Texas Tavern Worship

As I recall the places of worship in which I've worked, the styles of worship I've planned, and the people whom I have led, I doubt they are much different from those of most United Methodist church musicians and pastors today. The congregations have been large, medium, and small in attendance, mostly middle class. The communities have been rural, suburban, and urban. The sanctuaries have been in great need of repair, suffering from years of neglected repairs, and magnificently beautiful and luxuriously appointed. The organs have been old Hammonds and Baldwins, and they have been 100-rank pipe organs, or the accompaniment instrument is an old, battered upright piano. The hymns have ranged the gamut of the Christian faith, from plainchant to contemporary praise choruses. And the people have largely been members of the local congregation and community, comfortable in the knowledge of what would happen in worship even before they passed through the doors on Sunday morning. My guess is that that's how it is with most people reading this article.

Last week I met a United Methodist worship leader for whom none of these conditions apply. He leads weekly worship in such a drastically different and innovative fashion that most UMs today would not recognize it. He is a young man named Marlon Hall. He leads an outreach worship and evangelism ministry of the predominantly African American Windsor Village UMC in Houston, Texas, the largest African American UM congregation (www.kingdombuilder.com). It may be the largest of all UM congregations, with a membership of over 10,000 souls.

The worship experience Marlon leads is unlike any I've encountered. It exists outside the walls of the Windsor Village building, and it involves approximately 900 persons. On a weekly basis, it may involve up to one half of that number. A couple of weeks ahead of time, Marlon approaches the owner or manager of a local Houston bar or tavern. He offers to bring to that tavern several hundred people, mostly young adults. He also offers to bring along a group of first-rate, respected, well-rehearsed musicians to provide cutting-edge contemporary styled music that most of the people who might walk into the establishment would enjoy. Marlon is up-front about the fact that the musicians and singers will sing music that is popular right now, but that they will also sing sacred songs and music in the same style, although I'm sure Marlon has his own unique, culturally relevant way of phrasing it. The musicians Marlon recruits are musicians who have come into the Windsor Village family through Marlon's outreach to the clubs, thus they are the same musicians who might have played in those clubs on nights when Marlon's group wasn't there.

At the appointed time they show up at the bar, get set up, gather around, mingle, talk, have a good time, all while the musicians play. As the evening progresses the music sounds the same, but the lyrics have changed, and it's worship. And this is the worship gathering for this particular body of Christ — in a bar, with hip-hop music and conversation. Think of it — a 900-member UM congregation, worshiping in bars and clubs, growing in faith as well as in numbers, but outside the walls of the church building. I have not personally worshiped with this congregation, but after meeting Marlon Hall, hearing his story, and being inspired and humbled by his vision, I will do so soon.

This very Wesleyan approach to worship and outreach is probably not going to be picked up by most UM churches, pastors, or musicians. However, its success and the clear fact that it strikes a resonant chord among the young, unchurched crowd that regularly frequents Houston taverns should cause us to ask what are we doing now to reach that segment of our own communities. How do we reach someone who will never be attracted by a Bach cantata, a cherubic children's choir, the current CCLI favorite praise song, or "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"? How do we help someone experience the love and grace of God who scorns churches and ridicules preachers? How do we make them disciples? Music might be one way.