Posted on 10/01/2006 2:07:57 PM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
New Berlin, WI - With a logo that looks like a coffee stain, it's clear The Ridge Community Church is a bit different.
There won't be power-tool demonstrations at the pulpit when the inaugural service is held at 10 a.m. Sunday in the Marcus Ridge Cinema, 5200 S. Moorland Road. But other steps are being taken to make the target group - unchurched, beer-drinking, sports-loving 35- to-38-year-old guys - as comfortable as the wives and children with them.
Think of it as soul improvement instead of home improvement.
Consider also that the outreach activities of the launch team included cleaning the toilets - yes, toilets - of more than 30 businesses for free, often more than once.
And don't overlook the multiple mailings of postcards that have been sent to 46,000 homes in parts of New Berlin, West Allis, Muskego, Hales Corners, Franklin and Greendale. One listed the top 10 reasons people don't go to church. Among them: "Two words: Bor-ing," "Seven letters . . . P-A-C-K-E-R-S!!!," "When I want to feel really guilty I can just call my mom" and "I don't listen to music from the 1800s - why should I sing it?"
No need to worry about that on Sunday.
The non-denominational service will begin with a video clip of a rocket liftoff amid booming audio. That will segue into a heavy electric-guitar solo as a live praise band plays "Stars" from the alternative rock group Switchfoot.
Amen.
When the man attends church, 93% of the time the rest of the family attends as well, said The Ridge's lead pastor, Mark Weigt, citing statistics from the book "Why Men Hate Going to Church." If just the woman attends, the chance of the rest of the family attending falls to 17%.
Boys and girls who are taken to church by their moms without the dads are harder to engage in youth-group activities and tend to drop out of church at higher rates when they reach adolescence, according to the book, which was written by David Murrow.
"I'm a sports guy," said Weigt. "We'll do a lot of themes and examples that target men specifically. Our music is kind of the 102.9 type (WHQG-FM "The Hog," a rock station), a more male-driven-type sound. Guys love projects, so we're going to go out and do things like build Habitat for Humanity homes, do yardwork for the elderly and disabled, as well as organize instruction-oriented mission trips to the Dominican Republic.
"Our first series is called Identity Theft," he said. "It targets men."
The church has made its own videos to show at services, spoofing the credit card identity-theft commercials in which the thief's voice comes out of the victim's mouth. Each week in October will have a variation on the theme.
This Sunday's is "Stolen by Success," how achievement and possessions - not bad in themselves - can pull people away from the identity God created for them, Weigt said. Making a commitment
Weigt, 34, was born and raised in Oshkosh, where he attended a Lutheran church. At the University of Miami, he started leading a wild life, though he attended Methodist services with his roommate after all-night partying.
After graduating in 1993, he was on the fast track to corporate success, becoming Coca-Cola's youngest district manager in south Florida, he said. But he felt empty.
He had a conversion experience and accepted Jesus. His wife, Donna, soon followed. Four years later, feeling a call, he quit his job. They packed a rented trailer and headed for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Illinois and then Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where he got a master's in divinity in 2000.
"Donna and I just made a commitment, if we could ever start a church for people like us that were far from God, we were going to do it," Weigt said.
Ordained at Southland Christian Church in Lexington, Ky., he later went to California to a church that had started two years earlier in a movie theater.
He and his wife were on a visit to Wisconsin last summer when they met with representatives from the Indianapolis-based East 91st Street Christian Church, which does a lot of church plantings and sees a lack of churches here. He accepted their offer to start a church with $100,000 in seed money, working in recent months with a team of four full-time assistants he hired.
Weigt got office space and other aid, including some volunteers for what is now a more than 60-person launch team, at RiverGlen Christian Church in Waukesha.
The launch team got attention by forming groups in three suburbs and doing service projects "to show God's love" to 45,000 people. That included converting a bread truck into an outreach van, handing out candy and water at parades, hanging popcorn bags on doorknobs, bringing meals to police and fire stations and cleaning toilets. More such groups are planned.
"I was real surprised," said Sal Matera, general manager of the Atlanta Bread Company bakery at 3830 S. Moorland. "I never would have expected a church to come around and want to clean my bathrooms. They're great people. A lot of new churches, they try and push their beliefs on you, and these guys never did that."
A Catholic, Matera doesn't plan on changing his faith. But he's curious. "I probably will go to the church just to see it, because they've been talking about it so much," Matera said.
To learn more about the church, visit its Web site at www.theridgecc.com.
To each his own. I prefer suits, neckties, and Bach. ;)
The timeless truth of God's Word being communicated in a manner to reach lost individuals who otherwise might never hear... May the Lord richly bless this new church and lead those there that He intends to be a part of it!
I have long thought that in some communities, a woman's church would be appropriate. Not as a feminist or anti-male congregation, but a place specializing in the spiritual needs of women.
Taking some elements from "Big Sisters", and social and cultural support groups and clubs, one of its emphasis would be on recreating a community of women.
This is important in the US, because we have lost so many community organizations that people can grow up in a neighborhood, or even in an apartment, yet have no relationship with those who live even next door.
The suburbs are often like isolated estates, and maintaining a healthy family is much more difficult without community support.
Of course, a woman's church would be a natural target for radicals and political agitators hoping to steer them towards nonsense, so such a church would have to be very grounded and have firm rules against such efforts.
35-to-38 years old?
This sounds more like a project to get the preacher's homely daughter a husband before it's too late.
Interesting. A new method to increase the bottom line for organized religion...
bump
That was my take, too. After having a falling out with my last church, I've been thinking long and hard about my faith (I haven't lost it) my money (I don't want to waste it) and my 'spiritual leaders' within our small town (scandals abound!)
I just wish there were more old-fashioned churches where you just went to Hear The Word and praise God and do some good works for others less fortunate than you. I can't stand all the modern goofin' around.
They forgot the girls choir dressed in halter tops and mini skirts.
I certainly know what you mean.
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