OK. I retract my previous words on contemporary worship at Christ Presbyterian Church. Though it sounded like one, it was not a real Rock concert.
What I saw at CedarCreek Church was actually a Rock concert with complete stage, dancing/flashing lights, stage fog and stuff. They even provide earplugs to people who enter the auditorium (the volume is too high indeed). In the entrance area of this huge church (that doesn't look like a church at all), you can find hot chocolate, different blends of coffee and tea (sorry, no cookies) with welcome team members every few meters extending their hands to greet you.
Then, you'll enter the auditorium with your coffee. While seated you can place your coffee-cup inside your cup-holder and sip it whenever your hands are not busy with clapping to the beat. Sounds too non-spiritual? Wrong! The lyrics (which are projected upon huge screens in a complete multimedia setting) are actually nice Christian praise type. However, I had a hard time concentrating on those nice words with all that loud Rock music.
After the Prejam (music played before the start of the service), Worship (choruses sung by all) and Special Music (solo song by CedarCreek vocalist before the message), you'll watch a mini Drama (or a movie clip) before listening to the message.
And don't let all these modern settings mislead you into assuming that you are going to hear a liberal message.
This week's drama was about a stereotypic happy family (apparently, as conceived by outsiders). It began with a photo shown on the screens with a caption about a happy family, the type you see on TV series. Then, members of the family would come out of the statue-mode and would tell us how unhappy they felt with their life and family. The only one believing to have the best family in the world was the cute little girl who was earnestly happy with her life, her family and everything.
Then the speaker (who was not a pastor BTW) talked about "how today's distorted cultural view of Christianity, truth and reality has changed the way our nation's young people define faith and what means to be Christian". (Clear enough?)
Then she embellished her speech with some alarming symptoms and facts (stated in stats and percentages) of how young people think nowadays. And among them: their defining tolerance as "anybody has some share of truth" instead of "respecting other's beliefs (without accepting them) and holding to ours firmly"; or their definition of pluralism as "all faiths equally lead to God" versus our view of pluralism as "the only way to God is through Jesus Christ while respecting others".
To make her point, she had a big gum-dispenser by her side on stage. She asked us how many gums were inside. And she had the answer: 843. And then she concluded: the number of gums inside this gum-dispenser is a fact, an absolute truth that doesn't change regardless of what people think about it.
Clear enough? No.
Well, I've never liked over-simplification of religious and divine issues so that any kid could understand what we hold to be absolute truth. Sometimes it would cause more harm to the cause.
First, religious facts (which indeed are absolute and unique) are not as measurable/enumerable/experimentable as the number of gums in a gum-dispenser. Second, who is in a position to tell others the absolute truth about the number of gums in a gum-dispenser (that is on the stage by your side)? You? Somebody else who has another gum-dispenser in a different place on a different stage? And assuming there should be only one gum-dispenser for all world to think about the absolute number of gums it holds, who's in the position to take possession of it and let people know about the absolute fact?
OK. Enough with gums and gum-dispensers. Excerpts of weekly messages could be viewed here.
After the Offering Music (solo song by CedarCreek vocalist after the message, during the offering), service ends with advertisements about church activities on those huge screens above the stage while praise team plays the dismissal music. They ask for your feedback about everything including stage design and lighting. As a former engineer who has been into Computer Programming and Development, I have to admit that their website is impressive.
Upon leaving the auditorium, you can tour around the building accompanied by a pastor. There, you can discover about their modern childcare (appropriated to different age groups), get familiar with how this corporate-style church works, the big role volunteers play in running day-to-day activities of a big church (with a 6000+ membership) and what facilities would be available to students, families and other groups seeking God.
I had a very interesting talk with their Senior Executive Pastor (doesn't it sound like CEO?) and he explained to me how a small circle of people who were concerned about "reaching the lost" (people who leave church and God) grew into such a big community over the course of 11 years. He found himself so passionate about such a mission that he abandoned his promising career after 25 years at a Fortune-500 Corporate America to serve here.
And although their Mission Statement is about helping "uncurched and spiritually restless people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ" and they spend any surplus budget on advertising about themselves, they deny allegations that they're converting regular church-goers to theirs. Their Vision states that they "want to come along side other churches to equip them in their mission" and they claim to discourage anybody from leaving their church for CedarCreek. (But how could you be sure you're attracting only lost kids while you openly wield delicious chocolates for anybody to see?)
He confirmed my observation that not all people coming here are teenagers or youth; nearly 30% of their members are on the aged side. They have Ministries and Home Groups (equivalent to support groups in other contemporary churches) to support different ages and cultures. Just think of "4:23" as the name of College-age ministry (after John 4:23) or "Heart" ministry for women inviting members to "Death by Chocolate" (an evening that includes a chocolate buffet with a specialty coffee bar) or "G-Force" ministry for men and you can figure out how things go.
-----------------------------------------------------
P.S. I visited CedarCreek the next week and was greeted at the door by this Senior Executive Pastor with "Great to meet you again Mehrad". A striking sharp memory to remember and pronounce a foreign name correctly after meeting once out of thousands of regulars and visitors!
What I saw at CedarCreek Church was actually a Rock concert with complete stage, dancing/flashing lights, stage fog and stuff. They even provide earplugs to people who enter the auditorium (the volume is too high indeed). In the entrance area of this huge church (that doesn't look like a church at all), you can find hot chocolate, different blends of coffee and tea (sorry, no cookies) with welcome team members every few meters extending their hands to greet you.
