Curses, foiled again

So, one of my resolutions (you'll get a list of all of them soon) after coming back from my Vacation in Paradise (i.e. home) was to search actively for a community here where I feel at home. Here is my documentation of attempt number one: My visit to the "Landeskirchliche Gemeinschaft" today. This congregation is, as far as I can tell, an attempt by some people in the Lutheran/United church to create a different kind of congregation, one that frankly leans more toward the American way of "doing church". (As it turns out, this place leans waaaay toward the Willow Creek way of doing church. More on that later.)

So I went, with an open mind and lots of hope in my heart (I go back and forth from being an eternal optimist to being a huge cynic, as evidenced by my no longer trusting the German postal system). Maybe this would be the place where people would actually want to know my name, where I would find a Christian community that wants to be active in its larger community, a place where I can find a niche, help others, and possibly find a few friends. Did it fulfill those hopes? Read on, faithful friends...

Here is a list of the things I really appreciated about the service:
--People shook my hand and said good morning as I came in, even though they didn't know me. Hooray for hospitality!
--The woman who I sat next to smiled at me and we chatted briefly before the service began.
--As I entered, I could see that everything was all set up for coffee hour afterwards. (Having coffee hour is rare in German churches and much appreciated by me as a time of fellowship and community-building.)
--The emphasis within the service was on ministry and serving one another.

What really turned me off:
--There was no liturgy. I sat there the first fifteen minutes thinking, when is it going to start? But it had already started. The discussion of the Willow Creek convention that the preacher and his assistants had gone to the previous week was a part of the actual worship service. There was no invocation, no confession of faith, no Old Testament reading, no epistle reading, no Gospel reading, no Lord's prayer, no sharing of the peace, no communion, no liturgy whatsoever. Nothing for the people to do except sing three songs. The people in the chairs did not even pray once together.
--It was a "preacher's choice" sermon, by which I mean that the preacher picked a topic of his choice, and then scoured the Bible looking for verses (or half-verses) to support his stance. Regardless of the fact that I mostly agreed with his main point (we should serve one another as Christ has served us), I am uncomfortable with a sermon that chops tiny pieces out of the books of Psalms, Ecclesiastes, Ephesians, 1 Corinthians, 1 Peter, Matthew and John, disregards the differing authorship, context, and goal of the books, and pieces together a mishmash mosaic. This sermon also lasted 55 minutes (!!), and was broken up by a feel-good slide show of the nice people in the congregation who serve in various voluntary roles. Yikes!
--There was no mention of Lent. Instead, the leaders had chosen, a few weeks back, to introduce 40 days of "living with vision," to be capped off by a celebratory potluck on March 13th (two full weeks before Easter!) It was not once mentioned that we are now in a time leading up to Easter, a time of preparation and prayer and desert wanderings and what have you. What, is Lent too depressing? I need the rhythm of the church year. Sorry, I can't give that up for Lent.
--During the announcements, they mentioned that ecumencial "bible week" activities would be taking place in the other churches in town all week, but, um... we really encourage you to come here on Monday instead. I find it difficult that they scheduled competing events during the week of the town's most ecumenical efforts.
--The technology booth in the back was disproportionately large and the live potter doing his thing in the front corner felt waaaaay too much like a gimmick.

In the two Lutheran (well, United, but pretty Lutheran) churches in town, I have experienced lots of structure but less Spirit. Here there was life, but no liturgy. I choose... man, are these my only options? At the risk of being way too picky, I want a happy medium. A little structure, a little Spirit.

So, I guess this attempt at finding the place I fit in gets an A for effort (my effort, waking up in the morning, biking over there in the cold, actually finding the building), but as far as actual content... (see title).