The teaser from the last post mentioned my trip to Mars. Some of you might have thought I had lost my head (a phenomenon that has happened once or twice). Actually, Mars is short for Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, MI. Last week was the "Isn't She Beautiful" seminar for church leaders celebrating the local church. If you have read previous posts of mine, you know that I have mentioned Rob Bell before. Rob is the founding and teaching pastor at Mars Hill. SO, for two days, Jan 22-23, I attended the ISB seminar, and it was incredible. Let me give you some highlights:
* The building Mars Hill is in is actually a loser 70's mall that was given to them. They bought the lots around it, which is their parking. What's interesting about Mars Hill is there is not signage to actually identify the church. The only indication of signage is on their doors, which are circles with arrows on the circles (from a teaching series Rob did on the "directions" of the church). Then in small writing underneath those circles on one window is the Mars Hill times of service, office hours, etc. When my friend and I actually showed up on Sunday for church there, we had driven down the road it's on, but had no idea how to locate it. Then, I pulled into this vast lot, drove around the Y and there it was. We got out and asked each other it that was the place, and I was pretty sure it was.
* The leadership of Mars Hill would simply say that their church is just a building. It's a mall. The main gathering space of their church is what looks like an old, gutted out Sears. I would say that space can hold a good 3500 people at least. The walls are this weird dull, sage green, the chairs are gray and plastic, and there are tall metal boxes lining the outer edge of the room they call "joy boxes." Joy boxes are the the containers into which people can put their offering into...as they do not take an offering during their worship times. The have worship in the round, where the preacher/teacher stands in the center of the space on a stage platform structure, with a square of screens above him/her...looks kind of like a scoreboard in any given basketball arena. But the screens are there to point people to bible passages, see pictures, watch movie clips, etc. The picture above is of their worship area called "the shed."
* Music at Mars Hill is amazing. But, what's really interesting is how the musicians are positioned. Every worship band or group I have been a part of, it's the weird layout of the musicians standing up front before the congregation or even better, to the side of it. At Mars Hill, the musicians all stand on the corners of the stage but face in towards each other. The drummer of course, is in a sound proof box thing with clear Plexiglas above him, forming to point, but there is enough room for the sound to come out of it. So, the drummer can play as loud or raucous as he wants, and not have to worry about drowning out the singers and players. All the musicians have their own personal amp they can check volume, or balance, or it looked like they can even "e.q." themselves if they need to. They all use in ear monitors which is very cool. What I really appreciated about the songs we sang was that the lyrics all point to God, not us. So many worship songs are cliches and tags speaking to how we are, what we need, how we feel, which is OK, but I see the true reason for singing in worship is to bless God, praise God with song. So, I want to sing about the worth and value, and majesty of God to God. Is that weird of me? But, I guess not because this church seems to get that idea. Imagine taking a bunch of old hymns though and arranging them so they incorporate old funk music from the 70's. Yeah, it was awesome! Nothing like hearing the theme from "Shaft" in worship.
* One of my quirks that others put up with, is that I love to capture profound moments of teaching or sermons on tape. Well, I have moved up in the world and bought myself a digital recorder. It records about eight hours worth of notes. It looks basically like a hyped-up jump drive. You disconnect the top from bottom, stick the top into the USB port on the computer, Media player comes up, you play the audio file through the player, and then if you want to, you can add it to the burn list, and burn whatever you recorded. You can see where I am going with this can't you? I recorded everything Rob spoke about, with the exception of "buckets, chunks, and marinade," which I had heard about in Dallas three years ago. What's excellent with all this is that I have something to inspire me, help me, humor me, and definitely give me hope. I love listening to these two days of incredible teaching as I do my daily driving. The very last recording I took was that of the worship on the final night we were there. It captures those moments for me of raw, intimate, closeness between my God and me. Lots of crying, lots of prayer, lots of searching, and lots of reasons to be thankful.
* I have already checked out some other blogs and sites, which have some awesome notes from Rob's teachings. My notes suck, so I recommend googling Isn't She Beautiful, and then going from there. There are two sites that are loaded with notes. Look for the notes on salvation...they will blow you away.
