Preaching to Young Adults-The Interview Project #2

ADVENTURE #1: MERCYHILL (STATE COLLEGE, PA)

The start of many churches contains unique elements. Mercy Hill’s genesis is perhaps the most unique church in the Penn-Del Conference of the Assemblies of God. In order to reach the population of twenty-somethings not attending State College Assembly of God (SCAG), Mercy Hill began through a staff member of SCAG, Keith Davis. With SCAG’s permission and blessing, Mercy Hill launched as an independent congregation within the same college town as SCAG. While operating independently, the two churches continue ties. In fact, SCAG serves Mercy Hill by brewing and delivering the weekly coffee for Mercy Hill’s services.

Mercy Hill meets in a movie theater in State College. Storefront churches have long been a part of American church planting. High visibility in the midst of where people already congregate allows churches easy access to potential “customers”. This merging of the marketplace and faith is attractive to younger generations, making the movie theater the new storefront.

Sermon Evaluation

Content and Delivery
Attention and interest for the sermon were generated at the very beginning by use of a video clip from a contemporary movie, When Zachary Beaver Came to Town. The clip (View it here.) is a comical look at two preteen boys attempting to baptize Zachary Beaver so he can go to see his mother in Heaven when he dies. Not only is the humor disarming, but also introduces some of the modern preconceptions and misunderstandings of the nature of baptism, enabling Keith  to address these issues.

From the flow of the sermon, Keith’s preparation was evident. While it was a familiar topic to most people in churches, the cultural misunderstandings of many people outside the typical church, and present at Mercy Hill, made the topic fresh even though those of us evaluating the sermon were familiar with the passages employed and the topic addressed.

Keith dealt directly with the Scriptures on baptism–even explaining the ancient Greek use of the word baptizo and employing the account of Nicander pickling beets to explain the meaning of baptism. The message flowed logically while engaging both the heart and the mind as he introduced intellectual elements and connected them to the personal stories experienced in the baptism service of the previous year. The casual nature of the church was matched with the casual delivery style. Movements, gestures and eye contact helped engage the audience.

Application and Effectiveness
The application of this sermon advocating baptism was clear. The sermon addressed both baptism and the way to Salvation, which necessarily precedes it. The delivery, presentation and content made the sermon relevant to its intended audience. Since this is one of the Pentecostal churches evaluated, the issue on anointing must be addressed. In the traditional Pentecostal sense of anointing—loud, exuberant preaching—the sermon would not be considered anointed. If anointing is redefined as God effectively working through it, anointing was clearly evident. Overall, the sermon proved engaging and encouraging. Since the visit, I have often thought about the sermon.

Authenticity
Keith’s use of examples of baptism from within the congregation highlighted both their stories and an obvious personal connection. Since the stories came from his experience and relationships, he appeared personally influenced. At the same time, Keith managed to keep the sermon focused on the topic–not himself.

Multimedia and General Effectiveness
Multimedia use was limited to the previously mentioned video clip. However, the atmosphere of the movie theater contributed to the sense that the experience was media-driven. As a speaker, Keith is a good communicator and knows his audience.  The message’s goal and purpose were clearly communicated. Keith’s use of compelling stories woven through personal relationships communicates the Gospel and the community to which it belongs.

Interview Summary

Mercy Hill intentionally targets young adults in the State College area, which has a population of 145,000 and a median age of 28. While serving as the youth pastor at State College Assembly of God (SCAG), Keith sensed that the church by which he was employed was not effectively retaining the young adult population. In an account eerily familiar to many youth pastors, he noted that as teens graduated high school, they never assimilated into the “regular” church, thereby effectively graduating from high school and their faith. While many churches continue stratifying the church by adding a young adult ministry to the layers of age-targeted ministries, Keith made an unconventional move. With the blessing and support of the Lead Pastor of State College Assembly, Paul Grabill, Keith opened Mercy Hill, intentionally targeting younger generations with its ministry. State College Assembly financially supported Mercy Hill while it launched and tapered its financial support as the church became fully self-supporting.

As demonstrated by their recent travel together to the Penn-Del MinistrieSummit (The annual meeting for Assemblies of God ministers serving in Pennsylvania and Delaware.), the relationship between the churches continues on a personal level even though at this time, State College only supports them by providing the coffee brewed in air pots for Mercy Hill’s coffee time before the service. This symbolic act of service continues and demonstrates the connection between the two churches.

