Quest Community Church
On Sunday, we attended Quest Community Church, a fast-growing, outreach-oriented church we had become familiar with through a media conference. The church started in 1999 and now runs about 2700 people, most of it conversion growth. Pam and I occasionally listened to MP3 sermons by Pete Hise, the pastor. He's easy to listen to.
They hold four services each weekend, all identical (one on Saturday night). We targeted the 10:22 service (yes, that was the advertised time), which is also broadcast to "V2" (video venue) and live on the web.
The church doesn't look like a church. More like a converted warehouse, we decided, as we sat in the gravel parking lot. Actually, it was a former indoor sports facility (bowling, indoor soccer, video arcade, all kinds of stuff) which they bought and converted.
The 9 a.m. service was showing on monitors all over the lobby, and even one in the bathroom. As we waited, a man with a namebadge approached us, introduced himself, and struck up a conversation. Very natural. We talked to him for a while, and he told us lots about the church. After he left, after some time elapsed, another fellow came and talked to us. Not just a cursory greeting, but spent major time talking. Both of these greeters were leaders in the church. And they were genuinely passionate about their church, and particulary about all the people they were winning to Christ.
Signs hung around the lobby, advertising the current "Revolution" sermon series; this was the last of six weeks. Thus far, 250 people had come to Christ through this series. Wow.
I was surprised at the sanctuary, located on the upper level. Much smaller than I expected. Maybe 400 movie-style seats, max, arranged in a sideways orientation, maybe 12 rows deep. Huge platform. As we entered (with the 9 a.m. service quickly emptying through another door), a countdown on the screen showed less than four minutes. They move people in and out quickly. You don't hang around and chat in the sanctuary after services.
The band came out, and the music leader, a woman, invited us all to stand. We sang a song I didn't recognize; I think it was called "Ignite." Then she had us sit down. That was the only song we would sing. From then on, it was more like a concert, with the band singing to us. And they were good. They did three more songs, each with a different lead singer. One, I learned later, was a Van Halen song. They did Chris Daughtry's "I'm Comin' Home." And one other--and this one was spectacular. It had a lot of rap influence, but was actual singing. Everyone on stage was jumping and moving. Maybe a Tobymac song, I don't know. But I've never seen anything like it in a church service. It was amazing. I loved it. And so did the crowd.
At our national conference in May, someone, on a comment card, complained about the "gyrating" by the leader of one of the two worship teams we used. The "gyrating" consisted of periodically dropping one foot back and leaning back. This person, had he/she been at Quest on Sunday, would have run screaming from the service, banging fists against her/his head, certain that the devil himself was giving chase.
"I'm Comin' Home" was actually the last song. Just before it, we heard a testimony. A 30-ish man, bald, tall and lean, sat on a stool with a microphone. I thought he was one of the pastors, at first. But then he began telling his story. A story of being called "fag" and "queer" and worse as a kid, being given "an identity I didn't want," but then, starting as a teen, descending into the gay lifestyle. In the church and at school he found no acceptance. But in the gay community, he did find acceptance. He lived that life for a number of years, yet felt the proverbial emptiness. Through a variety of circumstances, he ended up at Quest 14 months ago and gave Jesus control of his life. It was a powerful testimony.
Pete Hise, the founding pastor, is a superb communicator. Energetic. Humorous. Creative. He used a bunch of different props, some of which people brought onstage, behind him, as he spoke (which means he was following a script closely, and things had been planned out very well). Very well done. He led up to a presentation of the gospel, but in a way designed specifically for people in 2007.
For response, he had people lower their heads and asked people to raise a hand if they wanted to give their lives to Christ. About 20 people in that service did. He invited them to a certain room immediately after the service, so he could talk to them and serve them communion.
How cool is that? People accept Christ, and right away you serve them communion. I'd never heard of that.
It was an enormous thrill to take part in that service. An enormous thrill to see a church being the church, hitting on all cylinders.
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Welcome to a seeker friendly church. I hope the people who accepted Christ understood what they were accepting. Why does the pastor need any prop other than God's Word. That's the only "prop" that can save us. And what is a gospel presentation for 2007? Has the gospel changed since it was written? When churches use entertainment and gimics to water down the gospel, there will be many "conversions". But do they know that means admitting they are sinners and they need to give up their old lifestyle? Only the Holy Spirit can save people, not props, not well-scripted presentations. Maybe some of those people really were saved, but I fear some of them were accepting the church, not Jesus Christ.