Seattle Trip

Posted under Travel

Two Sunday afternoons ago we headed up to Tacoma, WA for a few days for the Northwest Baptist Convention.  We decided to go up a little early on Sunday so that we could catch the 7:15pm Mars Hill Church (Ballard) service in Seattle.  Mars Hill is a great multi-site church that is effectively engaging the Northwest culture with the gospel.

I thought I’d post a few reflections from our experience there:

• It’s encouraging to pull up to the church at 7:10pm on a Sunday night and see the intersections and sidewalks around the church flooded with young people…the place was a-buzz with people either coming to or leaving from worship.  It’s inspirational because we live in a day in which most churches are simply resigned to think that young people (20’s and 30’s) just aren’t interested in church and there’s not much the church can do about it.  I think Mars Hill is disproving that perspective.  I’m not sure how many people were at that fourth service, but I know that something like 8,000 to 10,000 people attend the church…so I’d guess there were somewhere around 1000 people at the 7:15pm service (give or take a couple of hundred).  I think Mars Hill is demonstrating that when a church contextualizes the gospel for the culture…people can be reached.
• I’ve known that Mars Hill intentionally focuses on training young men…but it was great to see it in action.  The greeters, roaming security, offering takers, and worship leaders were all young men.  And more than that, Jamie and I talked at great length afterwards about how many young men there were there just in general…they seemed like the majority.  Again, this is inspirational because we live in a day in which men (particulary young men) seem to be absent from most churches.  Mars Hill is proving that young men can be reached as well as demonstrating the effectiveness and impact of a church that intentionally deploys young men to lead out.
• The music was refreshing as well.  The atmosphere of worship had a nice blend of excellence and authenticity.  Today, churches seem to fall on one end of the spectrum or the other…either focusing so much on excellence that the atmosphere seems impersonal, or focusing so much on authenticity that the atmosphere ends up being distracting.  Mars Hill is demonstrating that the church can worship with excellence (equipment, technology, lighting, musics, etc.) and not have to give up a comfortable, casual vibe. 
• Mark Driscoll preached from Luke 2 about Christ The Lord.  His sermons tend to be about an hour in length, which is about the length of most other entire church services…but everybody seemed to be engaged the whole time.  Mark is currently taking three years to preach through the Book of Luke.  I think Mars Hill is also demonstrating that the Bible can be taught in such a way that real depth and cultural relevance are complimentary…not mutually exclusive.

Anyway, Jamie and I, as well as Kendra and Micah, had a great time.  The experience spurred a lot of discussion about the excellence and atmosphere of worship as well as how to more effectively reach young people with the gospel.