SPIRITUAL SPECIAL EFFECTS,
IT’S ‘A NEW WAY TO DO CHURCH,’
AND THE HIGH-TECH RAZZLE-DAZZLE IS REACHING A YOUNGER CROWD
Ken Garfield, Religion Editor
Christians who grew up on pews and hymns might look at the photographs with this story, imagine the sights and sounds of the sophisticated visuals and rocking music and pose the question that could spark a thousand sermons: Is this really a church
It is, in the hearts and minds of the 20somethings looking for Jesus in Mosaic Church – and drawing closer to him through new technology that carries an old message into the 21st century. Opening its doors to the public for the first time last Sunday morning, Mosaic welcomed more than 400 people to its 10 a.m. service at AMC Theatres at Northlake Mall in north Charlotte.
The crowd – many in jeans, a few with their caps on backward – came to hear the Rev. Naeem Fazal share that comforting and familiar promise: “The love of Christ, guys, will set you free.”
But worshippers like Charlotte newcomer Jody Kelley, 23, came to see and hear the promise presented in a way that, frankly, keeps her awake.
And that requires the services of not just the preacher, but a half-dozen guys who look like they wandered in from VH-1 to work the lights, sound and computer-driven special effects. Among the highlights: Spiraling circles displayed on the theater’s walls and the band sang about belonging to Jesus.
“Being a younger crowd, we need a little bit more than the traditional,” Kelley, a first-grade teacher, said after the service. “This keeps me coming. It gives me more energy. It keeps me from falling asleep.”
Volunteer Jason Bean, 31, one of the techies who helped put on the show, said “this stuff” doesn’t make people feel God. But it does help to “usher in God’s spirit.”
Mosaic, planted in Charlotte by fast-growing Seacoast Church near Charleston, isn’t the first new, interdenominational congregation to target a younger crowd. A dozen or so similar churches have sprung up in movie theaters and schools across the region, embracing the slogan Mosaic uses to brand its effort: “A new way to do church.”
“A new way to do church” requires more than a volunteer making sure the preacher’s microphone is on.
As the nine-person band opened Mosaic’s inaugural service with rock-style music, Bean and his production crew manned computer and sound boards, making sure every ounce of drama was wrung from worship.
As the band sung that “Salvation is here,” the graphic on the movie screen behind them portrayed a swimmer rising up through the water.
As Fazal, 31, a converted Muslim, spoke about Mosaic hoping to “redefine what religion is,” his silhouette appeared larger than life on the theater’s wall.
Lighting director Jack Kelly, 28, said they arrived at 7am to set up the laptops, lights and other equipment needed to draw 18- to 34-year-olds back to church.
That’s what Charlotte is,” he said. “A youth town.”
Many of the thousands who flock to Carolinas churches this Sunday morning might flinch at the notion of a church counting on spiraling circles and silhouettes on walls to get its message across. For the more traditional, the choir going from red to blue robes is enough change to call an emergency meeting of the church elders.
Mosaic and other congregations like it, though, are surely not your elders’ church.
“You gotta stay up with the times,” said Denise Hanak, 32, who volunteers in Mosaic’s children’s ministry. “Otherwise it’s seen as their parents’ church. Or grandparents’ church.”
