Mars Hill Church

My class got to Mars Hill Church in Seattle about an hour and a half before the service. We were going as a field trip for my worship class. I really wanted to go find the troll under the Arora Bridge, but no one else wanted to do it. I had seen a picture of the huge concrete troll as a kid, but had never been able to see it. It is one of those things I have always wanted to do. So instead we sat in the foyer of the church. The other people that came with me played some games and I worked on some homework. I know, what a loser. Let me tell you a little about Mars Hill. I remember hearing about it when it was in the Paradox Theater in the U-District. They were pretty tied in with these concerts they would host there of Christian and secular bands. This is the crowd they drew from. Anyways a while ago they moved across town into their own building, a warehouse that has been fixed up very nicely. They continue to host lots of concerts at their new location, which provides a good outreach to that community.
Mars Hill is probably considered an Emerging Church and appeals mostly to the postmodern crowd. The church I have been going to, Vintage 242, kind of modeled themselves after this church. Mars Hill has seen immense growth though. With weekly numbers of 3500 divided among four services and the acquisition of a new building a walk away, Mars Hill has changed a lot. What started out as a kind of rebellion against mainstream churches turned into a megachurch of its own, a little ironic. Anyways, there is one main sanctuary and then a side room with live video feed of the service. The service started off with two songs. The worship leader started off by explaining what worship actually is and we were going to do it in the service. This was right on and gave us some direction. The first and last songs were the only ones in the service that I knew. That is because they were hymns. The rest were all songs that they had written themselves. It was also very loud. Even in their newsletter they had a letters section. Someone wrote in saying that they really liked the church, but they could stay because it was so loud. Their response was to tell them to get earplugs from info booth. They kind of showy in their playing and many people in my class complained that it was like a concert.
The pastor came up next and preached for a little over an hour. It was amazing; he held our attention the whole time. And he didn't do anything flashy. All he would just read a couple verses and spend some time explaining them and how they apply to us. This is what they do every. To give you and idea of their pace, they are going through Genesis and were at the part about Isaac. They plan to be finished with Genesis in September. I really like that kind of preaching though. That is what drew me to Vintage. It is just so biblically focused and yet it doesn't get very overwhelming. And I can actually remember the sermons, and even without fill-in-the-blanks. The most amazing thing is that he does three of these services and in a year and a half he will be doing six.
The main singing section followed the preaching. During this time you could go to the front for communion and to bring your offerings as well. Speaking of offerings, in December they received almost double their budget. I really enjoyed the service overall, but it would have been cool if they had incorporated more creative elements into their service. Go check out their website to get some more info about them.