What to Expect

I know – it’s not easy visiting a new church for the first time. Sometimes you feel like a nonmember visiting a country club. Do I belong here? Am I really welcome? Will the people be unfriendly, or too friendly? Will I be conspicuous? Will it be easy to leave if I don’t enjoy it? Will they ask me for money? Will my kids enjoy it? How should I dress? Am I welcome if I don’t believe?

As the Lead Pastor at Generations Church, I want to make your visit an enjoyable experience, easy, stress-free, relaxing. We want to be “user-friendly” for people, whatever their background, including those who have never been to church before. In fact, most of our people were not regular church attenders before Generations. So you’re in a majority when you visit! If I were visiting a new church for the first time, I’d like to know what to expect, so here’s a brief overview.

We meet at the Southside Family YMCA in Farmville VA (580 Commerce Road). When you arrive, there is plenty of parking. At the front door, there should be some friendly people (we call them “greeters”) to say hello, answer any questions you have, and direct you to the Worship area. If you have kids, they can point you to where you can register and drop off your children. The YMCA is a fun, safe place for your children to learn about Jesus and fellowship with other children. If your kids are shy, they’re welcome to attend the adult service with you, but most kids really enjoy the kids church.

You’ll notice that everyone is dressed comfortably, in anything from “business casual” to jeans or shorts. If you arrive early, you’re welcome to have a cup of coffee and breakfast bar (self-serve near the entrance) and pick up information in the lobby area. We have two kinds of seating: regular seats and tables with chairs. There is no pecking order or significance to the seating — it all is a matter of what you prefer. In your worship guide, you will find a card we call our “411 Card.” This card is an easy way for us to get better acquainted; you can ask for any kind of information or assistance using this card.

The service usually begins with a welcome and some announcements from what we call our worship host. Our worship team leads us in a some singing and then we say a short prayer. Usually I will then speak for about 30-40 minutes. I do my best to make the messages interesting, enjoyable, and relevant to daily life. The message will be based on the Bible, and I will often include interesting quotes from contemporary people, songs, or movies. If I do my job right, you’ll hear solid Christian theology in intelligent, understandable, relevant terms. And hopefully, you’ll laugh at times and maybe feel a tug at your heart too.

In the middle of our service we receive an offering. Our offering is for people who Generations their church home. As our guest, your gift to us is simply your presence in being there. Don’t feel obligated to participate in the offering. When the basket comes by, you can drop your 411 card in it so that we know how we can serve you.

I’ll close the service about 75 minutes after it began (and believe it or not, the time will fly). I hope you’ll come up and introduce yourself to me afterward. I usually hang out in the front of the room.

After the service, you’ll pick up your kids, and then we hope you’ll stay around, meet some people and enjoy some refreshments. Church is about God and worship, but it’s also about community and friendship, so we hope people really experience warmth and friendliness at Generations. Some people like to grab lunch together in Farmville.

That’s about it. People constantly tell me that they really felt comfortable – “a family” are the words I hear most frequently. I hope you’ll stop by this Sunday. And if you do, please come down and say hi, and tell me that you found out about Generations Church on the Internet.

Still have questions?  We’d love to share more with you.  Contact me at paul@generationschurchva.com or call my cell: 434-390-4066.

Thanks again for dropping by. Please be sure to get our free gift to you at your first visit!  We hope you enjoy your your time with us! I look forward to getting to know you better.

A couple more questions:

Generations: Who Are We?

Generations Church is a holiness, missional, Christian community.

We are a church after the missio dei, God who is sent. We are joined together around a dream and a call to build a community in our town with Jesus Christ at the center of mission. Our desire is that we would be a sent, authentic community where people experience and express the reality of God’s love in the way of Jesus.

"You, Lord, reign forever; your throne endures from generation to generation."