97 :: The Rock Church

 

We spent Easter Sunday at The Rock Church in Fort Myers, Florida. This was a special treat, as this was an Apostolic Pentecostal church, the first of its kind for us. Apostolic Pentecostal means many things, some of which I will make an effort to explain in this post - but what it means more than anything else is a high degree of enthusiasm during worship! I mean, a really, really high degree of enthusiasm. It was simply awesome!

While we have been to Pentecostal churches before, they were not exactly like this. There are unifying factors to all of the Pentecostal churches that we have visited, but none of them had all of the ingredients that The Rock Church did, nor to the same degree of potency.

For those who hear the term Pentecostal and picture people in rural churches carrying rattlesnakes and drinking arsenic, let's start with what Pentecostals are. Despite the colorful misperception that the term evokes, the word pentekoste simply means "fifty days" in ancient Greek. The fifty days that it references relate to events that occurred on the fiftieth day after Jesus's Resurrection. As described in the second chapter of Acts, the Holy Ghost settled on the apostles like a mighty wind and tongues of fire settled on each of their foreheads. Many count this moment as the point at which the Christian Church came into being. One of the phenomenon that coincided with this event was the manifestation of glossolalia, the spiritual gift of speaking in tongues. 

Here are those verses from Acts 2 - 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

The arrival of the Holy Ghost released an entirely new reality of God's involvement in human redemption, according to the branch of theology occupied by Apostolic Pentacostalism.

Here is a piece of art that evokes the idea of Pentecostal fire invading human reality, across every nation:

With that background, it must be noted that the arrival of the Holy Ghost is not a point of contention between Christians, we all believe in it. What is a strong point of contention is how He impacts us today.

There are Christians who believe that the spiritual gifts that occurred in Acts 2 are ongoing through today. These Christians are called continuationists. More broadly, these Christians could be called charismatics, from the ancient Greek word charis, which means gifts. 

Then there are Christians who believe that the initial spiritual gifts depicted in Acts 2 were an outpouring of the Holy Ghost that was used for evangelism, but after the sixty-six books of the Bible were codified, those gifts were no longer needed and they ceased. These are broadly called cessationists, as they believe the spiritual gifts are not extant in the modern world.

While not well known outside of the Body of Christ, this disagreement is one of the major points of division within Christianity. All of the churches we have visited fall into one camp or the other, for the most part.

Examples of charismatic, continuationist churches that we have visited - MorningStar, Freedom House, The Gate, Fire Church, UPPERROOM, Queen City Church and IHOPKC.

Examples of cessationist churches that we have visited - First Presbyterian, Christ Covenant, Citizens Church, Hope Church, First Baptist and Summit Church.

Of note is that Catholicism does have room for some smaller charismatic congregation, but Eastern Orthodoxy does not. In Protestantism, there is a big divide. The largest Protestant denomination in the US are Southern Baptists and all Southern Baptist churches are cessationist in their theology.

With all of that as background, you can have a better sense of who Apostolic Pentecostals are. They are a community that counts the spiritual gifts as ongoing. In fact, it is at the core of who they are. They also believe that there is a direct line from the apostles to them as it relates to spiritual gifts, thus the title Apostolic. 

And the charisma of The Rock Church is extremely high, as you will see.

When we walked into the front lobby of the church, we were greeted by a hospitality team of women. I immediately noticed that everyone in the church had a unique type of clothing on. All of the women had their arms covered and wore ankle length skirts. The men all had suits and ties on. It was really unique and the focus on modesty was unmistakable. I've since learned that this is pretty standard apparel for Apostolic Pentecostals. Amazon even has search results for Apostolic Pentecostal clothing (who knew??).

As we met with more people, we came to find out that there was no child care. The women greeters told us that they wanted MC to enjoy the service and run around as much as she wanted. For MC, that is a very welcome invitation. 

We would worship together.

The four of us walked into the expansive auditorium and joined a large crowd that was moving around with the goal of greeting every visitor. I would say that no fewer than twenty people greeted us. We were treated especially warmly by a nice seventeen year old woman named Ghanaelle, who was raised in the church. She, like all of the women in the church, wore a long dress that was extremely modest by modern American standards. She spoke with us for about twenty minutes, letting us know about the church, its history and the denomination more broadly. 

She had exceptional poise for a seventeen year old. It really struck us. We later discovered that children raised in Apostolic Pentecostal families do not watch movies or television, which likely has a great deal to do with why they appear not to have the same confidence issue that can plague American teenagers these days.

I took this video while we were talking to Ghanaelle, as the auditorium filled up.

