. It was a lot like finding a parking spot at the mall, but discovering a unicycle parked in it when you got all excited about finding the spot. We eventually sat pretty far in the back, but all of the seats were really good seats because of the awesome A/V system there.
One additional interesting thing that my wife and I noticed, but didn’t know that that the other noticed, was the fact that we saw hundreds of white attendees having a blast before the service started… drinking Starbucks, laughing out loud, shaking hands, and telling stories all throughout the place. We both noticed that nearly every African American we saw was sitting alone, talking to no one, and looked altogether lonely. We wanted to give them a hug or a high five or something! I did not help things by overstating to my wife the diversity of Buckhead Church ahead of time.
Once the service began, we were blown away. The artwork of Jesus on the cross being done on stage was great and not cliche in any way. The music, the lyrics, the graphics, and the vocalists were absolutely awesome. I am convinced that some of the most talented people in the country are leading Buckhead church. At our Pentecostal church, you look strange if you are not standing up and waving your hands during worship. It’s just a major part of our service. Of the thousands of people on the lower level, my wife and I wanted to stand up during worship several times, but noticed that absolutely nobody was standing except for one lone guy in the balcony. After reading Los talk about the Easter Services @ Buckhead, I really regretted not standing when I felt compelled to do so. I’m not a give-in-to-peer-pressure type of guy, but it got me this time. I saw one of the worship leaders crying and really worshiping God out loud, but surprised myself with my desire to fit in by sitting down.
The service, which included Communion, videos, songs, art, and more was less than an hour long, but felt like much longer because it was full of depth and meaning. When it ended with the unveiling of the finished art, Rai and I (and everyone around us) took a while to get the double-meaning from the art work. We knew that "It is Finished" were the words of Jesus on the cross, but it also meant that the service was finished. After everyone stared at the art for about 30 seconds, the early adopters began getting up and leaving – which let the slower ones amongst us know that it was time to go. Upon reflecting about this way to end the service as I walked to my car, I decided that I liked this method because it was thought-provoking and did not cheapen the moment. Instead, we all left somewhat somber and serious – which is appropriate. Altogether, this service was very well-conceived and executed and hopefully touched people the way it touched me.
I got a lot out of my time @ the Buckhead Church and hope to go back to some evening services (with the kids) in the near future.
{ 2 comments }
hey i got this link from los. i work with him at bc. i wanted to apologize for your seating experience at GF. we are such an invest an invite church that more often than not people are saving seats for their friends they have invited. it is such a catch 22, we dont want rows saved but we also dont want to tell people they cant save bc of the I&I strategy we have. it is something i have been trying to balance for the 4 yrs i have worked here. that is my area :) when you come back on sunday i hope you have a better experience finding a seat bc our experienced ushers will be working. we gave all of our regular vols the night off to attend and we had staff fill in. most of them had never ushered before and i did a bad job of giving them guidance that night. i am glad you enjoyed the rest of the service.
Hey Erin,
Thanks for your insight. You and the team are doing an awesome job. I love Buckhead Church/Northpoint and know that so much thought and planning goes into everything that you all do. Indeed, it is obvious that people are inviting others to Buckhead Church and you want them to have seats.
Here is a question for you -
Does a church that is made up of one predominant ethnic group have any special responsibility at helping to ensure people from other ethnic groups that are attenders/members properly assimilate into the church. Should we simply trust the mechanisms we have in place or does this warrant special attention?
Thanks!