Grace Biltmore

I visited worship at Grace Biltmore yesterday morning http://www.gracebiltmore.org/ for their 10:00 service. LeAnn and I decided that I would go and visit some of these churches by myself; I don't want to take Lily quite yet. She is ready for some kids, and I don't want her to get excited about a place LeAnn and I might not like.

I thought I would post my evaluations of each church in three areas: Worship (ministry to God), Nurture (ministry to believers), and Evangelism and Mercy (ministry to world.)

Grace Biltmore

Worship: Grade B, so far. The worship is pretty much what I wanted to see from Merrimon. The music was two folks playing guitars and singing with one guy on the drums. The songs were a good mix of contemporary with modern versions of hymns (Standing on the Promises, Blessed Assurance). The volume and style is great for Asheville - not quite folk acoustic, but not real loud hard edge either. They had a nice upbeat sound, and nice reverent quite styles as well. The people seemed to enjoy the music and join in appropriately. The pastor's sermon was low-key, doctrinally sound, biblically based (Joshua 3-4) and expository. He drew in references that a younger generation would identify (football playoffs, Raiders of the Lost Ark, etc.)

The only points that detract from the grade is that they are a start-up church (3 years old) and are meeting in the fellowship hall (gym) of a 7th day Adventist church. So the facility detracts from the overall experience, at least for me. Not as bad as Seacoast (movie theater), and probably about as good as Merrimon's facility, which was not well designed to start with.

I also liked the times: 9:00 for Bible study, 10:00 worship, out at 11:15. The kids (all of them) are pretty much in the service until around 10:30 or so, when they go out for children's church.

Nurture: Grade: Undetermined. The people were friendly, and they had probably 150-180 folks there. The large (very large) majority was young couples (30's to 40's) with just a raft of kids. Lily would have gone nuts. We would have to get into their Bible study/small group settings to really see what kind of discipleship they have. I do know that they are looking for an adult teacher, as they only have one adult class presently.

Evangelism/Mercy: Grade: A, so far. They meet every second Sunday to serve meals at the rescure mission. The bulletin showed several activities that show they reach out to the community. The style of worship and overall thrust of the church seems very evangelistic.

Overall, I enjoyed it and would want to investigate further. They are a PCA church, and I need to understand how they make it clear that choosing Christ is a personal decision.

I am planning on going to either Bent Creek Baptist Church or Biltmore Baptist next week.