THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 7, 1996 TAG: 9604060112
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 231 lines
LIGHTS! CAMERA! ACTION!
Take One!
Footlights flood the stage, a hush falls over the packed house and attention focuses on an unlikely scene:
A Benedictine monk in a long, brown cassock is trying to perch himself gracefully on a high, backless stool. He crosses, then uncrosses his legs. Next he tries hooking his heels on the stool's highest rung and circling his knees with his arms.
No matter how he rearranges himself, the folds of the flowing habit seem to tangle in his extremities. Finally, he wraps his ankles around two of the stool's splayed uprights, crosses his arms on his chest and lets his legs and the drapes of the vestment fall where they may.
It isn't just the seating arrangements that make Father John Peck seem out of his element. Ad libbing stand-up-comedian style is not, after all, usual Sunday morning fare for a Catholic priest. On almost any other Sabbath he'd be serving Mass and preaching a prepared sermon across town at St. Gregory's Catholic Church. But here he is, center stage, looking for all intents and purposes as though he's been set up to play straight man to the Rev. Michael Simone, pastor of Spring Branch Community Church.
But the two quickly put all joking aside and get right to God's business.
The men of cloth showed their improvisational mettle as they fielded questions of faith in a March 17 production of ``Spring Branch Unplugged,'' a talk-take-off on MTV's popular extemporaneous music show.
The infant church that holds services at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts is one of 1,400 in this country and around the world that have joined the Willow Creek Association with roots in a huge, and growing, Chicago-based megachurch that is the undisputed prototype of the ``seeker-sensitive movement.'' Willow Creek Community Church, with 15,000 worshipers, is the best attended church in America, and, whether critics like it or not, it's changing the face of worship in America.
Those who've joined the rising tide in the nation's heartland say that the contemporary, arts-based approach to Christ's message has brought thousands of unchurched into the fold, that it has deepened their spirituality.
Detractors charge that the movement amounts to consumer-oriented competition for souls, that it waters down the gospel. They contend that it packages Christianity's message in wrappings geared to appeal to the ``boomers.'' They say that Willow Creek is marketing God.
At Spring Branch, the accoutrements of traditional worship are missing.
Shafts of tinted light filtering through stained glass windows have been supplanted by strategically aimed beams from theatrical spots and floods. The congregation metamorphoses into an audience that claps and laughs as though on cue. The pastor doubles as master of ceremonies, and his troupe of actors, actresses, singers and musicians gets rave reviews.
The resultant biblical message is upbeat, ``mod.''
Before the talk-show session took off, a quartet of instrumentalists on drum, guitar, trumpet and portable organ accompanied a trio of singers in a jazzy rendition of ``I Will Celebrate and Sing Unto the Lord.''
Then, in the dark of the auditorium, the church-turned-theater became a posh nightclub when a spotlit soloist, dressed in a dark, slinky, side-slit dress, positioned herself on a stool, pulled a mike close to her mouth, closed her eyes and most artfully and passionately crooned, ``Love Had a Hold on Me.''
Simone's response to one query in the recent talk-show rendition seemed to epitomize what proponents say Spring Branch Church is all about - the traditional message of Christianity presented in contemporary terms - and his answer seemed an attempt to mediate the current controversial clamor over creationism vs. evolution:
Q: How are Christians to reconcile the biblical account of God's creation when confronted with what appears to be evidence of evolution - Neanderthal Man, for example?
A: Just as Levi Strauss stone-washes jeans to look worn, God could have created the earth to appear old. We take the Bible literally, but it's not a science book. On the other hand, science can cloud our view of God, though it doesn't have to. It doesn't matter how God did it. God is God, and God can do whatever he wants to do.
Peck, who is also campus chaplain at Old Dominion University and Regent University, didn't miss a rhetorical beat when asked about sex before marriage:
Premarital sex breaks down the tensions that were meant to build a bridge, he said. ``The Bible says `no' to sex before marriage.''
And he was just as quick on his feet for the next one:
Does prayer change God, or does prayer change me?
God never changes. God is total love. Prayer changes you.
The question-and-answer session was a bit unusual, even for avant-garde Spring Branch. Most Sundays, a short drama gives real-life dimension to the pastor's sermon.
A production two weeks ago, for example, was a prelude to Simone's message about the elderly, ``What Does God Have to Say to the AARP?''
The 10-minute skit aimed to give the congregation-turned-audience insight into what it means to grow old in our society:
An 86-year-old man, confined to a wheelchair and living with his daughter, is so decrepit that he can't even blow out his birthday candles.
``That old man is going to drive us all to an early grave,'' complains his daughter to her own teenage girl.
``I'm deaf, not dead,'' quips grandpa.
When alone with his granddaughter, the old man eyes the cake disdainfully.
``I wanted chips and dip,'' he whines. ``I need all the preservatives I can get.''
The audience's tension is broken by laughter.
``Who put her in charge of me anyway?'' he asks after learning that he is soon to be moved to a nursing home.
``Living a great life ain't just about living long,'' he continues sagely. ``It's about finding truth and finding out what's valuable. I've lived a long time, and I still don't understand most of it.''
The lights dim while stagehands remove the set, and suddenly Simone appears at the podium-turned-pulpit. He pulls down a large video screen, and a short clip from the movie ``Cocoon, the Return'' begins to roll.
When the house lights come back on, Simone becomes a comedian:
``You know you're getting older when most of your dreams are reruns, when reading `Total Woman' makes you sleepy, when the little old lady you help across the street is your wife.''
More laughs, then he gets down to Bible business.
