I have attended the Upper Room many times over the years, following my kids while they were in High School. But once they left home I stayed at my own church. However, last night I went with my daughter to visit the Upper Room for the first time in a few years and was able to experience worship.
2015 - I wrote the above paragraph a little over one year ago. Since then Upper Room has moved to Colonial Church of Edina and has changed some. I went last night again and need to update my experience a little.
THE HISTORY
The Upper Room used to worship in Christ Presbyterian Church (which is where I used to attend their worship), while the main church was facing a crisis. As I was told the story, the building belonged to the denomination which was welcoming certain teachings with which Christ Pres. did not agree. The dilemma then became this: the church leadership wanted to break away from its denomination but couldn't because the building belonged to the denomination. I don't know what ever became of this dilemma.
When I attended Upper Room in the past, hundreds of young people came and worshiped. The services and music seemed to be full of life and energy. And it grew.
Sometime after I stopped going, the Upper Room broke away from Christ Pres. for reasons I don't know - but I suspect that it did so because of the denomination's stands on certain doctrines and practices. When I visited last night, I realized that it had become a small part of what it was when I used to go.
2015 - Upper Room has grown and does a decent job of packing out the auditorium with White 20 something young families. The service was filled with the noises of children playing, talking, and crying.
THE MUSIC
I believe that the music is the one of two reasons the Upper Room continues to have 2 services that can hold 100 +. The musicians were top notch and the girl who led singing was as good as singers get. She was awesome.
The band was tight and did a great job with a room that wasn't designed for the best acoustics.
The song choices were great.
2015 - I only got to hear two songs, because I came late. The band was okay - something may have changed since last year - I am not sure. There was one woman in the band who had an amazing voice, but the main singer usually sang out of key. My suggestion would be to focus more on the girl with the voice and have her lead most of the music.
IMAGES
I think the Upper Room holds on to some of their Presbyterian past with icons such as centuries' old paintings, tile, and stain glass windows of Jesus provided in the background for the words of the songs. This may provide familiarity for people coming out of high church tradition, but it does little good for those who have grown up outside of the church or for those who were brought up in churches that were not steeped in ancient tradition. These images suggest that Jesus was a White European who looked like he lived in the Middle Ages. I appreciate the art involved but don't think its good for background in worship service trying to reach outsiders.
2015 - I didn't see the creative images last night, which is neither good nor bad in my opinion.
THE ATMOSPHERE
The Upper Room was a bit quaint. They had people from the congregation come up to the center of the room to drop off the offerings and they invited mothers to come forward to pick up flowers. They also invited people to come up to pick up homework sheets to be practiced in response to the sermons. The quaintness and feel of everything reminded me of a cutting edge 1970s church.
I felt like the Upper Room had devolved into a group where most of the people knew each other and focused on each other with little or no concern for outsiders. It had a family-like atmosphere that was not there years ago when it was in its heyday. But family-like may be dysfunctional or it may be healthy. I can't tell one way or another from an outsider's view. I only know that visitors like church to be more about them, and this family-like atmosphere made me feel like I wasn't in the family.
Furthermore, in between songs, the music was interrupted by a message about church finances directed to the insiders. As a first time visitor, I cared nothing for this and found myself thanking God that my daughter's boyfriend did not join us that day, because as a rare-church goer, if he hears anything about money, he will tune out the rest of the service.
To add to this feeling of being an outsider, there were no greeters at the door and nothing in the service that addressed visitors. I left feeling like the Upper Room had become a group of insiders that were not interested in me or in anyone else who may visit. This is an easy fix for any church - Get greeters at the door!
Upper Room had a lot going for them years ago. They still have a lot going on for them, but can do a heck of a lot better. They need to focus on those coming into the church. Perhaps the leaders should should go on field trips, checking out other growing churches in the area to get good ideas from them. I believe that Upper Room can make a big come back with a few small changes.
2015 - Because I came in late, I didn't get the greeters which would have been nice to help me find my way to the service. It was no big deal at all, but would have been nice for us late comers.
THE MESSAGE
It seems that too few Evangelical churches have women who preach, so when I saw a woman pastor stand up to preach I was looking forward to hearing her. But after the service, my daughter turned to me and said, "No offense, but what was she saying? She seemed to be all over the place." Unfortunately I couldn't answer her. For a good 25 to 30 minutes the pastor rambled on about "the soul," quoting extensively from a couple of books she obviously liked a lot, but for us, the book's quotes made no sense and neither did her message. She was "all over the place."
The pastor may have had a lot of interesting ideas, but they never came together very well. All pastors and teachers need to spell out messages step by step and clearly. They need to speak as if we (people in the seats) are needing things explained and simplified.
If I would be invited to sit down with the pastor to talk to her in person (its always easy to talk big when not face to face), I would give the following suggestions:
1. Reflect about the message. Was it just a random bad message. Sometimes pastors have a message that goes bad. I don't think this was the case however. The message was too far gone.
2. Find a class (better yet a string of classes) in a school somewhere to study how to preach. The pastor had passion for her message, and that is a great foundation for any message. A good class or two or three could help channel the passion in ways that the congregation can appreciate.
3. Study past preachers and what made them work.
4. Never quote more than a phrase or a sentence in a message.
5. Never quote more than 2 or 3 quotes in a message. People want to see and hear the pastor. I wanted to hear what the pastor had to say, not some author I had no appreciation for.
6. If you can't summarize an author in a way that we all understand, and if you can't make it your own and deliver it accordingly, then leave it out entirely.
7. Build material on no more than 3 concepts.
8. Focus on the audience and their needs. I felt like this message had nothing to do with anybody. I felt like it was trying to be philosophical and theological at the same time, but failed in both areas.
9. Stay more with the Bible and less with this attempt at philosophy/theology.
10. Find a team at church (without more than one "yes" person) that can critique each sermon in love and in support. Create a panel of judges who will listen to the pastor and tell her what works and what doesn't. Ideally, this team will hear the message before the final presentation.
2015 - The speaker was much better than last year's speaker. He used the scripture well. If I had one thing to say, it would be a suggestion that more time would be used in preparation for the delivery of the message. The speaker read most of his sermon from his notes on the podium. It would have been nice if he could have broken away from the papers and freed himself up to get more animated - he could be a good preacher.
CONCLUSIONS
Even though I had quite a disappointing experience, my hope and prayer is that the Upper Room will rebound. The Upper Room has the ingredients it needs to return bigger than ever and with all my heart I hope they will.
2015 - Judging from last night, I think the Upper Room is turning around and is growing.
Summary for them or any church lacking these things:
1. Get greeters at the door.
2. Brainstorm ideas about how to help new people find the upper parking lot. One church that meets at Northwestern University has people lined along the roads that flag in the rest. They dance and get real animated about their job as they direct people at every turn.
3. Focus more on non-Christians and outsiders coming to visit.
4. Make sure sermons are simple and to the point and get a team of judges.
5. Keep the music great. Upper Room's band may the biggest part of what's holding people at the Upper Room.
2015 - Most of this was last year's thought, and there is a lot I don't know about the Upper Room. Some of what I say may not hit the mark from others' points of view; but I would hope that like any great work, the leaders can examine and work on making a good work better.
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