Birmingham’s Mystery Worshipper

I’ve been in Birmingham for a month now and this last weekend i decided to venture out and take a look at a different church. I’ve wanted to go to Birmingham Christian Centre for a while because my home church the Oasis Christian Centre have links through Elim. So as i’m new to the area I’ve decided to become Birmingham’s Mystery Worshipper. The idea was taken from the Satirical Christian website. Ship of Fools.

Here’s my first report and if you want me to come and analyse your church, drop me an email; garethduffield@yahoo.com

Church: Birmingham Christian Centre,

Parade (off Helena Street, off Edwards Street), City Centre, Birmingham, West Midlands B1 3QQ

Denomination: Elim Pentecostal church

The Building: A bog standard 70’s style convention centre in the middle of Birmingham, which is great because it’s obviously used for the business community by many people in the heart of the city during the week rather than just a place where Christians meet together on a Sunday, plus being a convention centre means there are tourist signs with directions to the church which i don’t think I’ve seen in any other city

What was the name of the service?

It was a ‘Pray and go’ service where the meeting is focused on praying for a specific event or situation happening locally, nationally or internationally. This service was focused on praying for the Midnight oils summit.

I was surprised to turn up to this kind of service because having researched the church on the Internet before hand i assumed it was going to be a general church service rather than a prayer service which was more focussed towards members of the church and Christians in particular.

How many people were in the service?

It was a very unpromising start with only a dozen people dotted around the 700-odd seat auditorium, but later when i realised later that 80% of the meeting was made up of black African and Caribbean worshippers i forgive them for turning up half an hour late!

Did anyone welcome you personally?

Two people welcomed me at the start, I got a look of ‘I don’t think I’ve seen you before’ from one welcomer but she didn’t initiate any conversation beyond that. Apart from meeting one person at the end of the service who i have known for a number of years, I only interacted with one other person in the church who i had to introduce myself too, despiite him coming across as a seasoned member of the church. It struck me that a lot of the people in the church would take advantage of the vast empty space and spread themselves out, avoiding talking to each other rather than be pro-active with their Christian brothers and sisters, which is something i don’t often see in churches.

Was my seat comforatble?

The upholstery on the seats were a bit too thin, but i’m a fidgity so and so, i could tell the interior of the auditorium was new and clean so it was generally comfortable thanks!

What was the opening of the service like?

I have to admit, although i was intimidated by the large emtpy church it was a pretty warm welcome with the line “If your joining us for the first time….” and an explination of what the ‘Pray and go’ service is all about which was good to hear.

What books did the congregation use during the service?

Books? Don’t be daft! this was a very modern church with the screens projecting the words being the focus point at the front and the sides of the church.
What was the worship like?

The worship was fantastic, I would give it 9 out of 10 for diversity and 7 out of 10 for quality. The band led gospel style worship with a range of songs including Hymns, 90’s classics an African chorus and a modern worship chorus from Hillsongs church. They missed out on getting 10 marks for diversity because they missed out kids worship, but as there weren’t any children there they could probably get away with this one.

I’m still baffled by the band set up, A keyboard and Synth keyboard with backing singers and a drummer, fine you might say? but then they had a bass on the stage but no one in playing it, despite it being heard nearly every song. What was going on here? was this pre-planned worship with the band playing to a click track? If so it adds a whole new dimension to the quality of spontanious worship.

Did anything distract you?

People on the fringes of the service who were often moving around and never comfortable, perhaps because they weren’t made to feel welcome enough and didn’t understand what was going on?

The Pastor constantly getting up and going out of the room during the meeting – although i don’t doubt that he was doing it for good reasons.

…and my BIGGEST distraction was the worship team not only playing, but singing, underneath people who were praying. It might be trendy and setting the atmosphere but it was too much and took away from the prayer rather than added to it i thought.

Room for improvement?

The church should think about taking away some of the seating when they have smaller meetings, to make the atmosphere more intimate and cause people to have to interact with each other a lot more. Extra seating could always be added later.

A better welcoming team that can recognise people who are new to the church and relate to them so that they are likely to come back, whether they are Christians visiting the City or people wondering in that are completly lost in society.

I always feel more comfortable during the collection when the leader of the service says something like “If your a visitor we don’t expect you to give we haven’t got you here for your money”. People have so many pre-conceptions of the church being money grabbers etc these days and I think we need to do everything possible to quash those rumours.

Oh and, finally Where were the toilets? how do i get out if there’s a fire? and what other activities are available for me if I want to go to some other event within the church during the week?

My conclusion is that BCC is a great church, with great diversity that it caters for well, there doesn’t seem to be any division between ‘black’ and ‘white’ congregation. But as a major city centre church one of their main aims should be to have a style or worship that is ‘An idiots guide to church’.

Worshipper rating: 7 out of 10