``We live in a culture with major denial about aging. It denies the process, perpetuates the illusion that no one ages . . . magazine covers, an air-brushed Barbara Walters. Our culture wants us to define God in a few hours Sunday morning, but the Bible doesn't teach that. It says the first decisive moment of your life is when you decide to live seven days a week for God.''
Now Simone engages in theatrics, walking back and forth on the stage, gesticulating, and he's ready to deliver his punch line:
``When you make the decision for God, then you don't have to worry about growing old. The second decisive moment is when you realize you can be a gift to someone. Live tenaciously, never grow old. Quality of life . . . depends on the decision to walk seven days a week with God.''
Later, Simone defended the Spring Branch approach to worship:
``People go to church for years and never get to ask questions. It's part of `seeker' mentality. And so much of life is drama. Jesus did much the same thing - packaged God. The people got mad at him, too.
``There's a tendency for people to institutionalize, to shut down their hearts to community, to put God in a box, control, carry around, pull him out. But he's not in a box. Faith is about experiencing the explosive reality of God in our hearts.
``It's a bridge to those who were bored or turned off (by traditional church). This is the most exciting, wonderful way of doing church - the ability to be creative - focusing on contemporary issues that are in the news and part of our lives. I believe that God is about wanting a relationship with us in the trenches of daily life.''
Like Willow Creek, the church trunk from which it sprouted, Spring Branch is growing by leaps and bounds. The congregation has tripled in size in the three years it's been in existence, now numbering about 450.
Just now, the young flock is looking to sink its roots deeper into Virginia Beach soil. The church quickly is outgrowing its temporary sanctuary and is looking to buy or build. The hope is that the congregation will have a home of its own within two years. The most likely site is an 800-seat building in the Great Neck area that was formerly used as a theater.
About half of Spring Branch's original 150 parishioners followed Simone when he left his pastorate at Virginia Beach Community Chapel to find a new venue for his creative instincts, which include holding baptisms in the ocean three times each year between June and October.
One of those who made the move is Bennett Strickland, a 40-year-old hotel owner who readily admits he has ``not an artistic ability,'' but enjoys hearing the Bible's traditional message in modern terms.
Like many others who've joined the Willow Creek movement, Strickland says he was ``put off by age-old ceremony.'' The married father of four enjoys working with children, so, for him, Spring Branch, with its numerous youth ministries, is ``a natural.''
The church holds children's classes in other rooms at the arts center on Sundays and offers a full range of programs for all ages from nursery through high school.
Letha Holland-Deel is also just doing what comes naturally in directing music at Spring Branch. The 30-year-old songwriter, singer and actress grew up in a Pentecostal Church of God, playing the piano and singing in the choir, and she likes the creative outlet she's recently found.
``I can focus my music, be more creative, can use classical and contemporary,'' she says.
Karen VeLonda Osburn also welcomes the opportunity to sing, act and direct. The 28-year old Hampton University professor says she likes ``that I am valued, can have a voice in the Christian ministry, and not just to lead a women's Bible study group.''
Spring Branch's parent Willow Creek Community Church began in a rented movie theater in 1975. Three years later, the congregation numbered 3,000. Today, the throng of 15,000 sits in theater seats in a 352,000-square-foot building - that is nearly paid for - on a 120-acre site in the upscale Chicago suburb of South Barrington. Willow Creek boasts a food court, bookstore, aerobics, a staff of 167 and an annual budget of $13 million.
Its offshoot association was formed in 1992 and three times a year conducts a conference for hundreds of church leaders who want to learn about Willow Creek's success.
To charges that by emphasizing entertainment he is diluting the Bible's message, Willow Creek founder Bill Hybels has responded:
``Who was the master composer? Who created the arts? Whose idea was it to communicate the truth through a wide variety of artistic genres? I think it was God.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
CONTEMPORARY CHRISTIANITY
[Color] Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Lori Steele, left, Sandy Martin-Hudgins and Paul Patton present a
skit during Sunday morning services of the Spring Branch Community
Church.
After the skit pictured above, the Rev. Michael Simone gives a
related sermon on old age during Spring Branch Community Church
services at the Virginia Beach Center for the Arts.
ABOUT THE CHURCH
Spring Branch Community Church meets at the Virginia Beach Center
for the Arts, 2200 Parks Ave. Services are held at 9 and 10:30 a.m.
each Sunday. A ``New Community Sunday Evening Service'' is held at
6:30 p.m. on the first Sunday of each month. Smaller groups for
various ages meet weekly in families' homes. The church office is at
2624 Southern Blvd. For more information, call 463-7733.
Staff photos by D. KEVIN ELLIOTT
Most Sundays, a short drama gives real-life dimension to the
pastor's sermon. A 10-minute skit two weeks ago, for example, was a
prelude to The Rev. Michael Simone's message about the elderly. It
starred Paul Patton as an 86-year-old man and Lori Steele as his
teenage granddaughter.
Karen VeLonda Osburn welcomes the opportunity to sing, act and
direct at Spring Branch Community Church. She likes ``that I am
valued, can have a voice in the Christian ministry, and not just to
lead a women's Bible study group.''
Julie Burke of Virginia Beach holds her son Daniel, 16 months, as
she watches the service on a television in the foyer outside the
Virginia Beach Center for the Arts auditorium. The congregation,
featuring many young couples, has tripled in size in the three years
it's been in existence, now numbering about 450. The church quickly
is outgrowing its temporary sanctuary and is looking to buy or
build.
KEYWORDS: CHURCH PROFILE RELIGION by CNB