Mars Hill

I was able to visit Mars Hill yesterday for church. It was cool seeing Rob Bell in person! He looks a lot different in person than on those Newma videos. He was ending a four part series called "The Flames of Heaven" His sermon notes were very simple. It was a piece of computer paper titled "The Flames of Heaven Part 4- Calf [Revelation 4]" Underneath the title was a black and white calf with 3 bible references on each side of it. It was that simple. If you wanted to take notes, you just flip it over and start writing. Instead of summarizing it, just go to www.mhbcmi.org and you can listen for yourself. "The Weekly" is what we would call their bulletin. Its a simple 12 page booklet including Community News, Service Opportunities, House Churches, Pastoral care, Community Care, Global Outreach, Children's Ministy, and Mars Hill Students.

The music was different that what I'm used to. The platform is in the center of the room and the band is facing inward and is circled around the platform. The music this week was bluegrass themed. I think this was to add to the affect of the message being about the Calf and Rob kept saying welcome to the barn instead of welcome to the shed. So the band played all older hymns with a bluegrass feel to them. It was just interesting to me.

I loved this story that Rob told us during announcements. Their church is supporting a region in Africa. The students at Mars Hill saw a soccer ball that the African kids used to play soccer with. It was a ball made of rappers and string tightly smashed together. This was unacceptable to them, so they raised enough money to buy 1500 soccer balls for these kids. The high school alone raised money for 1200 of these soccer balls. The kids were so excited to get these balls. They love them so much, that everytime they play soccer whoever is involved in the game must get their toes inspected and if the toenails are too long they must cut them before playing in order not to scratch the balls. I love the idea of living in common community behind all of this. The students thought, why is it right for these African kids to be playing with these balls when we have plenty of resources around us? So instead of leaving it at that, they did something about it, and thanks to them these kids are enjoying many games of soccer with real soccer balls. They forgot about themselves for a while and focused on making these kids' lives more enjoyable. Maybe this is one way this kingdom that we live in is being properly lived out.