Let's Go to Humble Walk this Weekend!

This Sunday, July 6th, we are heading to Humble Walk Lutheran Church for another experience worshiping at a ELCA mission congregation.  They worship at Shalom Home East (740 Kay Avenue St. Paul, MN 55102) which is next to Mississippi Market Food Co-op on West 7th Street. Park in the lot and enter through the main doors.  Their website is very minimal but I was able to find out a little bit about their music minister:  Nate Houge.  Click on his name to learn about him and his work for the church. 

Afterwards, we are planning on heading to Dixie's on Grand.  We have never been there, but it sounds like a great atmosphere and awesome food!  

If you are planning on coming, leave a comment below and we will look out for you.

See ya Sunday!
Gina and Nate

Mercy Seat Blends Traditional with Contemporary

Nate and I headed to Mercy Seat on June 22nd along with Margo Decker-Mingo and our friends Aimee and Joel Pakan from Tangled Blue.  It was a great night of worship and fellowship!  Here are some interesting things we observed:

1. Mercy Seat worships in a school building that has been transformed to serve many functions. Monday through Friday the building is used by a school that works with autistic children and a food shelf. On Saturday and Sunday, four congregations worship in the building.  Each has service at different times or on different days, but all share the same sanctuary.  It was wonderful to see the building used in so many different ways.
2. The service was traditional in structure.  We followed the traditional liturgy order, but the music used was all newly composed. The music was very meditative and repetitive and it had a rock feel to it.  
3. Holly Hansen--a member of the band called The Zoo Animals-- led all the singing while also playing lead guitar.  Her band was made up of acoustic grand piano, bass guitar, and drums. 
4. Each month, a different local musician is commissioned to compose the music for the liturgy following the traditional order of worship.  Even though the music is contemporary, the service still felt traditional in many respects.  
5. No video projectors were used.  The service space was very simple and those who chose to take communion (all were welcome) could choose to take communion by intinction, common cup, or single serve cups.  Communicants also had the choice a wafer or a piece of bread.  

We walked away feeling filled with the spirit. We also had a new perspective on what it means to blend tradition and contemporary worship elements together.  

Our evening ended at Keegan's Pub with fun fellowship around good old Irish brews, awesome pot roast, fish and chips, shepherd's pie and the FIFA World Cup.  We had a wonderful evening!

Gina and Nate

Next Weekend We Visit Mercy Seat

Hi All,

Nate and I are heading to Mercy Seat in Minneapolis on Sunday evening at 5pm.  Read a little bit about this very unique Lutheran church and you'll see they commission a musician/band/group to write the liturgy each month.  June's liturgist is Holly Hansen of the band Zoo Animal.  Our friends, Joel and Aimee Pakan will be joining us.  These great musicians form the group Tangled Blue--the musical duo that performed at Redeemer's "Spring Fling" in 2013.  Joel and Aimee have written liturgy for Mercy Seat before, and we hope they will have other insights into the church to share with us.

Our gathering place for food and fellowship after the service will be Keegan's Irish Pub, also in Minneapolis.  They have live Irish music too!  We'd love to see you there.  Just comment below and let us know if you are joining us and we will look for you.

If you haven't done so already, please scroll down to the bottom of this page and enter your email address where it says "Follow by email".  You will need to verify your address through an email sent to you, but then you will get an email each time we update the page.

See ya Sunday night!

-Gina and Nate

St. Andrew's Church in Mahtomedi

It was a wonderful night!  Service was at 5pm. We got there a bit early to find a good seat.  This service was in the Great Hall.  It had a more modern look and feel to it with no pews, no formal chancel (I would call it a stage), and a giant screen as the focal point above the altar.  The worship band was "stage left" and the altar was "stage right".

This was the order of worship:

• Prelude Song/Band Feature
• Congregational Song - "Love the Lord your God"
• Announcements:  3 in all and done in under 2 minutes
• Congregational greeting, then sat for 4 baptisms
• Reading and Sermon:  14 minutes
• Offertory/Song:  an unfamiliar piece with words shown on screen--no congregational singing
• Communion/Song:  again, an unfamiliar piece with only the band singing
• Benediction/Closing Song:  Everytime I Feel the Spirit with a different verse melody
• 55 minute service total!

Some general observations:

•  Service felt like it went by really fast.
• The worship band was an all-professional group (and you could tell!)
• The video screens were different for each section of the service and they ALWAYS had a moving element to them (i.e.:  If the screen was a picture of water, you could see the ripples moving)
• They had a St. Andrew's logo on screen that popped up quite often in between sections of service.
• Music lyrics were broken down into small sections (2-3 lines on each screen) and center justified. 
• The opening band feature felt like a prelude.  This allowed people extra time to gather and be invited to worship.
• There was no order of worship but they did hand out what Nate would call an "informational brochure".  I would call it a bulletin, but we could not agree on this. ;)
• The lead singer did improvise on some of the songs, but only after 2/3 of the piece was sung. 
• It felt like band/soloist lead and drove the momentum of the service. 
• Sara Renner, lead singer, was a very charasmatic leader both in singing and leading (lots of gesturing, as she did not play an instrument).
• There was no children's message.

We had a lovely time at worship and would feel very comfortable worshiping there again. Our evening ended at Roma in Mahtomedi with Stillwater "Farm Girl" beers, a caprese appetizer, caesar salad, and a balsamico pizza.  ALL WONDERFUL!! :)

Hope you can join us next week as we head to another contemporary worship service.

-Gina and Nate

Let's Go To Church!

Nate and I are heading to  St. Andrew's Lutheran Church in Mahtomedi, this Saturday (6/14/14).    The contemporary worship service is at 5pm and features Sara Renner and The Gathering Band.  Afterwards, we are going to grab dinner and a beverage at Roma Italian Restaurant.

Also, I have added another church to the first post, so take a look at number 7:  House of Mercy.

Lastly, I have turned on commenting, so feel free to comment below and let us know if you will be joining us or have an idea for a church to visit.

We are setting out to discover how people do church in new and creative ways!

Welcome everyone!


Nate and I would like to welcome you to our blog page.  We intend to use this site to share the experiences we have attending new worship services this summer.  It is our goal to post updates each time we attend a new church and share our experiences with you.  

The churches we intend on visiting this summer are:

1. Jacob's Well  http://www.jacobs-well.net/
• Field School 4645 4th Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55419
2. Spirit Garage  http://www.spiritgarage.org/
• Loring Theater (formerly Music Box Theater) 1407 Nicollet Ave, Minneapolis, MN
3. Humble Walk  http://humblewalkchurch.org/
• Sholom Home East 740 Kay Avenue St. Paul, MN 55102
4. Shobi's Table  http://shobistable.org/
• 463 Maria Ave St. Paul, MN 55106
5. St. Andrew's  http://www.saintandrews.org/
• 900 Stillwater Road Mahtomedi, Minnesota 55115
6. Mercy Seat  http://www.nemercy.org/
• 1500 6th St. NE Minneapolis, MN 55413
7.  House of Mercy http://www.houseofmercy.org/
• 1514 Englewood Ave. St. Paul, MN 55104

 if you would like to join us, we would love it!  You can let us know by commenting on this blog page, send us an email, or just show up to church!  Our intention is to follow service with dinner at a local establishment and have conversations about our experience. To find out where we are heading to each week, please check back often, subscribe to our blog, or follow us by entering your email below.  Let the journey begin!