Houston Report #9: Mercy Street

Wow. . . the Houston reports are really starting to add up. I'm starting to realize why I was so tired when I got home!

On Saturday nights at Chapelwood United Methodist Church you will find The Mercy Street congregation. This service is largely geared toward the recovery community and opens by giving people the opportunity to share their praises. The people set a mood of celebration that was pretty touching.

The worship music was electric guitar and drum based. It sounded good. Believe it or not, they sang "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" because the "Here I raise my Ebenezer" line fit with the sermon. This is Sean Gladding, the association minister of Mercy Street, he preached when we were there. He is a likable fellow who drives a motorcycle . . . he is way cool. The Mercy Street Church (which is a church within a church) could not exist without the support of Chapelwoood because of the nature of its mission. Despite being housed in an upscale neighborhood, it reaches a marginal community.

You'll be interested to know that they've had to deal with worship war issues. Sean mentioned that they received word from teens who have visited that the music is like "watching their fathers" on stage--it's no longer edgy enough for the young. When the leadership made the decision to push the music into something a bit more modern, there was backlash. The leadership was surprised by this.
This, by the way, is the part of the Chapelwood building. It's too spread out to give you a nice shot of the premises, so this will have to do.