ChurchSearch: Round 1, Week 1

Today I attended the closest church on my list, FUMC McKinney.
Distance: about 4.5 miles
Time to drive: 20 minutes
First impression: FUMC McKinney is like FUMC Jackson in that they made a decision to stay downtown when others were moving out, and to have a ministry in the area. The VBS children sang a couple of songs and I noticed several Hispanic and African-American children among the group, so that tells me the church is reaching out. The sanctuary has been enlarged, with the boundaries of the original sanctuary still evident.
I attended the 11:00 service, which is one of the traditional services. The choir was small, but that may be due to summer vacations, or it may be that the choir covers more than one worship service.
I felt pretty much ignored, but at the end of the service the couple sitting on the pew near me did introduce themselves and we chatted a bit. I learned that the church has added 150 new members in the last 5 months, when their new pastor began serving. With that many new people, it is hard to recognize someone who is there for the first time, so I am not offended. I will attend SS on Round 2, and then I expect to meet more people.
The pastor is enthusiastic, entertaining, and quite inspirational. His text was the Sermon on the Mount, which he used to challenge the people of the church to solve problems, rather than just asking God to take care of it. He was moving about through most of the sermon, addressing himself to the choir, and to all portions of the wide sanctuary.
Applause was appropriate, I thought, when the children sang, but there was none when the Sanctuary choir completed their anthem. The doxology followed immediately after the anthem, so it will be interesting to see what happens when/if the choir sings an anthem earlier in the service.
Next week: FUMC Frisco