Vegas Mega Church December 10, 2007
Posted by Zack in Nevada , trackback
I saw Jud Wilhite speak at the Catalyst conference in August, and today I got to see him preach at his Las Vegas mega-church. He’s the author of Stripped: Uncensored grace on the streets of Vegas.
Central Christian Church is huge and hosts five full services per weekend. It was diverse class-wise and ethnically. But it was also diverse in an unusual way that I couldn’t really put my finger on: there were all these people who were…just…so Vegas.
Before his sermon talked about the church’s effort to feed hundreds of homeless children in the Las Vegas Valley. The children have free meals at schools during the week, and CCCLV, along with other churches, provides free meals on weekends. It’s a new program, and the church had a lot of literature available about its plans to “eliminate hunger” in Vegas.
On the flight out here, I watched the new film about performance artist “Reverend Billy,” called What Would Jesus Buy. (I’ll write about that in a post soon—they sent me the DVD to review.) The movie is about a group of NY performers and culture jammers barging into Starbucks and Wal-marts preaching (or singing) at people to “stop shopping.” Billy wants them to spend more time living and loving than consuming. The film contrasted images of wild-eyed children tearing presents open with people communing around the Christmas table.
In Jud’s sermon this morning, called “An X-Mess Story,” he had a similar message—but he wasn’t shouting at strangers in a Big Box store. Instead he was delivering it to ten thousand people (or so, over the whole weekend) who were members of a community, all seeking something together.
I’m in Las Vegas to research how the new presidential Caucus is being organized here. I tried to ask around at church about opinions of the candidates, and whether anyone was going to participate. But people really get weirded out by questions about politics at church. Either I’m a bad a journalist, or there’s just some trick I haven’t figured out yet about political reporting in church! I emailed some of the church’s leaders to see if maybe I can visit some small groups during the week for discussions on this. We’ll see…
Comments»
hey, i just wanted to let you know how much i appreciate what you’re doing. i’m an old hippy lefty liberal who hasn’t set foot in church since i was 16. i always loved jesus but never really cared one way or the other about the whole ‘christ’ thing. it’s what he said and did that matters to me. he was a true radical. you are giving me hope that his radical message really is getting through. almost makes me want to go to church again. almost.
Do you see CCCLV as secular progressive?
No, they’re an evangelical mega-Church. Here’s their belief statement.
e.g. “The Bible is God’s Word to all people, written by human authors under the supernatural guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is the supreme source of truth for Christian beliefs and living.”
Politically, I’m sure they’ve got a mix of Dems, Republicans, Independents, CBBs (”Cannot Be Bothered’s”).
Thanks.
-Steve