Then the music and worship started. The worship was the pre-cursor to the play that the church was scheduled to put on. We had a sense that we would stay at The Rock for a long time. We left while the service was ongoing, at the two and a half hours mark.

Watch these videos and look at the pictures, they show how great the praise and worship were:

That worship lasted for about forty-five minutes, then the leaders asked everyone to greet each other. In many churches, that would involve shaking hands and engaging in small talk with the people around you for about three minutes, and perhaps saying, "Peace of Christ be with you." At The Rock, that invitation opened up a wonderful form of mayhem across the whole church. Everyone seemed intent on greeting everyone else. It was really powerful to see the degree to which the church wanted visitors to feel seen, engaged and welcomed.

Here is a video of that part:

We got back to our seats and the children's choir came out, looking like heaven, which children "from every tribe and nation." (Rev. 7:9) They gave a presentation in song and spoken word. They are the junior varsity for the full choir that we had just seen, and they were spectacular (note the little guy on the right side of your screen, he was a complete boss and only about four years old):

After the youth performance, the play commenced. This play was an extremely well produced combination of dance, song and drama. It was a story about a young father who lost his job and resorted to crime to provide for his family. This protagonist vacillated between Heaven and Earth throughout the play. At one point, he pulled a gun on Jesus (he didn't know who He was). The climax of the drama came as he physically fought with Jesus and then was brought to his knees in tearful repentance.

Once again, really take time to watch these videos and look at these pictures, they show what a POWERFUL performance this was:

After the play ended with the main protagonist on his knees weeping, one of the pastors yelled out something that was the equivalent of an altar call. The congregants were asked to come forward for prayer, physical healing and spiritual deliverance. As people flooded into the front of the church, a woman let out a scream that reverberated through the church. Beth leaned over to me, smiling, and whispered, "That's the Holy Ghost over there."

People started interceding for one another mightily, speaking in tongues and praying with high enthusiasm. Continuationism at its best was clearly on display:

This segment of intense worship and deliverance went on for a long time, at least we assume that it did. It was about twenty minutes into it that we decided to head out. We were thanked warmly by the members of the church as we exited. We asked someone to take our picture in front of the church.

As we walked her to her car, I asked my mom what she thought of the church visit. She said, "I just can't believe there are places like the ones we have gone to. Just wow!" I am glad she had a chance to see and experience different things than what she has been accustomed to.

Beth really enjoyed herself and got a great deal out of this worship. This is kind of how she rolls, spiritually. As such, she left The Rock feeling very well fed. 

MC loved the play and everything else. In true form, she made many new friends.

This will be a church visit that we will reflect on for a long time. The joy, the enthusiasm, the community, the way that people engaged on their shared hope and faith... it was really exceptional. We have not been to a place quite like The Rock. As and when we come back to Fort Myers, I could see us visiting again. 

There is really no doubt about it, they are winning people for The Kingdom.

All the best to The Rock Church, may they keep going - onward and upward! 

He is Risen, He is Risen, indeed, Just as He said!

96 :: Summit Church

 

This Good Friday, we worshiped at Summit Church in Fort Myers, Florida. I, Beth and MC were in the area while visiting my mother over Easter weekend. My mom went to Summit Church with us. Of note is the fact that this was the first time she had attended a contemporary church service. She was pretty wow'ed by all of it.

When we drove into the parking lot, Summit Church looked a great deal like most of the new churches that we have seen while on this journey. Summit Church inhabits a large, mostly-white and relatively non-descript building that slightly evokes a warehouse. 

The top picture below shows the outside of the church as seen from an online search. The picture from the cloudy evening is the one that I took. Both pictures show that Summit Church is a nice-looking, if typical, modern church. 

In the Southeast of the US, there are massive demographic influxes happening right now, especially in Florida. This population growth has necessitated a great deal of new development, which explains the newness of so many churches across the region. 

Summit Church is one of those new churches.

Summit has three campuses in south Florida, one in Gateway, one in Fort Myers, and one in Naples. Based on what we saw, we think the number of campuses will grow. This is a very healthy place.

Summit Church

Summit Church

Mom in the lobby

Summit Church lobby

Mom at church with us

Once we had MC in childcare, we walked into a large auditorium that was filled with people. As we found our seats, there were words from the stage about the importance of remembering the Death of God's Son on Golgotha, a murder in which we had complicity and through which we can get saved. Then the band started playing some ambient music to get the congregation in a pensive state of mind. 

It was very calming. 

The musical chords were sufficiently dark to evoke the dour feelings of Good Friday. The music reminded us that this is arguably the saddest day of the Christian calendar.

The service started. 

