A vision of the future

This past Sunday we went to Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids. It was a vision of our future.

Not in the ten years old and thousands of people come each week sense.

But in the extremely scaled down and simple sense.

Walk with me through our experience at Mars…

We pull into the parking lot and there are no signs. Just little lettering on the doors to tell you that this former mall is now a church.

We enter through the West doors and find ourselves in a long hall. The walls are gray and without decoration.

The hall breaks open into an intersection of two other main entrances, the guest reception area, and coffee and donut area.

The donuts at this nationally-renown mega-church? Just hundreds of donut holes, powdered sugar and cinnamon, in big cheap plastic bowls. I didn't try the coffee, but there were only two kinds- the house blend (something from another country) and decaf.

Upon inquiring about kids classes we are told that the elementary kids go with mom and dad to the adult service, "Because it's good for them." I'm not sure if she means the kids or the moms and dads.

The experience with the two classrooms we go to is similar: cheap yet effective security measures, a welcoming teacher, and bare bones rooms with some simple toys kids love. (Our three-year-old remarks later, "They had two magnifying glasses!")

The decorations consist of large scraps of ugly brightly colored fabric paper clipped together.

As we reach "The Shed", the affectionate name for their very plain worship center, we are overwhelmed with the vastness of the room. (Imagine Sears with nothing but a small stage in the middle and gray chairs everywhere).

Highlights of worship- the 'praise band' consisted of only 2 people, there was a simple testimony time, and the message was scripturally based and therefore incendiary to the hearers. And this plain church praises God that he has given them the chance to give a total of $41,000 to needy out of work families in Western Michigan in the last 8 weeks.

"You are putting on a show on Sunday morning and you have to give people what they want." This mantra, lived so often by well-meaning Christ-following ministers, simply is not true. Thank you, Mars Hill, for making this clear.