Church Review: International Church of Las Vegas

A couple Sundays ago (April 13th), I visited the International Church of Las Vegas. It’s one of the largest churches in the valley, and its building is strategically located near the 95 and Summerlin Parkway. In fact, I heard about it from friends, but I didn’t know where it met until I saw their sign from the highway. Many of the best known churches in the valley can be seen or at least are easily accessible from the highway (ie Central Christian, St. Thomas More, ICLV). Even up-and-coming churches like South-Hills Community are building new campuses that can be seen day after day by highway commuters. Anyway, I had some extra time and decided to hop on down the road to ICLV and check it out.

I pulled into a visitor spot about 30 mins before the 11AM service, and unknowingly entered through the side door on the south-side of the building. It seems that’s where the children’s program check-in desk is located. The 8:30 service hadn’t quite finished when I got there, so the foyer wasn’t busy or crowded, and I had time to step into the restroom before service. A few minutes later, the service ended, and people started filtering out. I walked through the sanctuary, to the main entrance so I could take a look around the bookstore and the welcome table. The church store was filled with books written or recommended by the pastoral staff, and many of the titles can also be purchased online. There are even books in languages other than English, such as French and Portuguese.

At the welcome table, the receptionists were busy talking to other guests, so I quickly glanced over fliers/pamphlets on the table, and grabbed one that looked interesting. The one I chose was an encouragement for kids to fast and pray during lunch at school one day a week. I’ve included a copy of the card here.

From the front entrance, I moseyed done the hall and found classrooms for their affiliate elementary and junior high school the International Christian Academy of Las Vegas.

About 10:45, I went back into the sanctuary and found a seat. These are something of the things I observed before and during the morning service:

• The sanctuary is large, with about a thousand seats spread out in 8 sections. The stage is easily visible from anywhere in the room, and there are large screens on each side of the stage. These screens run the ICLV logo between services, and during the service they are used for announcements, music lyrics, and providing a magnified view of the preacher for those in the back who have trouble seeing. I found out that a new friend works for ICLV’s media crew, and he told me they try to have something on the screen at all times.
• The people were kind, friendly, and multi-ethnic. I could see the care members had for one another as they looked around the room and saw small groups of people talking, laughing, and praying together. They were black, white, Hispanic, Asian, and many of the countries they would call home were represented with flags hanging on the ceiling. Front and center as the flag of Israel.
• The music at ICLV was incredible. There was a strong vibrant and spontaneous aura throughout the sanctuary. The music seemed less scripted and more improvised, but with 15 people singing it was still very acoustically rich. Looking around the room, it was obvious that the music was a participatory event where everybody joined in rather than a concert for spectators. Those who are familiar with Hillsongs have probably caught this vibe before.
• Pastor Denise Goulet preached a sermon on the covering of the Holy Spirit. Her husband Paul Goulet is the main pastor of ICLV, but he away preaching in Chicago at the church of a friend he knew from working with Benny Hinn. Both Paul and Denise travel a lot, and Denise enjoyed mixing in stories of her travels throughout the sermon. Many of the stories were either funny or spoke of spiritual experiences she had with the overwhelming presence of God. She also mentioned prophecies she had heard recently from prophets such as Rick Joyner who is a close colleague with Bob Jones. Benny, Rick, and Bob have each become controversial prophets and healers within the Christian community, but I won’t delve into that here. Information about these men can be found throughout the Net and Blogosphere through a simple Google search.

~ by sexyreligion on April 27, 2008.