Evotional.com - Mark Batterson

A few years ago I heard Andy Stanley, pastor of North Point Community Church, talk about a visit he made to Willowcreek. He said it was one of those moments where he felt like he saw the future. That's how I felt last Sunday. I've always dreamed of different services in different theaters just like there are different movies in different theaters. I think we pulled it off. We had four theaters--message theater, worship theater, prayer theater, and a communion theater. NCCers went on a self-guided, self-paced journey to each theater. We had a harpist in the prayer theater. The worship theater was two hours of non-stop worship. The communion theater was self-serve. I'll never forget walking into the communion theater and seeing hundreds of confessions nailed to the cross. I don't think I've ever had a more powerful communion experience--seeing those confessions nailed to the cross and hearing the nails being pounded into the cross was unforgettable.

I felt like we didn't allow NCCers to have church as usual. We forced people out of the box and we've gotten rave reviews. When you try something different like this a third alternative often emerges. I think we might try this again, but we also might experiment with a prayer theater and/or communion theater some Sunday.