Poets, Prophets, & Preachers: Sunday Morning at Mars Hill
This morning I had the opportunity to go to Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, while I am in town for the Poets, Prophets, & Preachers conference (I went with Steve, Carrie, Mark, Johnny, and Dave). This church is rather well known among the Evangelical world because of its pastor, Rob Bell, who I think is incredibly talented. Rob didn’t preach this morning, instead Shane Hipps, another speaker at the PPP conference, “brought the thunder.” So I am going to begin my PPP reflections by blogging a bit about my experience at Mars Hill this morning. My hope is to blog a bit on each of the sessions for the conference. We’ll see how that goes. Instead of giving a summary of the talks, I am going to give a very subjective take by sharing any thoughts or reactions I had while listening. I think there will be a number of people blogging and twittering the event so I don’t want to repeat what’s already out there. So here we go…
First of all, I was very interested to see what the atmosphere is like at Mars Hill. I was a little surprised to find that it feels pretty much like a typical evangelical mega church (except meeting in an old strip mall). Even the people in the church were pretty typical looking Evangelicals. I don’t mean that in a bad way, I just expected a hipster crowd or something. But that’s not the case at all – actually, this was a pleasant surprise. Nice facility but nothing too exciting. The structure of the service was nothing different than any other Evangelical church. I guess I was hoping for something a little more creative, something a little more removed from the standard Evangelical world. Oh well, that’s ok. For some reason, I am always surprised when I start to get an allergic reaction when exposed to the Evangelical world. One of these days I’ll get used to it.
Shane spoke this morning on “Fasting.” To be honest, I had trouble paying attention. I was too busy thinking about my allergic reaction to all things Evangelical. Here’s the quote of the morning from Shane: “The state of Michigan is Jesus.” I’m just going to leave that without context. Here are a few other notes and thoughts:
Check out Green Sahara Furniture. A couple (Dave and Danielle) shared about their experience in Morocco starting a sustainable “fair-profit” business. Sounded fantastic. I love this about Mars Hill – they are encouraging wonderful action in the world. This is what’s best about Mars Hill. This is what makes me want to get over my allergic reaction - there are still great things happening in the Evangelical world. Green Sierra Furniture is available through Trade As One.
Men, men, men. Do women speak in the Mars Hill service? Not today. I am increasingly sensitive to the lack of female contribution during church services. I think this is because I have a two year old daughter and another daughter on the way. I don’t want to be a part of a church where my daughters only see men in front all the time, or even most of the time. I want to see a more equal contribution in every service.
Because of the holiday weekend childcare was not provided. I really enjoyed hearing the noises of children throughout the service. I would say the most worshipful and spiritual experience for me during the service was during the pauses between sentences – a wonderful sound of babbling, whining, and crying. Maybe I just miss my daughter.
“Deprivation is at the center of every spiritual practice.” I’m not sure about that…something bothers me with this notion.
We got to eat a Hershey’s Kiss – that was nice.
I am surprised how much I have difficulty with Evangelical worship and sermons. It doesn’t go away. I need counseling.
Though I haven’t said much about his talk, I did like Shane – good speaker. And just remember, “The state of Michigan is Jesus.”
More random thoughts to come. Let me know if you’re blogging about PPP, or if you know someone who is.
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Reflections on Poets, Prophets, & Preachers
- Sunday Morning at Mars Hill
- Session 1: Rob Bell - The Original Guerilla Theatre
- A list of who is blogging at PPP
- Session 2 (part 1): Rob Bell - The Story We’re Telling
- Session 2 (part 2): Rob Bell - The Story We’re Telling
- Session 3: Peter Rollins - Introduction to Transformance Art
- Session 4: Shane Hipps - How Technology Shapes the Sermon
- Session 5: Rob Bell - The Fig Tree and the Failure of Language
- Session 6: Rob Bell - Fumbling Around With Your Radar
- Session 7: Peter Rollins - Parables and the Lost Art of Provocation
- Concluding Sessions (when I completely abandon my duties)
- Poets, Prophets, & Preachers: Twitter Highlights
- Poets, Prophets, & Preachers: Final Thoughts
