Experiencing megachurch
Jim had learned to fly in the US Navy, and on retiring from the forces became a airplane pilot for UPS. East Midlands Airport is a UPS hub, so Jim often institute himself in Nottingham between flights. 1 yr, he was stranded hither at Christmas, and nosotros met him at church on Christmas mean solar day and invited him to share our celebrations with us. I don't think he will ever forget watching the Queen at iii pm in revered silence—after which, every bit is customary, the men fell comatose on the sofa!
Jim'south home is San Diego, and then when, six years later, I travel there for the SBL annual conference, Jim and I run across up and he takes me to his church building—Stone Church, SD. The Rock was founded in 2000 by Miles McPherson, a erstwhile NFL football player and youth pastor, and has been noted as i of America's fastest growing megachurches. The auditorium in the main church building building seats three,500, and they concord five services, every two hours, each Sun. At that place are also three other campuses around the city, and a number of 'microsites' set up to allow non-church-goers to feel the service, which is relayed by video.
The building is impressive, with a large bookshop and its ain coffee shop, rooms for meetings, and a section for parents and young children that offers a video relay of the service. Rather fascinating are the dimensions; the distance from the archway to the main stage inside is (I am told) exactly the same equally the altitude from the outer courtroom to the holy of holies in Solomon's Temple. I noticed during the service that Miles referred to the platform as the 'chantry' when he invited people forward. On the way into the auditorium, blocks which form the entrance have each had a message written on them by those who contributed to the cost of the building. These were going to be painted over, but instead accept been left as a reminder of the personal commitment and involvement of the congregation. Each row of seats has the proper noun of a book of the Bible written on information technology, and each seat a verse reference. I was sitting in Daniel 3.17:
If the God we serve is able to deliver us, then he will deliver u.s. from the blazing furnace and from Your Majesty'south hand.
(I feel sad for the person sitting in Matthew 27.5!)
Our service started at 10 am, though people kept arriving all through the service. It began with an introduction in a pre-recorded video, which ended with an invitation to stand for the beginning vocal—odd to be invited to sing past someone who wasn't there! The vocal was a chorus led very well by a rock band, and it suddenly felt every bit though I was back at a New Wine summer conference meeting, complete with lights, smoke and numerous cameras. This was followed past another video, which focussed on the extensive social action done by dissimilar members of the church building, and a strong encouragement to get involved through one of the 'Life' small groups. That Sunday nosotros happened to have a visitor who was a six-times Grammy application-winning gospel singer, so we listened to 2 songs by him. The second was about God's protection and care of usa, and had been written by the vocalist during a fourth dimension of tragic bereavement.
We then watched a video about November Hero of the Month, a woman who was involved in the microsites, and she came on stage to a chorus of cheers and whistles. I felt I was immersed in a particularly American culture of affirmation—and it was rather refreshing! We then sang our 2nd song, and at 10.35 Miles started speaking. His talk was an interesting combination of teaching and entreatment, and at 11.07 it ended with an 'chantry phone call', to which nigh 120 people responded—who were also clapped and cheered. We were and then encouraged to requite to the church by standing order or texting on our phones, and that was the end.
I was struck past a number of things:
1. Mile'due south style was very conversational and informal, though was too brindled with a serial of stock responses and involvement from the congregation, much as you would detect in many traditions of black preaching. Whenever he said 'Praise God!' nosotros had to respond 'Jesus!'; whenever he said 'Option upwardly your Bibles!' we responded 'The give-and-take!'
2. The tone was very much pitched at concerns of the young. From his fashion and appearance, I actually thought Miles was in his 30s, but it turns out he is 54, two years older than me! (We were sitting quite a long way back.) I lost count of the number of jokes, illustrations and examples of wanting to run across the right girl or boy to settle downwards with. The 1 exception to this was that Miles appeared to be quoting from the Authorised (King James) Version, including its 'thees' and 'thous'.
3. At that place was a very stiff accent on what I would call basic pedagogy. When he spoke from a Bible passage, nosotros were all expected to pick up our Bibles (which we had brought with the states) and find the verse. On entering the service I was handed a small-scale binder of information, which included the headings of the talk/sermon, with infinite to write notes, and all the Bible references, and on the reverse there was further fabric for me to read and study in my own fourth dimension. The piece of paper was pigsty-punched so I could add it to my folder. Interestingly, Mile'southward fashion was then informal and improvised that he actually skipped over the second of his three points!
iv. The talk was part of a series working through themes of the Lord's Prayer, and this week was 'Thy volition be done.' I was quite impressed with the way that this was expounded; there was a clear focus on prayer being about seeking God's will, and non simply having our needs met, which sounded like a strong rejection of a 'prosperity gospel' approach. Having said that, it was fabricated articulate that the command to the 'rich young rule' in Marker 10.21 was a control to him specifically, and shouldn't exist taken as something binding on united states. And the kingdom of God was characterised by God's presence, his reign, and his heavenly standards.
five. The gospel was expressed clearly and simply. It was about having our sins forgiven because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, and knowing we are loved by the Begetter. Equally a consequence of this, we would desire to get out and serve others in applied action. Possibly the most fascinating part of this was that the Holy Spirit was not mentioned—non fifty-fifty once! Jim and his wife Sharon are aware of this, since they are by background thoughtful Episcopalians who take also been influenced by charismatic renewal and the teaching of John Wimber. They have been encouraged that Miles recently had a more 'charismatic' feel of the power of God, and in fact Miles mentioned this in his talk.
Information technology seemed to me that there is much here that British churches could acquire from. It seemed that the cultural threshold that needed to be crossed to come up into the church was very depression indeed. There was a refreshing directness, energy and positive sense about the whole event. The service was no more than than an hour and xv minutes, and everything was very professional person. It was very clear what you had to do to respond, and what beingness a Christian involved. And along with the large-scale arena, it was expected that everyone would be involved in a small group and take an active role in service of some sort. And given the response on the twenty-four hour period, and the record of the church to date, a beginning impression would be that people are genuinely coming to faith, and not just transferring from somewhere else or returning to church after an absence.
On the other hand, it all felt quite undeveloped theologically. Past that I don't mean that it needed to be more complex or difficult to empathise—just that information technology lacked theological shape, if I can put it like that. The about remarkable role of this was the lack of reference to the Holy Spirit—a piffling reminiscent of Acts 19.2. But it also came through in the way Bible pedagogy was communicated. For example, the verse we were given, Luke i.19, is not the most obvious way to explore the idea that the kingdom of God is about God's presence—you would do much better to explore Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom coming in his ministry in either Mark i.xv or the classic poesy Luke eleven.xx which identifies Jesus' ministry with the kingdom. Despite the educational activity content, I wonder how I would experience being invited to make a commencement commitment every week, suggesting that discipleship is a binary in/out matter, rather than the beginning of a journey of growth and discovery.
In conversation later, someone remarked to me that American evangelicals know their Bibles well—they just don't know how to interpret them. It seems to me that in the Britain we are quite skillful at interpreting our Bibles—if we always get around to picking them upward and opening them.
Overall, though, it was a fascinating feel to run into 'church building' washed in a different cultural and theological context—and having a significant bear on on its customs.
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