2 /5 Luis Vazquez: We recently moved to the area after spending the past 6 years living in various areas of the country from Coast to Coast and returned home to Florida in 2022. Today, we decided to visit Proof Church as we seek a new home church, and after we visited Living Water Fellowship for the first-time last week. We are Christians who are mature in the faith and are looking for a church to serve at. Sadly, we had to leave 40 minutes into the service.
We have been to many churches on both Coasts, but we had never been to a church where the sound system was so out of whack that you could not worship, much less understand what anyone on a microphone said. The service began with what I believe was prayer, but I could not understand a word over the cymbals of the drummer, and it only got worse from there. If it were not for the words on the screen, I would have no idea what was being sung during the first worship song. By the end of the first song, my wife had to leave the sanctuary due to the high volume (she is sensitive to sound). By the end of the second song, the pastor came up and spoke for a few minutes. I have no idea what he said. He brought up a lady to the altar, but I could not understand what he said about her except something about some credentials. Shortly after this, even I had had enough of the loud volume and louder drums plus the unintelligible sound, and we left. Afterwards, I had discomfort and numbness in my right ear (we were on the left side of the sanctuary), and a headache that now, more than 2 and a half hours later, am still nursing.
For all we know, this may be an awesome church. But if youre not used to a loud drummer and a sound system that is not setup correctly, then you will find worshipping or even understanding what is being preached difficult. We noticed cloth panels in front of the speakers, which muffles the amplification, but nothing similar for the drummer. If youre not used to loud sounds (and we have both worked at the sound booth in some of our previous churches, so we are used to it) you might do better by watching the service online. Its a shame, since we live so close, but we cant come back. At least not until they fine tune the sound system, and something is done about the loud drumming.