Then, you'll enter the auditorium with your coffee. While seated you can place your coffee-cup inside your cup-holder and sip it whenever your hands are not busy with clapping to the beat. Sounds too non-spiritual? Wrong! The lyrics (which are projected upon huge screens in a complete multimedia setting) are actually nice Christian praise type. However, I had a hard time concentrating on those nice words with all that loud Rock music.
After the Prejam (music played before the start of the service), Worship (choruses sung by all) and Special Music (solo song by CedarCreek vocalist before the message), you'll watch a mini Drama (or a movie clip) before listening to the message.
And don't let all these modern settings mislead you into assuming that you are going to hear a liberal message.
This week's drama was about a stereotypic happy family (apparently, as conceived by outsiders). It began with a photo shown on the screens with a caption about a happy family, the type you see on TV series. Then, members of the family would come out of the statue-mode and would tell us how unhappy they felt with their life and family. The only one believing to have the best family in the world was the cute little girl who was earnestly happy with her life, her family and everything.
Then the speaker (who was not a pastor BTW) talked about "how today's distorted cultural view of Christianity, truth and reality has changed the way our nation's young people define faith and what means to be Christian". (Clear enough?)
Then she embellished her speech with some alarming symptoms and facts (stated in stats and percentages) of how young people think nowadays. And among them: their defining tolerance as "anybody has some share of truth" instead of "respecting other's beliefs (without accepting them) and holding to ours firmly"; or their definition of pluralism as "all faiths equally lead to God" versus our view of pluralism as "the only way to God is through Jesus Christ while respecting others".
To make her point, she had a big gum-dispenser by her side on stage. She asked us how many gums were inside. And she had the answer: 843. And then she concluded: the number of gums inside this gum-dispenser is a fact, an absolute truth that doesn't change regardless of what people think about it.
Clear enough? No.
Well, I've never liked over-simplification of religious and divine issues so that any kid could understand what we hold to be absolute truth. Sometimes it would cause more harm to the cause.
First, religious facts (which indeed are absolute and unique) are not as measurable/enumerable/experimentable as the number of gums in a gum-dispenser. Second, who is in a position to tell others the absolute truth about the number of gums in a gum-dispenser (that is on the stage by your side)? You? Somebody else who has another gum-dispenser in a different place on a different stage? And assuming there should be only one gum-dispenser for all world to think about the absolute number of gums it holds, who's in the position to take possession of it and let people know about the absolute fact?
OK. Enough with gums and gum-dispensers. Excerpts of weekly messages could be viewed here.
After the Offering Music (solo song by CedarCreek vocalist after the message, during the offering), service ends with advertisements about church activities on those huge screens above the stage while praise team plays the dismissal music. They ask for your feedback about everything including stage design and lighting. As a former engineer who has been into Computer Programming and Development, I have to admit that their website is impressive.
Upon leaving the auditorium, you can tour around the building accompanied by a pastor. There, you can discover about their modern childcare (appropriated to different age groups), get familiar with how this corporate-style church works, the big role volunteers play in running day-to-day activities of a big church (with a 6000+ membership) and what facilities would be available to students, families and other groups seeking God.
I had a very interesting talk with their Senior Executive Pastor (doesn't it sound like CEO?) and he explained to me how a small circle of people who were concerned about "reaching the lost" (people who leave church and God) grew into such a big community over the course of 11 years. He found himself so passionate about such a mission that he abandoned his promising career after 25 years at a Fortune-500 Corporate America to serve here.
And although their Mission Statement is about helping "uncurched and spiritually restless people become fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ" and they spend any surplus budget on advertising about themselves, they deny allegations that they're converting regular church-goers to theirs. Their Vision states that they "want to come along side other churches to equip them in their mission" and they claim to discourage anybody from leaving their church for CedarCreek. (But how could you be sure you're attracting only lost kids while you openly wield delicious chocolates for anybody to see?)
He confirmed my observation that not all people coming here are teenagers or youth; nearly 30% of their members are on the aged side. They have Ministries and Home Groups (equivalent to support groups in other contemporary churches) to support different ages and cultures. Just think of "4:23" as the name of College-age ministry (after John 4:23) or "Heart" ministry for women inviting members to "Death by Chocolate" (an evening that includes a chocolate buffet with a specialty coffee bar) or "G-Force" ministry for men and you can figure out how things go.
-----------------------------------------------------
P.S. I visited CedarCreek the next week and was greeted at the door by this Senior Executive Pastor with "Great to meet you again Mehrad". A striking sharp memory to remember and pronounce a foreign name correctly after meeting once out of thousands of regulars and visitors!
2 comments:
Hello Mehrad, this is Luke Shortridge the College Pastor at CedarCreek. Thanks for your honest feedback about your church experiment. I enjoyed reading your take on everything. It's easy to let things become routine and ordinary so it was nice to hear a fresh perspective. Looking forward to reading some of your past blogs. Thanks again.
I certainly admire your passion for Jesus. What I criticized in your theology was claiming to have monopoly over the absolute truth as in the number of gums in a gum-dispenser.
I have seen advertisements where companies give a bad image about their rivals' products to make the customer believe their commodity is superior to those of the competitors.
Telling lies about other religions (as I have witnessed in CedarCreek and some other evangelical churches) is not the way to call people to Jesus. Jesus is indeed the Word of God and his light will shine forever, but he certainly does not need that sort of marketing.
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