I remember a Sunday in 2004 all too well. I had just started working as an intern at Westminster Presbyterian Church (a career choice that obviously would have no consequences for the rest of my life...). I was standing in Jeff and Justin's office, gripping very tightly to a cup of Blue Horse Coffee (and feeling very "screw you Starbucks" about it). Justin asked me to bring my guitar to help out for their worship service in the morning, and so I was pumped. We left his office and made our way down to just outside the sanctuary and listened as the 8:30 service was ending. What followed was a precision drill team to say the very least. In time that I couldn't measure, a handful of volunteers pulled a couple of speakers out, ran some cables, set up projectors, and sound checked microphones. Precision I tell ya!
(slackers...)
Justin turned to me and said "The Bridge has always had technical issues..."
No kidding. Even today with a somewhat more permanent home, the set up process involved for the Bridge is nothing short of painful. But I was thinking about how far this little up-start contemporary worship service has come.
But then there's that word. When people ask me what the Bridge is like, what it's all about, my brain goes on a 3 second scavenger hunt. Contemporary makes me think middle age people rocking out to songs from the mid-70s. There are words like Modern, or Post-Modern, or Emergent, but all of those words make me feel like I should be leading worship with a buret and a cup of coffee at my side. (Oh...wait...)
(uhhh...dude...let's like...have a call to worship...)
I simply don't know what to call us! And this is a problem, because Upper Saint Clair Township zoning laws prohibit the girth required to put "Worship in the round with two guys who play guitars and their friends who play other instruments like banjo and violin and drums and keytar" on a sign.
(better...)
I don't know. I just don't know what to call us. People keep asking, and I keep stuttering. If you have any experience with out little service, I emplore you to leave a suggestion in the comments section. Because everyone benefits from an open discussion.
Godspeed,
Jason
1 comments:
Memory lane dude. The way you tell the story makes me feel like those were good old days. Believe me, they weren't! :) Great times, but hard set ups!
The Bridge... is a SPECIAL service. It is beyond that, a SPECIAL group of people. A people who care and continue to care, no matter what comes down the pike. Perhaps you could call it a church lived out, with some music added in.
Glad it's going well.
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