Brentwood Presbyterian Church
12000 San Vicente Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90049
310-826-5656
www.bpcusa.org
9:30 AM; 11:00 AM

The Brentwood Presbyterian church has a huge campus on the corner of Bundy and San Vicente in the Brentwood area of Los Angeles. I came for the second of two services. My impression is that the second service is more contemporary, and the smaller of the two. There were hymnals in every pew, but the hymns and more contemporary Christian music we sang was printed on a screen which hung from above the alter. There was also not a formal choir, but a group of about 12 churchgoers standing on the alter in plainclothes singing their hearts out as the approximately 60 attending parishoners were encouraged to join.

I also had the impression that the first service was the more family oriented of the two since there were gobs of young families leaving as I rolled in. It seemed that there is an entire wing dedicated to the church's learning programs for children and adults, and a large gym for young adults and others. During the service the youth minister, a peppy young girl who liked to say "man!" and "excitin'" presented the work that the young adults are doing both for their own personal enrichment and the community, including a once-monthly trip to Santa Monica to work with another youth minister in that area's work with the poor. A confirmation class meets concurrently with the 11 AM service, and the youth also meet again Sunday evenings. Definitely a great church to raise a family.

The service was great. The minister started with a greeting in which every person was to shake the hands of three others and pass it back, this all to orient us with the context of his sermon on Paying Your Family Forward. The emphasis was on generosity (it also happened to be stewardship season). There was also an opportunity for people to share concerns and the Minister would bring us to prayer after each concern, all of which were heartfelt. The Minister was very good at keeping people concise and pulling their concerns into eloquent prayer.

There is not an embarrassing introduction of visitors.

This bible-based church has a very active bible study program for adults, carolling, hikes, youth and children's program. I would be interested to see if there is a big difference between the 9:30 and 11:00 services...