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For some reason, the more conservative the church, the less traditional the service.
Depends. The Anglican churches that broke away from the Episcopal Church are almost all theologically conservative, like the Global Methodists breaking away from the United Methodists. But there are two types of Anglican churches. One is very dedicated to the 1928 Prayer Book with Elizabethan English, formal prayers, and traditional hymns and vestments. Nothing modern there. The other type, which is more common today, leans toward contemporary services.
It sounds like you are looking for the type of church most people grew up in. White steeple, traditional theological message, traditional choir singing from a hymnal.
This is exactly right - the funny thing is that when I visit my hometown with my teenage daughters, they both like the traditional service too. Maybe just because it is different. I am attending a PCA chuch now, as I grew up Presbyterian (and was an acolyte as a kid - my kids had no idea what that even was). We sing about one hymn a week unless it's a holiday. The rest are The Best of Christian Radio Hits. (OK, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.) What really bums me out is that everyone, even the kids, knows and sings the hymns because they are so memorable. You can even tell that the congregation is singing more confidently. Yet this does not seem to indicate to the leadership that maybe we should do more of those. There are good praise songs and modern hymns, but the fact is that what is in a church hymnal is of necessity The Best of 300 Years of Religious Music Including People Like Mozart and Haydn. It's not reasonable to expect Christian Top 40 artists to be putting out Beethoven-style bangers every year.
Other churches we have tried:
Hope. I know a lot of great people who go there, but for me it was basically this Babylon Bee article I just saw: https://babylonbee.com/news/lets-set...lasers-and-fog More substantively, it feels weird to me to have a senior pastor you will probably never meet who is preaching at you from a screen most of the time. I know it works for many people, though.
The Shepherd's Church: Less "lasery" than Hope, and has an orchestra which is neat, so some more traditional music, but it's still huge and you're sitting on chairs on a gym floor in what appears to be a windowless convention center, watching words scroll by on a screen.
Thank you for the suggestion of Penny Road! Also, good reminder about the Anglican possibility. No Global Methodist Churches close to me, unfortunately. As for Duke Chapel, I actually went to Duke so I am very familiar with it. Getting there, parking, etc. would be a big pain, though.
This is exactly right - the funny thing is that when I visit my hometown with my teenage daughters, they both like the traditional service too. Maybe just because it is different. I am attending a PCA chuch now, as I grew up Presbyterian (and was an acolyte as a kid - my kids had no idea what that even was). We sing about one hymn a week unless it's a holiday. The rest are The Best of Christian Radio Hits. (OK, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.)
There is a seat for every butt so to speak. I grew up in a small country church, an older lady played the same six or eight hymns on rotation. I would never attend that style of church again. She's probably still there closing each service with Just As I Am :-) We ended up at Hope but it's not for everyone. You are correct, you will likely not develop a personal relationship with the lead pastor and getting the sermons via screen (depends upon location and service) is an odd experience. There are ways to plug in and get to know staff but it's very different from a small country church (my grandfather preached for 40 plus years) where you got greeted by the Pastor on the way out by name each week. And while I enjoy the worship experience (it's a big reason we go there), I know lots of people that find it distracting and not for them.
Best of luck in your search, and thanks for making me google acolyte. It took me a while to get to a definition that wasn't an upcoming Disney series.
This is exactly right - the funny thing is that when I visit my hometown with my teenage daughters, they both like the traditional service too. Maybe just because it is different. I am attending a PCA chuch now, as I grew up Presbyterian (and was an acolyte as a kid - my kids had no idea what that even was). We sing about one hymn a week unless it's a holiday. The rest are The Best of Christian Radio Hits. (OK, I am exaggerating, but you get the idea.) What really bums me out is that everyone, even the kids, knows and sings the hymns because they are so memorable. You can even tell that the congregation is singing more confidently. Yet this does not seem to indicate to the leadership that maybe we should do more of those. There are good praise songs and modern hymns, but the fact is that what is in a church hymnal is of necessity The Best of 300 Years of Religious Music Including People Like Mozart and Haydn. It's not reasonable to expect Christian Top 40 artists to be putting out Beethoven-style bangers every year.
Other churches we have tried:
Hope. I know a lot of great people who go there, but for me it was basically this Babylon Bee article I just saw: https://babylonbee.com/news/lets-set...lasers-and-fog More substantively, it feels weird to me to have a senior pastor you will probably never meet who is preaching at you from a screen most of the time. I know it works for many people, though.
The Shepherd's Church: Less "lasery" than Hope, and has an orchestra which is neat, so some more traditional music, but it's still huge and you're sitting on chairs on a gym floor in what appears to be a windowless convention center, watching words scroll by on a screen.
Thank you for the suggestion of Penny Road! Also, good reminder about the Anglican possibility. No Global Methodist Churches close to me, unfortunately. As for Duke Chapel, I actually went to Duke so I am very familiar with it. Getting there, parking, etc. would be a big pain, though.
Did you look at Salem Baptist? It looks traditional and historic. I can't believe that we are at the point where "lasery" is an adjective applied to churches.
However, I attended a memorial service a few months ago. The service was more like a regular church service than a memorial/celebration of life - hymns, prayers, communion. When I read the description of what you were looking for, I thought of it immediately.
There is also an Anglican church, All Saints Anglican Church, in west Raleigh. As far as I know it is conservative.
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