NORTHWOOD
1870 Rufe Snow
Keller
Texas
Senior Pastor:
Rob Roberts
Denomination:
Non-Denominational
Beautiful building, Wonderful Location. Lame Senior Pastor
Attended this church one time and was pleasantly surprised at the terrfic location (middle of Keller, TX - nice suburb of Ft. Worth), and beautiful building. However, for such a nice buidling and wonderful location, they only have 2 services on Sunday and the sanctuary was only 1/3 full!!
After hearing the Senior pastor Bob Roberts, I could tell why. His message (Hezekiah from 2 Chron. 29) was disjointed, linear, erroneous and boring.
1. He praised Hezekiah for marrying the daughter of a prophet Zechariah. Looking at my NIV Bible I could see this was wrong. He was the son of a daughter of Zechariah!
2. He mentioned that in Hezekiah's day people "grew" the message by preaching about "Jesus"!! Uh duh!! A few hundred years off!
3. While I am no Soccer fan in particular, the preacher fit the stereotype of a bigoted Texan by blasting Soccer as a "Namby Pamby" sport and then glamorised "Texas Football". I actually kind of agree with, him but in his role as a preacher to win others over for Christ he totally alienated anyone who is lost or curious about the Christian life, and happens to adhere to or come from a Soccer background.
4. He also belittled a state trooper who was a "little Hispanic". This was unneccessary. He really went on about making fun of Senacherib's name. While I can't see naming a kid Senacherib, I also can't see making as much fun of the name as Pastor Roberts did !! At last not since I turned like 12!
5. The best churches never say a word about the donations or even pass "plates" around. They have wooden boxes where people can place their tithes quietly and with no fanfare. This preacher snapped at his own ushers for not moving quickly enough, and then went on to make a big deal about how people should "empty" their wallets into the plate!! Moron!
I was disappointed at the the words, actions, lack of a coherent Bible message that would challenge me or others from this pastor.
Maybe he had an "off day" or Northwood elders might replace him!
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Comments
Perhaps the pastor "owns" the church ---- ;>/
I've read Bob Roberts Jr.'s The Multiplying Church and was quite favorably impressed. My understanding is that Northwood Church has planted over 100 churches of various sizes, and has also engaged in extensive acts of international service, including desalination of water in Vietnam so that poor villagers can have drinking water. Even if one sermon could have been improved (I can't say; I've never attended), the "sermon" of the church's deeds speaks well of it.
We were inspired to visit this church that has been prolific.
The sanctuary is huge, clean, and very professional. I suspect it seats more than 1,000 people. The ushers/greeters/whatever were very efficient in handing out programs and pointing out locations. Given the number of people there I can't imagine how anyone would recognize whether someone was new there or not so I can't evaluate them on that aspect. There were pictures of some of the churches that this church has planted in the lobby area.
Pastor Bob is a Texas country boy and his frankness was refreshing (ie he didn't need to be someone he wasn't). He made a comment about a church multiplying conference that had been there the week before and did spend time calling attention to the values of the church namely their outreach efforts in the local area and in Vietnam and how many churches have been planted by this church and by churches planted by this church. More evidence of their prolific nature.
The sermon was a sermon. I can't remember what it was about or even my feelings about it. I only remember him talking about talking to his wife in Vietnam and some of his early risk-taking stories including jumping out of the back of a pickup as a kid. Music was officially contemporary but was also unremarkable in my mind. My husband and I are starting to wonder if there is a requirement to shave your head to be a lead guy for a praise team. We've seen that a good number of places now.
My husband struck up a conversation with a man who it turns out was visiting from another church. No one else approached us for conversation.
There was a baptism that day of a former atheist and his wife. We heard his testimony and conversion. Yes, he was a true, there "is" no God atheist before. It was definitely evidence that something is happening here.
After the service we were directed to and approached an information center where I inquired about small groups. We told them we were new in the area and were given an orange (hunter orange-see you anywhere) carry bag with literature and a thermo cup. I filled out a card asking them to have someone contact me about a small group, giving multiple ways to contact me. Two months later, no one has contacted me yet.
For people who want to belong to something big and meaningful, this seems like a good place, especially if they have a heart for outreach. The pastor does model being in the world but not of the world (he was his own person and didn't need to apologize for it or water it down).
I'm of two minds (not a good place to be) on the presentation of the church. The focus on numbers (churches planted) made me feel like a number; it was a big part of what drew me to visit it in the first place, but once I was there I realized the impersonal side of that coin. The attention called to their outreach highlights amazing things that are being done and also brought to mind the passage, "Do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing". I was only there for one visit so I don't know if that is normal promotion that generates more outreach or just them patting themselves on the back.
I really felt more like I had gone to some convention than to a church by being in someplace that large and impersonal, and walking away with swag only intensified that feel. The lack of followup with me on a small group intensified the feeling of me being just a cog that can be easily dropped.
I'd have been interested if they had followed up on some more personal level, but I have no intention of going back to the convention.
Strange, isn't it? That a church's public success is judged on its size, and--for so many people, it seems--the larger a church gets, the less of a personal success it is.
Their small group outreach seems like the things that happen at a business trade show: you give your business card/email, get a goody bag, and "a representative will be in touch with you shortly."
Do you hope someone still follows up with you? Would you return if they did?
In the languages of apology realm, I care that someone owns up to what they have done and make plans to change future behavior. If they demonstrated these types of apology for what I will grant may have been an oversight, I'd consider the small group stuff. I can get as good or better of a worship experience online without the tagging me with an orange see you anywhere bag like some elk on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom - especially when nothing comes of tagging me in the first place in terms of secondary walk-up contacts.
In talking about this with my husband, we just realized that the placement of the information booth is better for those coming from Sunday School than for those just walking in the door. I guess if they want to catch folks walking in the door better they may want to move (or create a second) information station. They did have several freestanding tables with literature on various initiatives that they could convert to an information station if they chose.