25511 E. Smoky Hill Rd
Aurora, Colorado 80016
Aurora, Colorado 80016
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| Eastern Hills Community Church |
Date and time of visit: Sunday, January 18, 2015, 9:00am
How we heard about the church: I had driven by it several
times.
Affiliation: They say that they are “aligned” with the Christian Reformed Church of North America. We spoke with someone at the welcome desk who said that the church was started from that denomination but isn’t really part of it any longer. They still identify somewhat with the denomination, though. To learn more about the Christian Reformed Church of North America, click here.
ECC’s Purpose: Eastern Hills Community
Church exists to help people take their next step toward Jesus.
ECC’s Priorities:
1. We will be a place of grace
2. We will challenge people to
take the step of accepting Jesus as their Savior
3. We will help people become
more like Jesus, one step at a time
4. We will provide vibrant,
relevant worship
5. We will minister to people
at the point of their need
6. We will serve the overlooked
and ignored
7. We will be a church of small
churches within the larger church
Service Time(s): Saturday 4:00pm & 6:00pm; Sunday 9:00am &
11:00am
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| Worship time at ECC |
Service Format: Traditional (worship, greeting time, sermon) The worship time is what Ryan and I call “KLOVE worship,” meaning they play a lot of songs heard on the radio. The sermon seemed easily applied. However, it didn’t seem like a good Sunday for evaluating the church. The pastor, Shawn Sikkema, had just come back from a LOA and preached a “half” of a sermon and then sat down and had a heart to heart with the congregation. He was very transparent with everyone and let us know what has been going on in his life the past few months. He had a severe case of depression along with some family issues that needed to be resolved. All that sort of hit him at once, causing him to need to take a step back and get healthy both physically and emotionally.
Like I said, though, he was very transparent and
seemed to genuinely care about the safety and well-being of his flock.
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| Shawn Sikkema preaching |
Sui Generis*: It seems like ECC is going through a bit of a
transition where they are learning how to have leadership team more involved.
They seem to want to be proactive with keep Shawn healthy and are going to have
people tag team the preaching until Easter. Shawn said on Sunday that he is
going to learn how to basically let go and let God.
They also seem to have the first impressions aspect down
to a science. We went through four layers of greeters by the time we sat down
in the sanctuary. We were greeted in the parking lot, when we entered through
the doors, right before we entered the sanctuary, and after we went through the
doors of the sanctuary.
Also, everything about this church is massive. They
do a good job of making it seem smaller by forced perspective but if you look
around closely, you can see just how big the church is.
SWAG: ECC gives you a ton of information on not only the church but also resources for being discipled during the week. Included in the gift bag is information on the church’s beliefs, a booklet about the different ministries being offered, the check in process for the children’s department, a bookmark that walks you through the steps for salvation, a postcard about a virtual library that has a ton of bible study resources, a magnet, and a cookbook with contributions in it from church members. I used the hummus recipe this week and it was delicious!
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| SWAG |
Benchmark Questions:
Did I feel welcomed? Yes. There were a TON of greeters and each greeted us with a smile. The man at the welcome desk was very helpful and seemed genuinely interested in us. He engaged us in conversation and thanked us for visiting ECC.
Do I need to bring my Bible? They include the Scripture on the
screens but the pastor does say, “Open your Bibles to…” I wish that I had
brought my Bible so if you like holding a Bible, I’d bring one.
Did I feel led in worship? Sort of. Like I said above, the church is humongous and it seems like the different sections worship in different ways. The section we sat in seemed to be the section who worshipped in an introspective way while the section closer to the front and center seemed to be more expressive in their worship. I think if I had been in the section with people who worship the same way I do, I think I would have felt more led.
We sat at about the middle of the
sanctuary on the left side but were still very far from the platform. The praise
team just seemed very far away so that made it a little hard for me to worship.
Did I leave feeling spiritually satisfied? Like I said, this wasn’t really a good Sunday to evaluate the church. The sermon was more of a town hall meeting than an actual sermon. However, Scott brought up some good points about being authentic and humble. It’s something I’ve thought about this week so I can say that he did speak to my heart.
What's the coffee situation? They have a coffee bar but I wasn’t able to visit it. It looked like a typical church coffee bar and I’m going to guess that the drinks are available for purchase.
Is there visitor parking? I didn’t see any spots marked for visitors but they have a whole team of parking lot attendants. What is extremely cool about this that some of them find empty spots and stand next to them holding tall flags. If you’re unable to find a spot, all you have to do is look for a flag and you’ll find an empty spot.
Is the church easily accessible? Sort of. It’s pretty far southeast off Smokey Hill just south of E-470. But it’s right off Smokey Hill and is accessible from that road.
Do I feel the freedom to visit again? Yes. Everyone was very friendly and told us they hoped we would come back. I also saw a family that I know from another church there and they seemed genuinely happy to see us.
*sui generis- Latin- 1. of his, her, its, or their own kind; unique.
