Visiting Churches in Grand Rapids

The next two Churches we visited were both in Grand Rapids.
The first, Daybreak, has a big emphasis on 'Seeker' services in the same way that willow Creek does. The main difference it seemed was there is a greater emphasis on using the creative arts in the services at Daybreak. The music, visual media etc were stunning. Every year they host a conference on using the creative arts in worship. I was given a complimentary copy of the magazine they produce along side the conference and it was one of the best quality magazines I'd seen produce by any Christian organisation. The interesting thing for me was that they introduced at the service a new member of staff whose sole purpose was to work on spiritual formation and discipleship, which of course is what my sabbatical is all about. I was able to spend a good time with him just talking through how he saw his new role and how churches can disciple people.
Later that evening we went to Mars Hill. If any of you have seen one of the nooma videos or read the book Velvet Elvis then the guy in the Videos is Rob Bell and he is the teaching pastor and founder at Mars Hill. They meet in a converted shopping centre with the main meeting place right at the centre of the large building. The service actually happens in the round, the stage area is in the centre of the floor space. It felt a bit weird at first getting used to seeing peoples back on stage but we soon got used to it. The service was great, although we were dissappointed that Rob Bell and the Mars Hill worship band weren't there. Instead they had a guest preacher and worship band from another church, so we didn't really get a real feel of what the church was like on a sunday. But we got to spend some time with someone on the staff there and talk through what they get up to as a Church.
One of the things that came up in both the visits to these churches was just how highly 'churched' much of that area was. One of the comments made to me was that they were horrified to discover that only 50% of their local community go to Church! I informed this guy that for us here in the UK that would be like going to heaven, he just couldn't get his head around the fact that attendance at church here is well below 10%!!