traditionally, well, traditional.

Lewisville United Methodist Church
By my count, there are four United Methodist churches in Lewisville. That's a lot for a town of 8000 people. I also think it's a good sign. But anyway, Lewisville United Methodist is the biggest. It has two Sunday morning services, and I attended the later service, which is why there were Cadillacs and Buicks in the parking lot instead of minivans and coupes.

Late services are traditionally, well, traditional, while the contemporary services are generally held at some ungodly hour like 8:30 AM. The main difference in these services (besides the time) tends to be the music. Contemporary christian music, in my experience, tends to kinda suck. Critiquing the quality of praise music is probably missing the point, and I'm sure the songwriters had their hearts in the right place. It just seems that the writers (mainly the lyricists) are trying to glorify the Lord through talents that He didn't give them. Give me Tennessee Ernie Ford and Johnny Cash over Michael W. Smith any day.

Unfortunately, the type of people who seem to agree with me on this point are, ahem, chronologically advanced. And while I don't seem to find a lot in common with what counts as "young adults" in most churches (30s, married with children), I can relate more easily to them than I can to the traditional service set (60s, widowed with grandchildren). This really is a total side issue, but honestly, I took the fact that Lewisville UMC has two services as a sign that I may not like the church. Whichever service I chose, I was going to have to give up something I was looking for. I suppose the joint Sunday School between services is supposed to rectify that situation, but I would still feel like a stranger in the late service. Plus, most multiple-service churches are bigger than what I like.

The service itself was fine. Standard stuff, nothing special. We sang songs I already knew, which I found comforting. However, exactly one person said "Good morning" to me, and that was it. I had people stepping all over me to see the new baby sitting in front of me, but they managed to do it without saying even hello to me. It's possible they figured I was just an early service regular who overslept, and so they didn't realize that I was a visitor, in which case, they still should've realized that they personally didn't know me and made an attempt to correct that. In the case that people didn't realize I was new, the church may just be too big for my tastes anyway, if the folks there don't know a visitor when they see one. I even got lost looking for the sanctuary, so they really should've figured it out. Maybe they're just rude. In any case, I didn't feel welcome at all, and I'm not going back, even though their handbell choir was very good. Maybe if they had performed a song called "We're So Happy You Are Here, Sandra!" Ah, well.