Quote:
Originally Posted by Evang.Benincasa
He has the testimony of coming out of drugs and hanging out with rock bands.
Possibly CC1 can help us with the man's religious background?
Maybe his background was with Werner Erhard?
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The pastor has a lot of UPC relatives but was not raised in church. His parents divorced when he was 10 and he was unchurched until about 12 years ago. He was in his 20's and into drugs and a member of a rock band. He had reached a really low point as he was diagnosed with MS or something like that and was having trouble even walking so had to use a wheelchair some.
He went to a UPC church because that was one he knew about from relatives. He came to the Lord and later became that churches Youth pastor until a falling out with the pastor. This was about five years ago and when he started the church he pastors now.
He is not trying to be anything but himself with the way he speaks. He has a college degree in English and speaks very well whether old time Pentecostals like his informal language or not.
Not only does he relate to younger folks but regarding the demographics of the church over the past three years as it has grown there has been a tremendous influx of 30ish folks (typically families with young children) and older folks. In addition there are quite a few folks in their 40's and 50's. I will admit I don't see many in the geriatric age group so a few in their 60's but I don't know of any in their 70's and beyond.
He doesn't want to be a traditional typical pastor nor does he want this church to be a typical traditional church. There are plenty of those around for people who want that type of enviroment.
The Experience Community is based on the word of God being infallible and preaching it all (hence going through the bible book by book and verse by verse) without avoiding any of the hard or offensive parts.
It is not based on continuing church traditions just for the sake of church traditions. We don't take an offering. We just point out during announcements where the offering / tithe containers are on the communion tables. We have communion every service at the end. Our emphasis is on the word so the service only consists of a pres-service video, praise and worship set, announcements, psa viddeo, sermon bumper video, and the sermon. 50 minutes of the service is the sermon, 30 minutes music.
The physical plant is intentionally not "churchy" in the traditional sense. We are in a 100+ year old warehouse so we have left the feel the same. Bare concrete floor except for carpet under the chairs in the sanctuary. A mix of modern and old. The decorations are paintings done by people in the church and art pieces from Praise & Worship Nights (some are three dimensional large signs hanging).
Without a doubt many old time Pentecostals would find themselves out of their element and uncomfortable. However that is not the demographic we are reaching for. We are reaching for the unchurched or those who do not like traditional church or won't even give it a chance because of preconceived notions.
Personally I am happy at this church and would be just as happy at a more traditional church in the sense of the physical plant and being more formal. Not a heaven or hell issue for me. I do think that different churches have different personalities and different ministries so our church, while reaching for all people, will naturally appeal to the demographic I already mentioned and traditional churches will appeal to older folks or those raised in them.
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