I know you all are very aware of how important my Catholic faith identity is to me. I have always enjoyed church from the days of children's liturgy as a little girl to life teen in high school and now studying here in London to do a master's in (what I often tell people) Jesus. I appreciate the traditions and rituals and comfort of knowing when to sit and stand and the words of my favorite songs that I itch to dance to and, to the huge embarassment of my lovely twinnie, I sometimes do!
However, if my program here has taught me something it's about being open to new styles of worship and church and how Jesus is celebrated among the different Christian churches. Being that my dissertation is largely on how to reach out to young people in our technology driven consumer culture I have been very interested in checking out other churches and experiencing something new to understand how the church impacts people depending on the setting. When my friend, Jeremy, invited me to come with him to his church, Hillsong, which perhaps you have heard of or participated in before. I specifically used the word 'participated' because Hillsong is a Christian Evangelical Church that is widely popular among young people as it is engaging, exciting, and LOUD.
Hillsong London is so big though that they hold their services in the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Rd which is one of the largest west end theatres in London. Just to give you an idea about how big Hillsong is....the Dominion Theatre holds 2,182 seats and virtually ever seat was full! There are currently three services every Sunday and they are trying to add a fourth. If I had felt more confident I would have taken a picture inside but when I first walked in I had to ask Jeremy if this place was really considered to be a church. I won't lie, I was skeptical until the service started and let me explain why.
Walking out of Tottenham tube and into the theatre the first thing you can't help but notice is the band. Not just your typical 3-4 instrument ensemble but a full blown concert style band including strobe lights, flashing lights, and music video screens which not only played videos but had the words to all the songs projected on it. It was very overwhelming because people also treated it a little bit like a concert in that everyone was jumping around and waving their hands and shouting Alleluia! and Amen!
As the service continued however I started to really feel excited about being there and appreciate this worship style. It was energizing and renewing and although it will never be able to replace my love of the Catholic Mass and tradition (you can start breathing again Mommy, no panic attack necessary) I do plan on participating again. The sermon was inspirational and just awesome in how captivated we all were. The pastor was from America and his name is pastor Weems and Jeremy and I decided he was from Texas or Alabama because of his mid-west/southern-ish accent that we loved. He also made references to baseball which I think went over pretty much everyone else's heads but the Americans in the room. He was very excited and you could tell that he was really passionate and cared about every word he spoke! Anyways, on that note, I leave you with my favorite quote from him tonight:
Every supernatural move by God is predicated by a very natural move by humans.
Love from London,
Kristin
However, if my program here has taught me something it's about being open to new styles of worship and church and how Jesus is celebrated among the different Christian churches. Being that my dissertation is largely on how to reach out to young people in our technology driven consumer culture I have been very interested in checking out other churches and experiencing something new to understand how the church impacts people depending on the setting. When my friend, Jeremy, invited me to come with him to his church, Hillsong, which perhaps you have heard of or participated in before. I specifically used the word 'participated' because Hillsong is a Christian Evangelical Church that is widely popular among young people as it is engaging, exciting, and LOUD.Hillsong London is so big though that they hold their services in the Dominion Theatre on Tottenham Court Rd which is one of the largest west end theatres in London. Just to give you an idea about how big Hillsong is....the Dominion Theatre holds 2,182 seats and virtually ever seat was full! There are currently three services every Sunday and they are trying to add a fourth. If I had felt more confident I would have taken a picture inside but when I first walked in I had to ask Jeremy if this place was really considered to be a church. I won't lie, I was skeptical until the service started and let me explain why.
Walking out of Tottenham tube and into the theatre the first thing you can't help but notice is the band. Not just your typical 3-4 instrument ensemble but a full blown concert style band including strobe lights, flashing lights, and music video screens which not only played videos but had the words to all the songs projected on it. It was very overwhelming because people also treated it a little bit like a concert in that everyone was jumping around and waving their hands and shouting Alleluia! and Amen!
As the service continued however I started to really feel excited about being there and appreciate this worship style. It was energizing and renewing and although it will never be able to replace my love of the Catholic Mass and tradition (you can start breathing again Mommy, no panic attack necessary) I do plan on participating again. The sermon was inspirational and just awesome in how captivated we all were. The pastor was from America and his name is pastor Weems and Jeremy and I decided he was from Texas or Alabama because of his mid-west/southern-ish accent that we loved. He also made references to baseball which I think went over pretty much everyone else's heads but the Americans in the room. He was very excited and you could tell that he was really passionate and cared about every word he spoke! Anyways, on that note, I leave you with my favorite quote from him tonight:
Every supernatural move by God is predicated by a very natural move by humans.
Love from London,
Kristin
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