Swanston Street Church of Christ: CrossCulture

Swanston Steet Church of Christ
(now renamed as CrossCulture Church of Christ)

As a matter of convenience and curiosity, it was refreshing to go to a night service at the Swanston Street Church of Christ (later renamed to CrossCulture Church of Christ). Located at the top end of Swanston near the corner of La Trobe, this church building is a medium sized chapel awash in grey tones with modern signage. Most surprising however, is that the worship service is not held inside this 1863 church. Instead, the entrance runs alongside the historic building and leads down underground to a decent sized theater that is the old basement of the Melbourne Campus Apartments (now known as UniLodge).

Therefore, while the outside Gothic architecture conveys weighty history, by contrast, the 700 seat worship space is thoroughly modern, complete with a rock-concert-worthy array of sound and lights. A large projector screen hangs above the polished floorboard stage and displays the lyrics to the worship songs with impressive - yet subtle - graphics. Indeed, the church seems to have quite a creative talent available with the graphics team producing some well-designed posters that adorn the walls.

The seating arrangement is more reminiscent of a university lecture theater, with the congregation looking down at the stage from their different padded-cushion sections. A swivel, notes-writing arm would almost seem fitting. This university familiarity though obviously plays well with the crowd as the demographics would be described as mostly international students from Asia, with a smattering of older faces who could probably pass for the parents of the aforementioned students. In fact, due to the proximity of the church to RMIT and the fact that the church is underneath a student residential facility, means that CrossCulture directly sees its mission as the discipleship of these students.

As a consequence, the church has a heavy emphasis on overseas mission, particularly in the Asian region. The congregation has a long-standing history of supporting and sending missionaries to foreign countries and is soon to be hosting the 40th Global Missions Convention. CrossCulture has 20 teams in the field reaching the countries of Thailand, India, Nepal, Philippines, Vietnam, Papua New Guinea, Japan and Malaysia. Interestingly, their convention promotional material includes precautionary notes about writing to people serving in a 'sensitive access country' (ie. countries that outlaw Christianity). The notes would probably not appear out of place in an espionage manual.

The worship style was contemporary, circa early 2000's Hillsong with a bit of Soul Survivor thrown in. The band had bass, drums, grand piano and a lead guitarist who juggled synth on the side. With a couple of singers, the overall effect was inviting but not distracting. Communion was basic cracker and tiny plastic cups brimmed with Ribena, however rather than passing around the trays, attendees walked to strategic points in the aisles with a help-yourself mentality. Once back at your seat, you consume the elements in your own time, then discard the cups into small tubs at the end of the rows.

The sermon was delivered by an active missionary from Japan who once upon a time was true-blue, but now speaks English with oriental intonation and well-rounded annunciation. The meaty message was expository in nature and taken from Romans 10:5-15. This scripture was used to demonstrate the necessity of missionary ministry because Christianity has a unique message to bring and it needs people to tell it. Obviously fitting neatly with the CrossCulture theme, the church also runs a roundtable discussion for the public, with the next session focusing on the differences between Christianity and Buddhism.

The last surprise of the evening was at the conclusion of the 90 minute service when visiting the bathroom, only to discover that the toilets were lit by vein-obscuring blue light. This, along with a notice on the projector to not leave your possessions unattended, was a grim reminder about the realities of operating a church in the middle of the city.

The verdict? I've never really been all that interested in overseas mission, however I think that this is a great church effectively reaching a critical demographic in Melbourne. I'd be keen to check out their 11:15am service some time in the future to get a gauge on the level of community.