Cranberry Community United Presbyterian Church

Today we worshiped at Cranberry Community United Presbyterian Church, 2662 Rochester Road, Cranberry Township, PA 16066, www.ccupc.org.

Jan's thoughts:

This facility is obviously very new, nicely designed, well kept, and thoughtfully laid out. (A photo of the outside is on the home page of their website.) However, from the moment I walked in I did not feel like we were in a church. The "Greeting Area" boasted numerous tables containing various information: a mission table, one with members' name tags, another nearby with blank name stickers and a request that visitors indicate their name. (If you know Bob, I don't have to say that we didn't take them up on that offer.)

Since we arrived early we had time to walk around the building some. A number of the rooms seemed to be in use for the Sunday school hour, and there were many children running around.

A few people spoke to us but I'm not sure they all knew we were visitors, except the gentleman sitting next to us during the service who specifically asked and who, following the service, offered that he hoped we'd come back next week. This is a fairly large church (according to the bulletin, last week's attendance was 286) and it's very easy to get lost in a church that size.

The building felt contemporary and the worship service had a blended feel to it in spite of not having a screen (the bulletin contained the printed words to the hymns) and using traditional music. They do have an earlier service, which I'm guessing might be contemporary.

One unique thing was the pews: they were arranged in a "V" formation and there was adequate distance between my knees and the pew in front of us for someone to get by without having to scrunch.

The music was well-done, and the liturgist well-spoken. The sermon was okay, but seemed to cover very basic theology. (Perhaps this congregation is still in the "milk" stage.) I enjoyed the story at the end about Louis Pasteur and his proof of the germ theory. (With a bit of reading what Google comes up with I'm not convinced he had all the details right, but his preaching of the story contained observable passion.) The theological knot he used to tie it in was "being saved by the blood of the one who overcame," and this appealed to me.

The bulletin is tri-folded 11x17" paper, and contains quite a lot of helpful information, as does the website.

Bob's thoughts:

Interesting sanctuary, lots of windows around the chancel which could be a vibrant focal point for a sunrise worship or an evening service, Christmas Eve late worship with the curtains removed. There is definite potential for dramatic effect.

The blend of direct and indirect lighting was well done. Good acoustics and speaker placement. The Sanctuary is large enough to have benefited from a sloped floor. Very comfortable pews with extra spacing between. The signage was adequate for a somewhat confusing building. They could really use a sign at the main road, however.

My feeling was that this is a church that believes they have a family atmosphere without really knowing each other. With attendance figures of about 1,000 per month and two services, I think the visitor gets lost. There is a visitor table with badges and printed name tags for members. We did talk to someone in the area but were not asked if we were visiting, which led me to believe the badges were to make it easier for members, not visitors.

The bulletin contained budget information indicating good stewardship numbers to general operating account, and there was a good sense of mission it is not reflected in the numbers. I believe it's important for a church to tithe, but according to the numbers, this one does not tithe.

The sermon started out being about actors preparing to play a role getting acclimated to the character by walking a mile in the shoes of someone in preparation to portray the role, but went off on a tangent after that. Very basic stuff, loosely jointed. Missed the passion.

The pastor has a column in the bulletin entitled "I Was Just Thinking," and the subject was "you have one last sermon to preach in your ministry." There was passion in this article, so I expected passion in his sermon as well and was disappointed.