This being Good Friday, the service was both glum and slightly celebratory. This church had the perfect balance of these two impulses. We were all reflecting on our complicity in God's unjust death, as well as releasing some anticipatory joy from the plot-twist-of-all-plot-twists that was coming on Sunday.

Then the band played a modern rock version of That Old Rugged Cross and most people stood up with their arms at their sides. It was at that point that I stopped singing and leaned over to Beth. "I think this is a Southern Baptist church," I whispered. She lifted her eyebrow, then scanned the congregation again. She looked back at me and nodded.

Here are a couple videos of that:

Then we got into the part of the service that explored the themes of Good Friday. Three themes were elaborated - Propitiation, Redemption and Justification. The presentations were a combination of highly stylized still pictures, all of which were in red and black, as well as bible verses. 

We believe the ubiquitous red and black were chosen for to depict the bloodiness and darkness of Good Friday.

All three were incredibly well-produced segments. Each part was punctuated by more music. Since I had more than an inkling of suspicion that this was a Southern Baptist church, I listened closely to the way that they addressed the themes of Good Friday. They spoke of Jesus's sacrifice on the Cross as being "a substitutionary atonement" that fulfilled God's need for "justice," "wrath," "judgment" and even "fury." These words indicated very good theology, even if they were uncomfortable to hear.

We became even more convinced that this was a Southern Baptist congregation.

As we got deeper into the worship, more people started raising their hands in worship. There was an occasional "Amen!" and even a few enthusiastic shouts of "Allelulia!"

Evolving Baptists.

Here are some of the pictures and videos from the Propitiation, Redemption and Justification segments. Really zoom in on some of the pictures, they show how beautiful (and horrifying) the visual displays were:

After these three sections completed, we held communion. It seems that these self-contained wafer-and-juice units have definitively won the day, it's all we see now.

Then we were dismissed. 

As people milled around the lobby and the front of the church, I took note of the fact that there were many young people, especially young families. There were babies everywhere, as a matter of fact. 

In the greater Fort Myers area, there are many people in the latter stages of their lives. Being at Summit Church reminded us that there are also many people in the early phases of their lives. Some of the young people in attendance seemed to be college students, likely from the nearby Florida Gulf Coast University. Seeing a church so packed with young people reinforced that this is a healthy congregation that will grow for many years to come. 

There was new life on top of new life at Summit Church. So good!

Young people after church, including a guy with blond dreadlocks

As I headed to the parking lot to get the car and pick everyone up back at the church, I asked two women who were walking in the same direction if Summit Church was affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The younger of the two said she had no idea. The other woman said that it was, with some reticence in her voice and facial expression. I thanked both of them and walked on.

I have encountered this kind of thing before. 

Many Southern Baptist churches are reinventing themselves. Part of that reinvention involves dropping any use of the word "Baptist." In such churches, when asked about their affiliation with the denomination, there is a certain slowness in the way that they say "yes."

Watch this video from Christian comedian John Crist. It speaks in a humorous way about how we look at church these days, including a general tendency to shy away from churches that call out their denominational affiliation. Listen at 1:40 about the name "Baptist."

Whatever motivates the tendency to shy away from Baptist affiliation likely maps back to the state of cultural division in our society. Jerry Falwell, Sr. moved the denomination hard to the political right in the 1980s, including the establishment of The Moral Majority. In addition to this history, the denomination maintains conservative positions on same-sex marriage, abortion, ordination of women and LGBT issues, among other things. As such, the SBC can definitely be a flash point for some people. I believe this explains why some people hold back when they answer "yes" to the question of Baptist affiliation. They think it might produce a flare up between themselves and the other person. 

The beauty of modern church is that it is the ultimate free market. Cultural pressure to attend church to keep up appearances is at an all time low. One might even argue that going to church is a countercultural act at this point. Because of this, people gravitate to churches that challenge them and help them grow in Christ. Alternatively, people are quick to walk away when a church fails to meet its imperative to preach the truth. The general health of Summit Church verifies that the Southern Baptists Convention can create environments that are theologically sound, personally convicting, individually transformative, as well as culturally relevant. 

I say good for them. 

When we drove away, I asked my mom what she thought of this church service. After eight decades of unbroken High Church attendance, she said, "Wow. That is all I can say - wow."

That captures it well. This was an exceptional church visit and it left us with a great deal to think about on our glum and sad day.

All the best to Summit Church - may you keep going and keep growing!

95 :: The Refuge Church

This morning, we worshiped at The Refuge Church in Kannapolis, NC. This church is a booming congregation on the north side of the Charlotte metro area. The Refuge Church also has campuses in Salisbury and Greensboro, making it yet another multi-location North Carolina church of large scale that we have visited.

