Church Review: City on a Hill - 6PM Edition

On Sunday night, we decided to check out a church which we had heard good things about. City on a Hill is a uniquely flavoured church which specialises in utilising non-traditional and secular spaces for Christian church services.

City On A Hill 6PM edition meets in the Arrow On Swanston hotel

The church began in 2007, known as the Docklands Church, and they met in the James Squire Hotel in New Quay. Since then, the church has expanded rapidly and through various circumstances, has taken up residence in the heart of the CBD of Melbourne. Two services are offered: a 10AM service that meets in a cinema theatre at the Hoyts in Melbourne Central; and a 6PM service that meets in a conference room in the Arrow On Swanston hotel (on Swanston St obviously). The creative decision to use these two spaces is intriguing and reflects a desire to re-engage Melbourne with Christianity, by taking church out of normal environs.

While I can't comment at this stage on the effectiveness of conducting a church service in a movie cinema, the 6PM service held in the hotel's ballroom, quickly turns the space from a sterile, conference room into a warm, knowable chamber through the use of branded signage, mood-lighting and ambient music.

The service began on time and after an exuberant, young man welcomed everyone in a well-practiced eastern-suburbs-footy-voice, an ultra hip video began on the big screen that acted as the opener to the service. In fact, the highly stylised graphics on all the church material suggests that this church of 400+ members contains quite a few professional graphic designers. From an image perspective, City on a Hill has a well-refined and cohesive product.

City on a Hill is technically an Anglican church, which until the second worship song, was clearly not evident to the untrained eye. However, this particular worship song was written in 2010 by members of the church and while it is set to contemporary music that contains drums, bass and guitar, the lyrics use old-English words like 'thou'. A curious fusion of history and modern expressions really.

Demographically, think university crowd and young professionals. It was difficult to spot anyone outside the 22-35 bracket. Generally well heeled, inner urbanites with tertiary degrees, but importantly, unpretentious and concerned with social justice. The church runs a food program for the poor called Many Rooms and they are currently feeding over 80+ homeless in the North Melbourne region.

Church life appears vibrant with an announcement about a frenemy basketball match between City and St. Judes in Carlton; as well as a vision for expanding ministries into the youth space, young families and children's min - obviously reflecting the broadening demographic that apparently the 10AM time slot is attracting.

In the ballroom, just before the service begins

The church structures its sermons around a solid series plan that guides the teaching focus of the pastors. On the day we visited, the church was concluding a series on 'God or Money' which sought to provide Christians with a biblical perspective on finance as well as explain City's specific nuance on money. Interestingly, the church never passes around a tithe or offering during services and instead relies on attendees to privately donate through appropriate channels. The associate pastor who delivered the sermon, openly explained the purpose and distribution of the funds that the church receives and mentioned that every two months the books are explained to the congregation. Such transparency is refreshingly honest.

The best part of the service was a panel discussion time which three members of the leadership team answering some hardball questions about money series from the audience. The representatives included an young economics professor in a Melbourne university and a chartered accountant - I was immediately engaged. The panel approach was enthralling and thought-provoking both with the questions and answers - something I think many churches could embrace.

The next series that begins on the 22nd of May is mysteriously titled 'The Naked Church' with the video promo material featuring some blurry lens work of a buff man sitting apparently naked in a pew of a traditional Gothic church. A provocative title certainly, but I'm curious to see what this study on the Corinthian church in first century AD might say to this savvy, 21st century version. Time to check out the 10AM edition.

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.

St Johns Lutheran Church: Southgate

St Johns Lutheran Church, Southgate

Not surprisingly, the first church to visit on our journey was St Johns Southgate. Less than 10 minutes walk from our apartment, St Johns is a Lutheran church nestled amongst high-rise apartments, upmarket restaurants and next to the cultural heart of Melbourne, the Arts Centre. 

The building, dwarfed by its surroundings, is unremarkable and quaint from the outside, but stepping inside reveals a modern chapel with a main assembly hall that is sunk below the street level. The ultra white walls and interesting angles provide good reflective surfaces for the sun to stream through the windows high above, creating an open and airy environment for what could have been a tight and narrow space. A huge cross hangs in the middle of the wall immediately behind the altar, with a generous purple cloth draped across its wooden beams. 

The crowd was a curious mix of late twenty somethings, urban professionals, a couple of young families and a cohort of grey-heads – a mix which is probably reflective of the Southbank demographic generally. Most are well groomed in a conservative style. The large organ pipes, the dress of the Pastor and the prominence of the communion altar give signals that this church follows a more traditional liturgical style. 

St Johns has three advertised services each Sunday: a 9am traditional; an 11am contemporary; and a 7pm youth orientated service. We chose the 11am for convenience and because 'contemporary' sounded more fitting with our style. However, the service was contemporary by 1960s standards and featured several routines that would have appeared more in keeping with a Catholic church service than my perceived idea about what the Lutheran style is. 

Lasting a bit over an hour long, the service speedily whipped through a highly prescriptive worship that required congregational responses, frequent standing up and sitting down, and praying set prayers projected on the screen. The music was provided by a sleek grand piano that emanated a rich sound around the chapel, while the lyrics flirted between strict theology and being overly flowery.

Communion was an interesting affair, with parishioners invited to kneel before the altar as the common cup and wafers were passed around. The language reflected a sombre and humble understanding of the cross and the air was thick with doctrinal terminology. Bible readings were taken from the Old Testament, New Testament and the Gospels with the NIV picking up the translation work. 

The sermon theme was appropriate for the season of Lent in keeping with the lead-up to Easter. It focused on the reality of death for all and hope that Christ provides for new life eternally and on Earth. It was delivered from the pulpit with a serious tone and used real-world analogies to focus the message. Most surprising however, was the 'reflection' time immediately after the sermon, which allowed the congregation to comment on, and engage with the Pastor about the sermon. Most of the attendees seemed happy to sit quietly in their pews, while one guy asked a challenging theological question that was deftly handled by the Pastor. 

The service concluded with a range of announcements that seemed befitting of a town meeting and they indicated a vibrant and active church community with several prominent ministries. A bring-a-bake lunch was provided, but we chose not to stick around. 

The verdict? A solid theological church that is catering to the Southbank crowd, but the overly prescriptive nature of the service is probably not for our palate.