Back from Mars (Part 1)
July 10th, 2008
(By Nathan Williams)
On My Visit to Mars Hill Bible Church
Anyone who has read blogs for any amount of time, has no doubt entered into a discussion, or at least read one on the topic of the emerging church. I’ve read several books by authors who are considered a part of the emerging church and have also read books and articles evaluating this movement. But until a couple of weeks ago I hadn’t had the chance to visit a church built on the ideas and philosophy of the emerging church and postmodernism. That all changed when I recently was on vacation and had the opportunity to attend Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Michigan, which is led by Rob Bell.
Bell is the author of several books including Velvet Elvis and Sex God. He also travels throughout the country on speaking tours in which he packs out auditoriums and theaters to crowds hanging on every well-articulated word. Our local outreach pastor at Grace Church, Jesse Johnson, attended Bell’s speaking tour when it came to Los Angeles and wrote about it here. Bell has also been involved in the making of the NOOMA videos, which are short videos intended to spark conversation about a spiritual truth they teach. Needless to say, through his books, church, and videos he has become an influential leader in the modern … I mean, postmodern church.
Mars Hill holds its Sunday “gatherings” in a renovated shopping center. The facilities are nice, but certainly not extravagant. They have three identical gatherings on Sundays and we chose the early one at 9am. When we pulled into the parking lot, there was no huge sign telling us we had arrived at God’s special place for us; an army of greeters didn’t welcome us and tell us where the coffee bar would be found, just a small imprint on the glass door that read “Mars Hill Bible Church: A Jesus Community.”
We came into the side of the auditorium and were greeted with the sound of the new Coldplay album coming through the speakers. The stage was in the middle of the room with no pulpit and chairs surrounding it on all four sides. We grabbed seats in the fourth row on what we assumed would be the front of the stage, hoping to get the full experience. Come to think of it … it’s funny that we thought there would be a “front of the stage” in a church focused on postmodern ministry. Who would be arrogant enough to say that they really know which side of the stage is the front?
When we reached our seats we found three pieces of paper waiting for us, one red, one orange, and one blue. I wondered if these pieces of paper were going to be used for something or if this was just part of the whole postmodern experience. As it turns out, we actually ended up using them during the message, which I’ll talk about later. We had arrived about ten minutes before starting time, so we took a few minutes to take in our surroundings. Above the stage were four screens forming a box so that no matter where you sat you were facing one of the screens. On the screen were rotating a number of announcements and quotations. One of the announcements let everyone know that Shane Claiborne would be at Mars Hill the next night to speak on politics. Apparently Claiborne is in the middle of a nationwide tour promoting his book, Jesus for President. Amid the announcements were a series of quotes dealing with creativity from a variety of sources including Dorothy Sayers, Kent Ruth, and Pablo Picasso.
The service … I mean gathering, began with about thirty minutes of music. We sang a variety of songs including one song by The David Crowder Band and a couple of hymns. The last song we sang was a Woody Guthrie song entitled “Jesus Christ”. The song paints a picture of a hardworking Jesus who went throughout the land and told the rich people to give their money to the poor. Jesus is portrayed, essentially, as an ancient version of Robin Hood who became a migrant worker. One verse proclaims that the bankers and the preachers put Jesus in the grave.
After we sang, someone got up and made a few announcements and introduced the teachers (the “s” is not an accident) for the morning and that was when things really started to get interesting.
To Be Continued Tomorrow…
Nathan, I enjoyed your introduction and look forward to reading more.
May I be a nitpicker and ask you to be careful with your apostrophes, please? Your second and third paragraph’s have two unnecessary one’s at the end’s of word’s ending in S. [I hope you see the point with my three in the last sentence.]
Whoop’s. Make that four.
Gee, the title (with its purposeful omission of “Hill”, thereby making the church sound like an alien planet) really got me excited that this was going to be a very snarky article. You’re letting me down, man. I hope the next part is better, or I’ll have to come up with some other way to be smug.
Are you kidding me? Teaser?! Now, I have to wait for tomorrow…
I sure hope you finish the experience and there is no “continued next week”!
Brendt,
Sorry for the let down so far! Honestly, one of the things that was most surprising to me was how “normal” Mars Hill seemed in the structure of the “gathering”, the songs we sung and the people in attendance. The most unusual part by far was the teaching time…which is what the article for tomorrow covers. Hope you’ll stop back by tomorrow!
Nathan Williams
Unless he fixed one of them, I only saw one unnecessary apostrophe (“theater’s”). Sounds like the Woody Guthrie song was a little strange (i.e. unbiblical). I’m not familiar with the David Crowder Band. Is this a Christian band? What kind of song was this? Looking forward to the article on the message/teaching.
OK, I’m not hip. I looked up the David Crowder Band. It sounds like they would fit in with the seeker-sensitive church paradigm of trying to provide music that the ’seeker’ would like (i.e. folk, bluegrass, alternative…). I’m not sure I’ve heard anything by them, especially since I don’t listen to much contemporary Christian music/radio.
Jesus Christ
(Woody Guthrie)
Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
Hard working man and brave
He said to the rich, “Give your goods to the poor.”
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.
Jesus was a man, a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in his grave
It’s one thing for “The World” to undermine the deity of Christ so flippantly, but for a so called “Bible Church” to do so? Sadly, par for the course for many in the postmodern church.
