Sunday, January 09, 2005

Worship at the Well

I started working at a new church today. It's called, "The Well" and it is located in Buck's County, PA (a suburb of Philadelphia). I will be serving there for the rest of the Spring semester as a part of my field education requirements for PTS. My initial feelings were all positive. I am really looking forward to learning more from my new found friends: pastor of teaching and worship, Brad Jackson and pastor of mission and community, Todd Hiestand. The Well is a missional community that strives to create a space for folks to "Be. Read. Think. Pray. Study. Surf. and Relate." The Well is essentially an emergent church, although neither Brad nor Todd seem particularly concerned to publicize this fact. I admire their posture: they have a 'yeah what's up' mentatlity that is a breath of fresh air for me. They are attempting the laudable endeavor of establishing and nurturing a community of devoted followers of Jesus Christ that seeks to love God and bless the world. To this end, I think they are well on their way.

Here are some of my impressions of the service this morning. Abby and I got there early to get to know some of the folks and spend some time chatting with the leadership. We were warmly greeted and sensed the intense feeling of 'togetherness' among the church members. The newly renovated warehouse is simple but not plain. You can see pictures of the church HERE. The service was quite traditional: a call to worship, worship through song, community fellowship, Bible lesson, sermon, communion, and benediction. I really appreciated the genuineness of the whole service. No one seemed to be trying too hard and yet the quality of the whole service was outstanding. Brad and Todd have created a fellowship that diplays authenticity without pretensiousness (a rare feat in the church-world these days). The music was very well done. They did not use Gregorian chant or classical music, rather their band played several contemporary praise and worship songs. However, these songs were not performed...we were led in worship via song. This is an important distinction. Brad's sermon was quite good. He preached on the Kingdom of God, which is a difficult task even if one is preaching on this topic for an entire year! He challenged the congregation to embody the Kingdom of God in our respective communities. He asked an intriguing question, 'What would Philadelphia look like if it was transformed by the New Being(Rev.21) promulgated by the kingdom of God?' It really makes ya think. I like the way that Schweitzer once put it. He said our actions typified in the public realm are acted prayers of the kingdom.

I really enjoyed my experience at The Well and I think that I am going to learn a ton from these two practical theologians. If you are in the northern-PA/southern-NJ area and would like to check the Well out, I'm sure you would be warmly welcomed.

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