But first, I need to share a picture of our adorable neice, Elsa.
She was definitely a highlight of the trip! Before even deciding to visit Seattle, Katie and Karrin had been talking about checking out some churches in their area, and we had offered to go with them. So it was perfect when we were able to be there on a Sunday. And I was even more ecstatic when TJ's sisters said they wanted to check out Mars Hill. Their preaching pastor, Mark Driscoll, has become known throughout churches and the media for his use of text messaging in his sermons and his unconventional ways of preaching. So of course, I was intrigued!
Mars Hill has 7 campuses throughout the Seattle area, and we went to the one in West Seattle where Katie lives. That church only has about 800 members, making it one of the smaller campuses...the largest one is in Ballard, having over 3000 members. They make use of video technology so that Mark Driscoll is technically the preacher at all of the locations, but each location has separate church pastors that lead their members. Does that make sense? I think I said that right...
Anyway, we went to the 5PM service, and it was a little sparce, maybe only a couple hundred people? The building was large, but modest. There were no indoor fountains, coffee shops, or fog machines. They did have a little book store where they were able to sell Christian books for less since they are a non-profit organization.
The service started out with worship music. I did enjoy the worship song choices, but I was a little bothered that I couldn't hear anybody else singing because it was a little loud. And I like worshipping with people, and instead I kind of felt like I was singing along at a concert. But the worship band did play well and I appreciated that.
There were announcements and prayer after worship. Then they lowered the video screen and Mark Driscoll came on the screen. They had been going through 1 Peter, and were at chapter 3, verse 7, which speaks to men. Here are the sermon notes. I won't go to much into it, but overall he addressed some serious issues concerning men in the church and he preached very powerfully, but I felt there was a lack of scripture used. The text messaging came into play after the sermon, where people were allowed to anonymously text in their questions for him to answer. They closed with communion, a few more worship songs, and prayer.
So has anybody else heard of this church before? Any opinions on the text messaging or the video sermons? I'm just curious to see what other people think. So let me know!
1 comment:
I'm totally reading a Mark Driscoll book right now...The Radical Reformission. I'm only 3-4 chapters in, but so far it's been an interesting read on a new look at missions in the "post-Christian" culture. He's got an easy-to-listen-to monologue, so I can imagine his sermons would be interesting.
FYI...Mars Hill is probably the raddest church name ever. It actually sounds like a hip arcade. :)
I've never heard much about his church, but I think it would be interesting to attend. Part of me says kudos on the technology innovation. I think the question texting is genius-even in my church of 200-300, I can't say that I want to stand on up and rock a question! Kind of a hip new "throw your question in the box"...only with cell phones. On the other hand I think I would have a REALLY hard time watching a video sermon every week. But that's nothing scriptural...just my personal attention span issues. :)
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