People ask me all the time what type of service Freedom Ridge is going to have. It is kind of a tricky question to answer in just one or two descriptive words, not because I don’t know what we will be like. I can see it very clearly in my mind. It is because I don’t know what “term” to use.
“Traditional” means you have a choir, perhaps dressed in robes sitting either on the stage or to one side of the stage. An organ and piano plays the songs while everyone sings verses 1, 2, 3 & 5 of hymn #472. There is nothing wrong with this, but we are definitely not going to be traditional.
“Contemporary” means you don’t have a choir, but you have somewhere between 3 and 12 people on the stage each with their own microphone singing what is affectionately called “praise & worship” songs with the words on a screen. You usually have drums, maybe a couple guitars, and definitely a keyboard. Throw in a casually dressed speaker, maybe an occasional drama, and you’ve got yourself a contemporary church service. I think contemporary is the new traditional. We are not going to be contemporary.
The other terms that people use to describe church services are “emerging” and “emergent.” Honestly, I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around what these mean. I could be wrong, but it seems that those who subscribe to this train of thought are re imagining what church is supposed to be and are tired of the way that modern churches are doing things, so they are going back to the way church was done 2000 years ago. I understand the premise, but it seems they are not going back to the true authentic church of 2000 years ago, but are only going back about 500 years. It is not to say they are traditional, because they are not.
To oversimplify it, it has something to do with incense, you can maybe sit on couches instead of pew or chairs, there’s some chants or group readings, you can visit a prayer or confession station, the service is more conversational, and there are definitely candles. We are not going to be emergent, although during our services some people may raise their ignited lighters as the band is rocking out a song to God.
So what type of service is Freedom Ridge going to have? Maybe conmergent. Maybe emergeporary. Maybe something else. We’re not going to be Willow Creek, or Saddleback, or Mars Hill, or LifeChurch, or Lakewood Church, but we will be Freedom Ridge. We’ll take what we can learn from other successful churches, apply it to our setting here, and not worry about fitting in some sort of box. Boxes are too restrictive anyway.
Come back tomorrow and I’ll give you a little insight into what we’ll be like.
