NewSong LA

This morning, I went to Sunday church service at NewSong LA. This was my first time attending NewSong. It’s a very different experience from any other church I’ve ever been to. It’s held at Crenshaw High School, which in itself isn’t unusual. After all, Epicentre is also at a school.

The first thing I noticed as we approached was that there were big, flashy banners outside, showing off NewSong and its other campuses, including ones in Irvine, North Orange County, and Bangkok.

Although we thought service started at 9:30am, they didn’t let us in yet at that time. We were among the first to arrive. They told us service would start in about 5 minutes, so we waited outside until then.

When we entered, people guided us directly to which seats we should sit in. This is a good system: no guesswork as to which seats we should choose. Reminded me of my mom’s description of Disneyland parking, with no rows left empty.

Not every seat was eventually taken, as only about half the room was filled. Yet we were all together, with few gaps between us, which meant we didn’t feel all spread out like it does at EFCW.

The speaker was Adam Edgerly, a black man with a relatively casual speaking style. He talked about the “Core”, using allegory to the human body and the transverse abdominal muscle. He was a personal trainer, so he had a lot to say about muscles and stuff.

This related to the “heart”, which is the core of the spirit. We looked at Jeremiah 17:9, Genesis 6:5, 8:21, Psalm 51:10-13, and Romans 6:6. These are passages I’ll probably want to take a closer look at, on my own, sometime in the future. He had friends from “skid row” who sat in the front and spoke out during the sermon, including “Amen!”s and “Say that again!”

Overall, it was a good experience. Personally, I didn’t like the music style; it didn’t have a clear tune or beat the way songs at EFCW do. Maybe it’s just habit or comfort, but I found it hard to catch on with their pop-style music. Still, I enjoyed going and would go again.