The choice to be an independent church allows Mercy Hill the freedom to develop their own church culture and outreach strategies without resistance from members of the other church. Many of the practices younger generations employ to reach young adults are difficult for older, traditional churches to embrace. In their understanding of Jesus being criticized for being with the wrong people—sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes, Mercy Hill’s members intentionally go to where young adults are, including bars. This is a stumbling block for many congregations even though the members are not getting drunk or participating in the behavior considered sinful.

Speakers
As a church plant with limited staffing, Mercy Hill’s preaching staff is Keith Davis. Keith preaches approximately forty-five of fifty-two Sundays. While open to others preaching, he is concerned that outside speakers might not fully understand or connect with his audience. The wrong person might unintentionally alienate or hurt the people that the church works hard to reach. Many of the typical things that “preach” and get a great response in churches may be unnecessarily offensive.

Many speakers assume a level of Biblical literacy no longer present in our culture. Nothing can be taken for granted in a post-Christian world. Keith relates a time that he mentioned Adam and Eve in a conversation at a small group. When Keith asked a new person in the group if he knew the story, they replied, “Well, I’ve heard the names.” Speakers can no longer assume the presence of background information needed to understand Biblical references.

Sermon Topics
To develop sermon series, Keith explains that he looks to find the questions people are asking instead of answering questions they are not asking. Whether churches specifically title a series in this way or not, two topics many preach on regularly are “how to maintain a marriage” and “how to raise kids in the context of a traditional, nuclear family.” Since Mercy Hill is made up of predominately unmarried adults and those with kids are more likely to be single parents, the topics must be approached differently. Instead of preaching on “How to Maintain Your Marriage,” it would be more appropriate to preach on “How to find a Spouse.” The assumption of many congregations is that the non-target audience will adapt the message to fit them, instead of asking the traditional, nuclear families to adapt the message to themselves. This unintentionally alienates those who do not fit the traditional model.

Extension of Ministry through Technology
When having the website designed, Keith asked for a site that looks more like a rock band than a church so it might be more attractive to non-Christians. Mercy Hill makes its sermons available online, but does not podcast at this time. From Keith’s responsiveness to his congregation, it appears simply a matter of lack of requests. As for social networking sites, such as Facebook and mySpace, Mercy Hill intentionally chooses not to cultivate online interactions among regular attendees. While using the social networking sites to reach out and connect to prospects, they choose direct, face-to-face contact for social interactions among themselves in order to meet the need for real, personal interaction.

Influences
Although Keith does not mention Mark Batterson, both are graduates of Central Bible College in Springfield, Missouri and knew each other there. Similarities in the two styles are evident. When asked about influences, Keith listed Mark Driscoll, Rob Bell, Dan Kimball and Doug Pagitt. While Keith would question the theology of some of these influences, their styles connect. Keith maintains that his biggest influence has been regular guys on the street and their reactions to sermons preached by Keith and others.

Advertising
In a move reminiscent of Rob Bell, who wanted no church sign placed at the church when they launched it, Keith had to be talked into a portable church sign placed on the street outside of the theater in order to direct traffic off the street. Believing that relationships are the key to evangelism, discipleship and church growth, the church purchases no advertising. Instead, Mercy Hill relies on word of mouth advertising and personal invitations to bring people to their meeting place. This personal approach to ministry infuses all aspects of their ministry. Their slogan, and one of their core values, is simply “nobody walks alone”. As ambitious as that is, Mercy Hill can ensure that people do not walk alone. First, God is always with us even before we ask Jesus into our hearts. Second, Mercy Hill intentionally connects people in groups, so the opportunity to walk with others is always available.

God Stories
Keith offers a thirty-day, money back guarantee for the Gospel. He invites people to come, experience the community of believers and test the claims of Jesus for thirty days. If not satisfied after thirty days, they can always go back to the way things were. Recently a grandmother talked her non-churchgoing granddaughter into bringing the coffee from the parent church to Mercy Hill. The granddaughter decided to try the thirty-day challenge. At her baptism, she declared, “OK there’s something to this Jesus thing.” The former coffee courier now runs a small group. And since she already has relationships with people who need Jesus, she effectively pursues others with passion.