A couple of other observations from our California visit - recognizing up front that my focus was on those things that relate to my involvement in church...
- The ministries we visited received their offerings at the very end.
- We saw everything from offering bags, baskets and even paint cans used to collect the offering.
- You know you're in a large church when people are using cell phones to figure out where their family members are sitting.
- The buildings appeared to have been designed with more emphasis on function and less on aesthetics. Not that they looked bad or ratty; they just weren't overly decorated.
- The seats were not overly comfortable; but they were functional.
- When seats were in demand, the ushers served throughout the entire service helping people find and fill every available seat.
- The California weather patterns give the churches an opportunity to do a lot of stuff outside which we in the Northeast aren't able to maximize.
- You know you're in a large church when people are worried about beating the traffic to get home in time for lunch.
- The services never officially ended with someone telling us to have a good week or whatever; each ended with a song which the band continued to play for several minutes as the crowd instinctively exited.
- The weekend meetings/services where focused on corporate worship - I didn't see a single Sunday School or ABF class. Keep in mind that I didn't see an entire weekend at each ministry, just one service so maybe it occurred at another time or maybe that's happening during the week.
- Except for the rented night club, the Auditoriums made ample use of natural light through large windows to make the rooms bright.
- The Auditoriums had open ceilings with the rafters and HVAC ducts clearly visible - functional.
- Tongue-in-cheek... for all the hype about Saddelback and their best practices, there's a lot of storage space they could be utilizing better - their was plenty of storage space in their hallways and a ton of space under their bleachers.
