So, last Sunday my dad and I went to Friends Church down in the industrial district - on 30th avenue. The website proclaimed their beliefs. One of them is that they are bible literalists, believing that the bible was written by ordinary people but inspired by God, and that it is infallible. They're not Quakers despite the 'Friends' label. They're an independent, self founded, Fairbanks original. I was pretty much braced for the worst..
Five minutes before the 11:00 service, the movie theater sized parking lot was pretty full and the remaining spots were disappearing quickly. There were a lot of shiny crossover type SUV's. People flowing across the parking lot toward the giant glass entrance way had a kind of quickness in their step, a kind of energy that swept me and dad along.
Through the doors, the large foyer was busy with people, maybe a hundred, all talking and moving somewhere. As you come in, there's a giant coffee bar to your right, larger than your average urban Starbucks, with a zillion bottles of Torani syrup lining the wall and youngish teens serving the long line with coffee's and iced coffee's and all manner of fancy latte's with the little domed lids bursting with whip cream. To the left is some kind of service counter, like an information booth, advertising and coordinating various church programs - there are many signs advertising a women's bible study group with the slogan 'gotGIRLfriends?'. An unobtrusive lady hands my dad and I a single welcome flyer with today's bible lesson inside. She doesn't try to get our names, doesn't try to meaningfully hold our eye, or shake our hand with a probing look. She just hands us the pamphlet, says 'Welcome', and moves on to welcome someone else. A kid wanders by with a huge clear plastic cup with the dome and cream operation in one hand and a whole stack of quartered maple-bar pieces in the other. Ahead, there is a big line of parents and kids before the banks of doors leading into the worship area. They are lined up to await their turn before a large table with three computers where youngish servers are busily putting ID bands on kids wrists and taking information from their parents - scanning the kids wrists when they're done.
We moved past the lines and out of that hubbub into the worship auditorium. It is huge. Again, sort of overwhelming. A big warehouse type room with open steel ceiling, three huge screens on the long far wall, a big stage beneath them, and rank upon rank of seating filling the large floor area. We sidle off to the right hand side and take a seat amongst the angled rows outside the main three sections which directly oppose the stage. To our right, there are three smaller sections of seating which are perpendicular to the main seating facing the stage. This room could easily seat 800. The three main sections before the stage each contain 200 seats. But, right now, it has only a smattering of people walking around busily, talking with others, or finding their seats, usually with a drink, and when kids are present, they too have drinks and they invariably have stacks of donut quarters.
The seats are comfy, the lighting is nice. There is a happy energy in the place - no doubt enhanced a bit by the sugar and caffeine being sucked down. Within moments a guitar carrying twenty something takes center stage and gives a 'welcome' and breaks into song. A bass guitarist and an electrical guitarist take their places and a drummer with a full set slips into a glassed in drum booth on stage. They start cranking. The sound system is the best I've heard in our small town - the band is actually pretty good. The songs have a late '90s feel to them a lot of open guitar and drum energy. The music director guy has slouchy jeans on and some kind of little brimmed soul hat. He's the vocalist and he's pretty good at getting the crowd going. The band is tight and really going for it. People flow into the hall rapidly now - people are standing at their seats, clapping and waving their arms and singing along. The seats fill and soon there are more than 700 people in the room.
This is church 2.0.
Eventually the pastor takes the stage. He's the founder of this enterprise. He's wearing jeans and a flannel shirt, unbuttoned to reveal a black t-shirt. He has a silicon valley software exec kind of hand-in-pocket familiarity about him. But also a sort of confidence and presence and sort of super groomed, but not in that smarmy child molester sort of way, more of a Ryan Seacrest sort of way about him. He has some opening remarks and then says the kids are dismissed to 'kid church' and then he begins again from where they left off last time on Phillipians and a message about God and money. The sermon is about money this week. He seems to talk a lot about money. Talks about Warren Buffet and the Koch brothers as being people he looks up to. Talks about giving and not feeling guilty for earning lots of money. Talks about family stresses with money - kind of basic family money counselling stuff. Goes through the bible bit where Jesus says, 'render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and render unto God what is his'. All in a very non confrontational sort of way - with a good stage presence and lots of little jokes about himself and his family - but the money theme is strong and undeniable. He talks about tithing and how that is in the old testament and how Jesus never said that. But, that you should give as your heart tells you - it is the soft sell. It is the 'check yourself out' of the Apple store approach. They pass the offering baskets. They're pretty darn full. The kid in front of us drops his iced chocolate latte thing and it spills on the carpet and his dad fetches napkins and another stack of quartered chocolate frosted long johns.
They bring out a long line of kids and folks from a side room and a couple of guys are preparing next to a huge plastic tank near the left hand side of the stage. At some point the pastor looks over and says, 'OK, we're going to baptize some people, ...support them in your prayers and join us in celebration'. He then addresses the baptize-ees and says to them, before you take this plunge, comit yourself to Jesus, say something to yourself from your heart like...and he improvised a very personalized sort of message about transition from one way of being to another and about giving oneself over and putting Jesus in control of things. Then the band started with a sort of mellow song and the baptizing began. It wasn't front and center, it was kinda to the side and not very well lit but the crowd was rapt. As the first person came up soaked, there was great applause and the song went on. The whole thing was underplayed with great skill.
After the last person was baptized the pastor said, 'is that all?' They baptized about eight or so people. There was a misunderstanding about the kids, but evidently the twenty or thirty kids were just watching today, they were going to be baptized soon themselves, but not today. The band broke into a more upbeat song and the pastor said thanks and see you next week and sort of walked off in conversation with others, very nonchalant.
Theatrically a very different performance than any I've been to otherwise. The bar, which one has to overcome to attend church on a beautiful Sunday morning, is lower at this church than any I have ever seen. They succeed in creating a pleasant atmosphere for delivery of a very soft-sell message. In fact, if my daughter told me she was attending church, this would probably be the one I'd choose for her. There is a definite naturalness about the place, a positive energy which seems genuine and opposite the fear mongering Bible Baptist of last week. The gulf between the two is vast. This was the eleven AM service and there had been another at nine. I am sure they served well over 1000 Fairbanksans last Sunday morning. More than one percent of our little town, and probably closer to two percent, find home on Sunday under that roof.
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