Generation Church, which is the Seattle Campus of one of the City Churches. The church is an American Evangelical Church run completely by young people. They have services Wednesday night, which was the service I attended. The pastor looked like he was twenty-six and had a three year old son and around me were students my age and younger, all calling out for Jesus. I must say I was happy for them, I can't think of many places where it's okay for a guy to cry in public except Church and I witnessed that there. It was a beautiful site.
The room that the service took place in was like a concert stage, and there were popular songs of today changed around to be about Jesus. "This is why he's hot, this is why he's hot." As an example of a rap song made to be about Jesus...yeah, that was a bit strange. The concert environment helped feed the passion. The youth leaders also acted as MC's doing call and responses with the congregation and enforcing the free Mariner Ticket opportunity they were doing. Didn't like that much at all, I've always found meditation and reflection important, though good music can inspire, which some of the music that day did.
What do I mean by inspire? In many of the masses I have been to with my girlfriend and with some of music concerts I've been to, I've seen images in the minds eye. Inspiration and passion bring about creativity and stories and I've also been able to be a part of that in services from any faith that have touched me. It's like watching a story book, be it fantasy characters like Elves or Demons fighting, Polytheistic Gods, or figures from the religion I'm in. When I'm inspired it's out of my control and I just enjoy the show of the mind's creativity. Visions seem to be a part of how religion works too, so maybe it's something more? I'm honestly open to either interpretation.
Then began the service. The theme was discipleship. The Pastor talked about the importance of asking questions of your pastor and being questioned by your pastor, so you can understand your role and find strength in following God's plan for you. Over three passages from Luke were sited and Corinthians was also used for an example of discipleship. I related a lot to the sermon in the sense of that we are always teachers and students and it is the role of the teacher to question us, and for us to question our teachers so that we learn. This has been one of the blessings I've had with people I see as mentors. I also discovered the community was active with service projects in the U-District in Seattle.
The pros of Generation Church were the passion, kindness and the community. The youth were clearly there for one another and were there for a reason beyond the Euphoria of worship, which they were obviously feeling. After I talked to one of my friend's brothers to schedule an interview and talked to two other young men who were youth leaders around my age. They were nice and respectful of what I was doing.
The Pastor was a nice guy, but I found that traditional gender roles were subtly enforced throughout the day. The Pastor did a bit of showing off when he talked about how he beat a friend who was visiting in Ping-Pong. He brought up beating his friend again, and again...showing off basically, while enforcing Male toughness and that when people should come up to choose a disciple (a youth leader) that they should choose someone of the same sex. I learned later Evangelical Churches like the Orthodox, Mormon and Catholic Church still don't see women in the main Priest or Pastor role. Which is something I really disagree with and could never be a part of, unless I was working to make equal leadership roles possible.This was one of the cons. I did learn later that they have a female pastor, so that made me happy.
The other cons were a shirt I saw, the loud music (and use of popular songs slightly changed, which was corny) and the Devil. The shirt said, "When the rapture comes, I'll be here." It had an arrow pointing up. Apocalyptic to say the least. The Rapture is when God is supposed to take all the believers into Heaven and leave all the non-believers to suffer and be destroyed. Sure is loving. Why work to understand other faiths and perspectives if they're going to Hell anyway? Also, who made the other faiths? The Devil. He takes people away from Jesus. The pastor brought up the Devil twice, as someone who lies, takes away, and isolates people. Which I found offensive given some of the Churches greatest leaders went into the wilderness alone to learn (Abraham, Moses and the Burnish Bush, the Prophets). They had no community for much of their lives and embraced isolation, yet they were hardly of the Devil.
I take issue of the idea of an all powerful personal malevolent or benevolent force, but that's a story for another day. For a little on my reasons though, other then seeing something deity or life-form like that as unlikely is: Each Forces' existence takes away responsibility from people for their actions. A convenient force made it possible, not their own will, circumstances or choices.This also brings up the problem of the existence of Evil when there is an all powerful Good that could destroy it.
Many youth I think will like this Church. They can relate to the personalness of how the Church is run, and the fact that everyone is young, and the music is like the music you hear on the radio, just replace the song being sung about with Jesus, and your set. I would like to talk to more of the youth their to get their personal perspectives, but I don't see myself attending that Church again. Given all the factors I listed, both pros and cons, I wouldn't pass up helping them with their service opportunities around the University District.
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