Contemporary Worship: What Is It?

COTTAGE GROVE, MN (August 24, 2005) - Contemporary isn't what it used to be.

The contemporary service held Sunday mornings at CrossRoads Covenant Church has been great for reaching baby boomers, says Brad Kindall, pastor of outreach. That service continues to attract people and has an attendance of more than 1,200.

But what is considered contemporary by some is old school for many people younger than age 40, he adds. "We saw there was sort of a disconnect," says the 39-year-old Kindall. So he and other staff members began thinking in February about how to reach the new generation. "We just started researching - what if we had our own service, what would we do?

"We discovered that there were people in our immediate area that would benefit from a different style," Kindall says. So the staff developed a Sunday night worship service called Sanctuary that combines loud modern music, silence, video, a darkened sanctuary illuminated by candles, and weekly communion. The service also includes a person carrying in a cross, which is placed at the front of the sanctuary. That same person will carry it out at the end to signify, "We're going out into the world to follow Jesus."

"Sunday nights, we reach back and put one hand back to the past and one hand to the future," Kindall says. "We seek to be molded by the traditions of the faith." The service is drawing people who have been unchurched. "We're seeing all kinds of new faces. Our goal was to be at 200 by September." Last Sunday, 225 attended the service.

Last Sunday's service included a call to worship written by a teenager who also read it for the congregation. Brief videos produced by Rob Bell, the teaching pastor of Mars Hill Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, are used weekly to highlight themes of the service. A recent service featured a song, "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by the alternative rock band Green Day, which was used to illustrate how so many people feel alienated.

The staff began their research knowing, "My generation and younger is the most biblically illiterate generation born in this country," says Kindall. "They have no context to understand spiritual truth from a Christian perspective."

The lack of context demanded a new type of service, Kindall says. "Sunday morning assumes some context." The Sunday night service is planned keeping the new realities in mind. For example, the teaching is interactive, which includes giving people time to ask questions at the end of each sermon."

To further give context, Kindall also has been preaching through the Gospel of Matthew and drawing connections between the Old and New Testaments as well as today's culture. "It's helping them to see the grand narrative context."

In a recent sermon on the "pure of heart," he tied the passage to Psalm 73. Kindall also writes a web blog in connection with the service. He encouraged people to read Psalm 73 in preparation for the Sunday evening service.

Gaining permission from the church leadership to start the service was easy, Kindall says. "The climate here at CrossRoads is very open to change. Put in the context of mission, the elders said go for it." Even some of the senior adults are coming to the service, although many don't because of the volume level. But even they are supportive of the new outreach, Kindall says. "They're excited about the youth coming."

Word of the service has spread by word of mouth, Kindall says, but he adds that the church intends a push in the fall to publicize the evening worship.

To learn more about CrossRoads, its new service and its other ministries, call the church staff at 651-459-7111 or visit the church's website at CrossRoads.

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