* Lurch and I had an awesome time in Grandville, but we had to stay about ten minutes from Mars Hill as the hotels close by were all booked. So, we ended up staying at the Country Inn and Suites in Wyoming (another suburb of Grand Rapids). Wonderful hotel, great staff, and impeccably clean. When Lurch and I travel together (we have been all over this great country), we try and find some kind of food place or desert place that is just local. It would be easy to eat chain stuff, but we like adventure. When we checked in at the hotel, we asked the front desk person what her favorite pizza place was in the greater Grand Rapids area. She gave us two menus. We looked them over and it was decided that we would order from a local place close to the hotel called Valone's. What caught our attention was the 18 inch pizza with four toppings for $14! Oh yeah!!! The driver got it to us to the hotel in ten minutes flat! The core temperature as well as the surrounding temp of the pizza was that of the sun...yes that big orange ball that blinds you and gives you bad skin. I have eaten lots of pizza in my life, but this pizza was amazing! Tons of cheese, meat, and the crust wasn't over done, but it was soft and chewy. The pieces were HUGE! It was so good, we decided to order another pizza from them the last night we were there, and we tried their cheese sticks. Man, am I hungry right now. I HIGHLY recommend Valone's if you are ever in the greater suburb of Wyoming in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
* Lurch and I are official members of the Beardcore! With shirts and everything... Not sure what it is, but I liked the shirts I kept seeing at Mars Hill being worn by guys who had beards, but then finding out the guy who started Beardcore is kind of an enigma around there, made me want to get a shirt even more. The shirt has this pair of sunglasses, nose, and mouth with beard as a shadow on these non-descript T-Shirts. Very cool, but very hush hush!
I needed to go to this conference. It had been a dream of mine to see Mars Hill, worship there, and just soak it all in. While I was there, I met Rob, had him sign my Velvet Elvis, and had a picture taken with him, which now is hanging in my office at church. That was a cool moment meeting him. But, I needed to be there to be with others who love the church, are tired of hurting or burn out, are excited about what God is doing in them and in us, and who see the church is beautiful because Jesus invites us into this beautiful life we experience together. If Mars Hill has another seminar for leaders, GO! Do yourself a favor and go. All the money they made from this by the way, they gave it all away to relief organizations in Rwanda, and in Grand Rapids. As a side note, I highly recommend downloading Rob's teachings...you will never think the same again after hearing him teach. Check out the Mars Hill website and order some teachings. Definitely worth it. I thank the good people of St. John's Lutheran for such a thing called continuing education money that allowed me to go. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are beautiful. More later...
www.marshill.org
* The building Mars Hill is in is actually a loser 70's mall that was given to them. They bought the lots around it, which is their parking. What's interesting about Mars Hill is there is not signage to actually identify the church. The only indication of signage is on their doors, which are circles with arrows on the circles (from a teaching series Rob did on the "directions" of the church). Then in small writing underneath those circles on one window is the Mars Hill times of service, office hours, etc. When my friend and I actually showed up on Sunday for church there, we had driven down the road it's on, but had no idea how to locate it. Then, I pulled into this vast lot, drove around the Y and there it was. We got out and asked each other it that was the place, and I was pretty sure it was.
* The leadership of Mars Hill would simply say that their church is just a building. It's a mall. The main gathering space of their church is what looks like an old, gutted out Sears. I would say that space can hold a good 3500 people at least. The walls are this weird dull, sage green, the chairs are gray and plastic, and there are tall metal boxes lining the outer edge of the room they call "joy boxes." Joy boxes are the the containers into which people can put their offering into...as they do not take an offering during their worship times. The have worship in the round, where the preacher/teacher stands in the center of the space on a stage platform structure, with a square of screens above him/her...looks kind of like a scoreboard in any given basketball arena. But the screens are there to point people to bible passages, see pictures, watch movie clips, etc. The picture above is of their worship area called "the shed."
* Music at Mars Hill is amazing. But, what's really interesting is how the musicians are positioned. Every worship band or group I have been a part of, it's the weird layout of the musicians standing up front before the congregation or even better, to the side of it. At Mars Hill, the musicians all stand on the corners of the stage but face in towards each other. The drummer of course, is in a sound proof box thing with clear Plexiglas above him, forming to point, but there is enough room for the sound to come out of it. So, the drummer can play as loud or raucous as he wants, and not have to worry about drowning out the singers and players. All the musicians have their own personal amp they can check volume, or balance, or it looked like they can even "e.q." themselves if they need to. They all use in ear monitors which is very cool. What I really appreciated about the songs we sang was that the lyrics all point to God, not us. So many worship songs are cliches and tags speaking to how we are, what we need, how we feel, which is OK, but I see the true reason for singing in worship is to bless God, praise God with song. So, I want to sing about the worth and value, and majesty of God to God. Is that weird of me? But, I guess not because this church seems to get that idea. Imagine taking a bunch of old hymns though and arranging them so they incorporate old funk music from the 70's. Yeah, it was awesome! Nothing like hearing the theme from "Shaft" in worship.