Each church has exactly one opportunity to make a first impression and The Refuge Church made a really nice one. The look of a church always has a great deal to do with that first impression. As is the case with so many large churches of the contemporary ilk, The Refuge Church looks from the outside like a relatively non-descript warehouse with a huge parking lot around it. The lobby, auditorium and the classrooms were very open and everything flowed really well, making us comfortable even as hundreds of people bustled to and fro in anticipation of the service.

 

When we walked into the church's lobby, we noticed that the place was festooned with hundreds of balloons. We came to learn why this was the case - The Refuge Church was celebrating its 18th anniversary this weekend. That is a solid duration for any church and The Refuge Church seems to have healthy momentum as it approaches its twentieth year.

When we entered the auditorium, we took note of the fact that it was dark. Very dark, as a matter of fact. The band was playing praise music at a significant decibel level. They performed Surrounded, Fight My Battles. This is a very special song to us, one of the first that we got into together when we were dating. They performed it really, really well. Many of the worshippers were moving to the music. There appears to be something about subdued lighting that lets people relax and open up a bit more. Perhaps it is a greater sense of anonymity or the reduced scrutiny. 

It was quickly evident that The Refuge Church definitely has a good overall vibe.

Below is a video of the performance of Surrounded. As you can see, in addition to those dancing, there were definitely other people standing in relatively reserved postures.

After the music finished up, Pastor Jay Stewart came out and spoke to the crowd. 

Pastor Jay and his wife Melanie run The Refuge Church together [link]. The first thing Pastor Jay did was speak to what has been happening with Disney, with charges of pedophilia among its employee base, as well as the company's decision to drop gendered pronouns from their public addresses. To learn more about this particular controversy of gendered pronouns, click here. 

There was applause as he recommended that the members of The Refuge Church cancel their Disney+ subscriptions and boycott the theme parks. It was quickly established that The Refuge Church is a conservative church that is participating in the culture war that is going on in the US now. 

Following that, Pastor Jay talked about a book that he co-authored. It is named Welded: Forming Racial Bonds That Last. Jay's co-author Derrick Hawkins heads up a church in Greensboro and the book has been a real success. Pastor Jay pointed out that they have been successful in getting the book approved for use in prisons across the Southeast, most recently in Florida. 

You can see in the video below that Pastor Jay announced a solid list of states that have agreed to use the book in prisons for racial unity and spiritual restoration. 

Really great stuff!

Pastor Jay then focused on the celebration of The Refuge Church's eighteenth anniversary. The videos that followed his words were made up of people giving their congratulations to The Refuge Church, many of whom were what one might call "Christian famous." Included in the videos were some leaders from Jesus Culture in California, for example.

Here's some of that:

After all of these accolades and acknowledgments, we got to the core of the service, an on-stage interview with singer Mike Weaver from the contemporary Christian band Big Daddy Weave [link]. Big Daddy Weave has been enjoying success since their inception in 1998. 

The band's most famous song is named Redeemed.

Below is the music video for Redeemed, have a watch:

Mike Weaver came onto the stage and was interviewed by Pastor Jay in a segment entitled Processing Grief. This interview was part of the church's recent message series that touches on difficult subjects. In prior weeks, the messages covered topics such as Choosing Joy In Tragedy, Persevering Through Challenges and Making a Broken Marriage Whole.

Strong subject matter, for sure. Good for The Refuge Church.

If you are interested in watching the whole 45-minute interview, here it is (it's really powerful, my hope is that you might get something meaningful from it!):

During the interview, Mike Weaver gave a retrospective of what has happened in his life as a result of the loss of his family members, including his brother and fellow band member, Jay, who died a few months ago. Mike described how the painful loss of his brother followed on the heels of losing his father and mother in recent years. 

Mike spoke fondly about his childhood and growing up in a faith-filled family near Pensacola in the panhandle of Florida. He recounted the events that led to the decline of each family member due to different illnesses, while at the same time seeing miraculous healings during the years that the band was on the road. Mike admits that he struggled with why he was seeing such profound healings of strangers while his own family members were in rapidly declining health.

One part of the interview that jumped out at us was a recollection about the day after Mike and Jay lost their father. He died on Christmas Eve and on Christmas morning, Jay Weaver said to Mike, "Jay, think about it... today Dad knows the color of Jesus's eyes!" 

I also recall that Mike called his father "my hero" during the interview.

Not a dry eye in the place... at least not ours.

Such witnesses to a faith are deeply compelling. It made me think about a few things on a personal level...