It sounds like they would fit in with the seeker-sensitive church paradigm of trying to provide music that the ’seeker’ would like…
Would that be when they’re covering John Wesley, John W. Peterson, or Francis of Assisi?
Was this supposed to be an attempt at an honest evaluation? You used italics, quotations, or parenthetical comments a number of times, apparently to distinguish or set apart some aspect of their internal jargon. “gathering” for service, for example. Was this playful? Sarcastic?
You wrote, “Who would be arrogant enough to say that they really know which side of the stage would be the front?” Is that what they say?
We have strong disagreement with some of their theological meanderings. However, if you are going to “blog” your visit there and offer a supposedly neutral evaluation of their praxis (of course, from a “biblical” perspective), why not cut the side-comments and deal incisively with the actual experience?
Hi Nathan,
“We came into the side of the auditorium and were greeted with the sound of the new Coldplay album coming through the speakers.”
You are too kind with your assessment. I would have fault them on this first point.
Hi Brendt,
What do you mean by:
“Would that be when they’re covering John Wesley, John W. Peterson, or Francis of Assisi?”
How does the Crowder Band ‘cover’these people?
Are you saying they pattern some of their music after these men? Hopefully, they aren’t copying some of their theology (at least for Wesley and St. Francis). I was mainly speaking about all the different styles of music that Wikipedia had listed for the band (folk, bluegrass, alternative, worship). If a church is using bluegrass, or alternative, or rock… worship music, then this would fit with the seeker philosophy of “giving the people what they want”.
Coldplay is not a Christian band, is it? Aren’t they into alternative rock? Why would a church be playing their music over the speakers? Sounds like the ‘Emergent church’ (Bell probably wouldn’t classify themselves as emergent) hasn’t gotten totally away from the seeker philosophy of giving the people what they want (i.e. identifying with poplular culture).
Jenson,
Thanks for the comment. My goal wasn’t to critique every single aspect of the experience. I wanted to try to recount as accurately as possible what happened without a confusing amount of commentary from me.
NW
Michael: How does the Crowder Band ‘cover’these people?
cover: to record or performe of a song previously recorded by another performer (or in this case, written by someone else)
If you follow the links that I provided in my post, you will go to lyrics of various David Crowder songs, originally penned by those men.
well…so far in this article we find a guy attacking the look of this church.So what if there is not a pulpit?So what if there is a stage in the middle of the sanctuary?And so what if they call it “gatherings” as opposed to services?Jesus didn’t speak from a pulpit.He taught on hilltops and in caves.At the houses of sinners and on bodies of water.
Just saying…
David Crowder band of Waco, TX. Many, many churches, non seeker and non-emergent sing several of their songs. The song that brought them into church worship was Oh Praise Him:All this for a King. David Crowder is part of the ECM movement, but he has made at least 3 songs that are sung in churches where the most of the congregation does not even know about the ECM and is anti-seeker. Here is a newer Crowder song.
David Crowder Band – Wholly Yours lyrics
Artist: David Crowder Band lyrics
Album: A Collision
Year: 2005
Title: Wholly Yours Print
Correct
Complimentary “Wholly Yours” Ringtone
I am full of earth
You are heaven’s worth
I am stained with dirt, prone to depravity
You are everything that is bright and clean
The antonym of me
You are divinity
But a certain sign of grace is this
From the broken earth flowers come up
Pushing through the dirt
You are holy, holy, holy
All heaven cries “Holy, holy God”
You are holy, holy, holy
I want to be holy like You are
You are everything that is bright and clean
And You’re covering me with Your majesty
And the truest sign of grace was this
From wounded hands redemption fell down
Liberating man
But the harder I try the more clearly can I feel
The depth of our fall and the weight of it all
And so this might could be the most impossible thing
Your grandness in me making me clean
Glory, hallelujah
Glory, glory, hallelujah
So here I am, all of me
Finally everything
Wholly, wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly
I am wholly, wholly, wholly
Yours
I am full of earth and dirt and You
[ Wholly Yours
I really like the song, Oh Praise Him, I do not like David Crowders new music. David Crowder is kind of a funky, quirky, ragamuffin type, in looks that is, but probably in Brennan Manning’s definition too. BUT, of course that is another subject…
I will continue to sing the 3 Crowder band songs I like, just like I will continue to sing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, a song written by a guy who eventully fell away from the Lord ironically after writing “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.” I don’t know, I think he was struggling at the time he wrote it. But, I think he should have clung to “Oh to Grace How Great a Debtor, Daily I’m constrained to Be, Let Thy Goodness Like a Fetter Bind my Wandering Heart To Thee.” Did Mr. Robiness get right? I hope so, but nevertheless, I will still sing that song..:)
Brant,
I don’t believe Nathan was faulting Mars Hill for having no pulpit or being flashy. I actually credit them with this. Too much “stage show” in worship services now-a-days.
Michael, I have David Crowder Band albums and have seen them live multiple times. They are not a “seeker-sensitive” band. They worship God with the talents they have and are unashamed to proclaim the gospel (the WHOLE gospel > see their song “God of Wrath”). To say that they are “seeker-sensitive” because they use a banjo in some songs and have a “bluegrass” feel is ridiculous. This is who they are.
Gosh, some people are looking quite hard to find faults in others.
It’s unfortunate you came that Sunday. I love Mars and I thought that teaching time was pretty rough.