* One of my quirks that others put up with, is that I love to capture profound moments of teaching or sermons on tape. Well, I have moved up in the world and bought myself a digital recorder. It records about eight hours worth of notes. It looks basically like a hyped-up jump drive. You disconnect the top from bottom, stick the top into the USB port on the computer, Media player comes up, you play the audio file through the player, and then if you want to, you can add it to the burn list, and burn whatever you recorded. You can see where I am going with this can't you? I recorded everything Rob spoke about, with the exception of "buckets, chunks, and marinade," which I had heard about in Dallas three years ago. What's excellent with all this is that I have something to inspire me, help me, humor me, and definitely give me hope. I love listening to these two days of incredible teaching as I do my daily driving. The very last recording I took was that of the worship on the final night we were there. It captures those moments for me of raw, intimate, closeness between my God and me. Lots of crying, lots of prayer, lots of searching, and lots of reasons to be thankful.
* I have already checked out some other blogs and sites, which have some awesome notes from Rob's teachings. My notes suck, so I recommend googling Isn't She Beautiful, and then going from there. There are two sites that are loaded with notes. Look for the notes on salvation...they will blow you away.
* Lurch and I had an awesome time in Grandville, but we had to stay about ten minutes from Mars Hill as the hotels close by were all booked. So, we ended up staying at the Country Inn and Suites in Wyoming (another suburb of Grand Rapids). Wonderful hotel, great staff, and impeccably clean. When Lurch and I travel together (we have been all over this great country), we try and find some kind of food place or desert place that is just local. It would be easy to eat chain stuff, but we like adventure. When we checked in at the hotel, we asked the front desk person what her favorite pizza place was in the greater Grand Rapids area. She gave us two menus. We looked them over and it was decided that we would order from a local place close to the hotel called Valone's. What caught our attention was the 18 inch pizza with four toppings for $14! Oh yeah!!! The driver got it to us to the hotel in ten minutes flat! The core temperature as well as the surrounding temp of the pizza was that of the sun...yes that big orange ball that blinds you and gives you bad skin. I have eaten lots of pizza in my life, but this pizza was amazing! Tons of cheese, meat, and the crust wasn't over done, but it was soft and chewy. The pieces were HUGE! It was so good, we decided to order another pizza from them the last night we were there, and we tried their cheese sticks. Man, am I hungry right now. I HIGHLY recommend Valone's if you are ever in the greater suburb of Wyoming in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
* Lurch and I are official members of the Beardcore! With shirts and everything... Not sure what it is, but I liked the shirts I kept seeing at Mars Hill being worn by guys who had beards, but then finding out the guy who started Beardcore is kind of an enigma around there, made me want to get a shirt even more. The shirt has this pair of sunglasses, nose, and mouth with beard as a shadow on these non-descript T-Shirts. Very cool, but very hush hush!
I needed to go to this conference. It had been a dream of mine to see Mars Hill, worship there, and just soak it all in. While I was there, I met Rob, had him sign my Velvet Elvis, and had a picture taken with him, which now is hanging in my office at church. That was a cool moment meeting him. But, I needed to be there to be with others who love the church, are tired of hurting or burn out, are excited about what God is doing in them and in us, and who see the church is beautiful because Jesus invites us into this beautiful life we experience together. If Mars Hill has another seminar for leaders, GO! Do yourself a favor and go. All the money they made from this by the way, they gave it all away to relief organizations in Rwanda, and in Grand Rapids. As a side note, I highly recommend downloading Rob's teachings...you will never think the same again after hearing him teach. Check out the Mars Hill website and order some teachings. Definitely worth it. I thank the good people of St. John's Lutheran for such a thing called continuing education money that allowed me to go. So, thank you, thank you, thank you. You are beautiful. More later...
www.marshill.org