First, it reiterated how different the Southeast can be in all things spiritual. As Mike described what it was like to grow up in the Deep South (Florida's panhandle definitely fits that description) during the 1980s, he was describing a culture that is candidly still mostly foreign to me and likely always will be... but after twenty-eight years in the South, it is much more familiar to me than it used to be and, to be honest, it's also very dear to me. I find the depth of belief of many people down here to be deeply inspiring.

Second, this interview made me think about the Christian theology of death, which should inform how we react when we encounter death itself. If we believe that we are saved by the Cross from spiritual death and Hell, then we can and should feel a sense of celebration when a Christian dies physically. But how often do we actually feel that sense of celebration? To be candid, many of us keep death at bay by not thinking about it.

Finally, the interview gave me pause about my relationship with death itself. Put simply, interacting with death has always been hard for me. I remember vividly the times that I saw my deceased grandparents' bodies when they passed away in the 1980s. Their funerals were the first and second times that I saw a dead body. It made quite an impression on me. I recall seeing my mother and her sisters crying over their parents' bodies. I remember leaving a handkerchief in my grandfather's coffin the last time I saw him, before they closed the lid. It's pretty wild to think that this handkerchief is still in the coffin with his body, in a mausoleum in Beaver, Pennsylvania. 

I also witnessed the slow decline of my father over 2017 and 2018 as he moved into his death. I additionally experienced my brother's somewhat sudden death more than twenty years ago. Their deaths made a similarly profound impression on me.

My friend Dan, who recently became a father for the fourth time, mentioned to me a few weeks ago that he sees a deep paradox in American society. He pointed out that our society has many rituals and practices related to the birth of a child. Baby showers and christenings are examples of the things we do when a baby arrives. He made the point that we have far fewer cultural practices around acknowledging death. While death is as universal a phenomenon as birth (we all know that there's a one-to-one correlation), we may at times pretend that death is not there. If we have a shortcoming in our society, it could be that we lift up youth and youthfulness to the detriment of acknowledging aging and dying. It might even be fair to say that we may have a collective societal phobia on the subject of death. 

He advocated that we need to develop a deeper cultural appreciation for that phenomenon that will take each and every one of us - our physical cessation, aka death.

My mind connected back to a sermon that I heard more than twenty years ago. 

In it, the pastor read a snippet from a book written by an accomplished author and political commentator who lived in Washington, D.C.. In years past, this author was well-known for appearing on Sunday morning political talk shows. In her personal life, she was a functional atheist, if not a professing one. 

One spring morning, this author was taking a solo stroll to grapple with the impending death of her husband from a terminal disease, During the walk, she was deeply grieved about the situation that her family faced. As she was walking, she noticed a church that was holding worship. Without thinking about it, she pivoted off the sidewalk and entered the church. She sat alone in the church's narthex and listened to entire service, despite not engaging with it directly.

She wrote about the deep value that she saw in the church service, even as someone who did not believe in the tenets of the Christian faith. She said that she left the narthex with a deep appreciation for "a community that prepares its members for the reality of death." She noted that as she looked around the secular world, she saw no analogous practices that she could avail herself of as an atheist. In an increasingly secularized America, she was not given anywhere to take her dread and incipient grief over her husband's impending death.

I never forgot that sermon. I recall clearly even today the impact that it made on me. 

Christian community is about many things, one of which is definitely our preparation for death.

Ok. Now, that is admittedly a great deal of personal thoughts from me... what about Beth?

She said that she felt this is a great church that is willing to be publicly engaged on difficult issues, both in their messages and their stances on cultural trends. She liked this. Additionally, she noted that the presentation layer of the church was excellent. Great setting, well-run campus, very solid music, and messages that were very impactful (to say the least).

She also liked that there was a theme of racial unity within the Body of Christ. This is an important theme as more and more brothers and sisters in Christ worship together in ways that our parents and grandparents wouldn't have thought imaginable.

This is high praise.

As Mike Weaver and Pastor Jay finished up their interview, it was clear that what was said had made a profound impact on the people at The Refuge Church. For us, it was also a great experience to learn more about the man behind the microphone of Big Daddy Weave, a band we have both known for a long time.

When the interview finished up, we were all dismissed.

The lobby quickly filled up as people from the first service prepared to leave and people started streaming in for the second service. 

Beth's friend Macey goes to The Refuge Church, she was there with her sisters. She and Beth chatted for a bit in the lobby.

The Refuge Church made a great impression on us. This is a healthy and growing congregation that has some of the best attributes of a contemporary format combined with biblical, orthodox theology.

Thanks to The Refuge Church for a great visit!