Emergent Discovery

A number of us from New Hope had the opportunity to visit Discovery Southside's Emergent Church service last Sunday evening. It was good that many of us could make it because the New Hope elders have been discussing and looking at the Emergent church idea as an option for our ministry.

Discovery Southside, pastored by Ryan Phipps, is an offshoot of the Discovery Christian Church in Cranberry and meets once a month in a large and impressive photography studio on 3030 Jane Street, just south of Carson Street. The service was surprisingly more mellow than I had expected even though the worship music by Soulharmonic at times did have a rocky edge. The lighting was soft & dark with Soulharmonic often playing ethereal background music to set the mood.

After a few worship songs, Ryan spoke on the connection we all have with one another forming a type of "mosaic," the title of his sermon. His main point being we all have an effect on those around us, either good or bad, whether we intend to or not. Ryan made generous use of multimedia including a very well done slideshow which detailed the lives of different individuals, some of reputation like Billy Graham, some of no reputation, who affected the lives of various others including Ryan himself, some directly, some indirectly, with the love of God and the Gospel. He also used clips from a couple of movies including the most appropriate "Pay It Forward." This was followed by a communion of dipping bread into wine, then participating in making our own mosaic of small tiles on which we placed the names of those who were a part of the mosaic of our lives.

• View photos of our evening at Discovery Southside
  
• Listen to the entire service - recorded from my chair in the back :-)