Church on Sunday

1/18/09

My friend M, whom I met in Poland two years ago, has moved back to Taiwan as of last year. She asked me to meet on Sunday and to go with her to her church. I thought it would be a good idea so we made plans to meet early the first Sunday upon my return to Taiwan.

M's church is called Change Life Church, and is an evangelical covenant church. I seldom visited an evangelical church, so I was pretty excited to see the service knowing it would be pretty festive.

The church is a good 20 minutes by MRT from my home. M and I met at the nearest MRT station, and a short stroll later we arrived at the church.

I was surprised by how modern the church looked like. From the street level the entrance is modern and simple looking. Once I entered the church from the staircase sprialing downward, I was taken by surprise how spacious the church was! The congregation currently numbers 500, which is sizeable; it felt like the total number of people who showed up for the service were many more than 500.

This is truly one of the most beautiful churches I have seen. Not in that it is solemn or awesome in scale at all; but rather the design of the space is so pleasant and different--it's very contemporary and modern, in elegant soft earthy tones. On the podium, there are some gigantic orchid plants. I felt quite at home upon stepping into this space. Those serving as ushers and greeters were dressed in soft pink and blue sweaters. The entire place is color-cordinated to the tee!

The service started with beautiful hymns and a really great band (!) on stage. There were some large projectors on the walls and on the pillars throughout the church. Everyone sang along. There was a lot of clapping and exclamation throughout the service. One might say it was a really cheerful experience! The surmon that day was really humorous and interesting, too. Time passed pretty fast didn't feel like the entire service took 2 hours whatsoever.

After the service, M took me around to introduce me to various people from the congregation. I was very intriqued by how young the congregation seemed. Many are in their early 20s. I was greeted very warmly and soon I was invited to all kinds of church activities...we shall see how this pans out.

After the service it was time to eat. The lunch was simple but superbly delicious. Then there's the birthday celebration, so I partook a slice of the birthday cake--mmm, cake.

This was quite an experience and I may say I quite enjoyed it. What do you know!! Since then I have received several other invites to other churches. It should be interesting.

Change Life Church website: http://www.changelife.org.tw/