"God hates religion" trumpets the website of The Meeting House, one of Canada's fastest growing churches. But don't apply the label "church" too freely: this particular gathering of Christians based in a converted movie theatre in Oakville, Ont., styles itself as "a church for people who aren't into church".
A typical service at The Meeting House begins with contemporary musical worship, including a rearrangement of at least one historic hymn. The sermon is preceded by a series of quotations on the big screen set to an energetic sound-track and culminating in a film clip. A lively question and answer period then wraps up the preaching segment, which often goes for close to an hour.
Heikki Walden, a real estate agent in his 30s, was active in an Anglican church in downtown Toronto until recently, but has since joined the Meeting House.
"They have a great sense of humour and there's an openness toward questioning that you don't get in a lot of churches. Maybe because people are afraid of hard questions or because they prefer not to ask them. But at The Meeting House they expect you to get out of your seat; they invite you to talk back and raise objections. The extended question and answer time after every sermon shows how much this church values dialogue."
Walden clearly enjoys the teaching, but he suggests that the success of The Meeting House lies in its healthy lack of dependence on staff and its effectiveness at encouraging newcomers to immediately take on leadership roles.
Each week 44 small groups, known as "Home Churches", with an average of 11 people each meet to encourage continued reflection on the scripture studied the previous Sunday. The discussion on these occasions is designed to dovetail with the preaching and the home church leaders aim to help people integrate spirituality into the grind of their weekday lives. According to Tim Day, senior pastor of The Meeting House, this is where church really happens. It's also where newcomers begin to take ownership of The Meeting House.
Lisa Lum leads a home church. In her late 20s, she works in financial services in Toronto. She joined The Meeting House after attending a Presbyterian church for the last three years.
"The Meeting House is designed to get new people excited about being there. One of the best things about it is that you can easily take friends or family who aren't familiar with church — and you don't have to worry about them being bored or freaked out," she explains. "The services are fun as well as worshipful and their use of multi-media is superb. There's always a film clip and plenty of other pop culture content. It's both thought-provoking and easy for people to relate to."
The new pantheon of our culture is filled with Hollywood's deities and demi-gods, says Day. The Meeting House makes it a priority to engage with film and television, among other media, partly in order to connect with the more than one half of its people who have either become Christians in the last two years or who have not yet taken that step.
Day describes Sunday worship as "a combination of church service, university class and late night talk show" and explains that the intention is to attract people who have negative stereotypes of church. To the traditional core of a worship service, The Meeting House tries to add thoughtful teaching and discussion that wrestles with key issues as well as the kind of informal and even irreverent tone that you might expect from David Letterman and Jay Leno.
Founded in 1986, as a church-plant of the Brethren in Christ, The Meeting House has been expanding by 35 per cent a year since the arrival of Bruxy Cavey, currently the church's teaching pastor, in 1996. The latest tally puts its membership at 2,500.
The Meeting House has multiplied geographically as well. Three worship services happen every Sunday morning at its Oakville site, but the teaching — whether Cavey or someone else — also gets beamed to rented Silver City theatres in Hamilton, Brampton, and Yorkdale in North Toronto for 10 a.m. gatherings. A new branch is planned for downtown Toronto in the Paramount Theatres on John St., starting later this year.
Cavey may be in the spotlight, but staff understand their separate roles. Day came on board in 2001 to focus on administration. He and Cavey split the job that most ministers do. He organizes the church behind the scenes while Cavey teaches up front. Day identifies this division of labour as one of the keys to the success of The Meeting House.
"We want to present the message a certain way," explains Day. "That's less likely to happen when preaching preparation has to compete with a ton of other duties. Bruxy spends 30 to 40 hours a week on his sermon. He reads and researches widely. This kind of focus has allowed him to develop into an amazing communicator."
But The Meeting House will not let its success get in the way of its calling. The leadership makes regular attempts to discourage church growth voyeurism, asking those who remain spectators to find another movie theatre. Instead, they stress a deeper commitment and a wider ecumenical horizon. Staff and others also actively counter the hero worship of Cavey or a narrow fixation on the particular appeal of The Meeting House.
This approach disobeys every rule of marketing, but it pleases newcomer, Heikki Walden.
"When they talk about how they're a church for people who aren't into church, it's more than an advertising gimmick," says Walden. "Somehow this place has managed to move away from institutional loyalty and a preoccupation with turf and all the other garbage that causes problems and get back to a focus on Jesus Christ. That's the real story."
