So today I came across a Facebook post that made me grumpy. The person had obviously been talking about the church I go to, about the church that has impacted and changed my family’s lives. The person said something along the line of… “After going to a church with root beer floats, ice cream trucks and a selfie station, I want to focus on why we really celebrate Easter.”
I had to bite my tongue. It made me wonder if the person bothered to listen to the powerful message about my savior, Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life.
But taking a step back, and holding my tongue for a couple of hours, I remembered thinking of another “mega-church” and years ago, I remember thinking about that church along the same line as this person probably had. But now, being in a church from its early start, I know that River Church is more than ice cream and selfie stations.
Did they serve ice cream last night?
Yes, they did.
Did they have a “selfie station”?
Sort of, but not really.
I’d like to address these two things, not to merely defend the church that I love, but to justify the reasoning behind why they do these things… at least from a long-time attendee perspective.
Our church is a new church, having been established only 4 years ago. But in those four years, we’ve had to add services to accommodate the unfathomable growth. We still hold services in a warehouse and have to take into account the amount of space we have to work with.
This weekend we celebrated Easter. In order to prepare for the influx of attendance, especially those who don’t normally come to one of the five-weekend services we typically have (yes, I said 5). River Church added two more Saturday services. To encourage attendance on Saturday, knowing full well that Easter Sunday would be packed full with people who only attend on Easter and Christmas, they offered pancakes for the Saturday morning services and ice cream for the evening services. They’d even promoted it in the weeks previous that they were bribing people to come on Saturday instead of Sunday with pancakes and ice cream. And they were justified to do so because the 9:45 service on Sunday ran out of space. People had to sit in the youth room and watch via screen and broadcast. So one reason for the root beer floats and ice cream trucks (and I really didn’t realize they had an ice cream truck) was to encourage attendance on Saturday to make more room on Sunday. (BTW, there was no ice cream or pancakes on Sunday).
The other thing that people may not realize, is that River Church is always encouraging fellowship. They want people to stay after and talk. Ice cream is just another way to encourage that fellowship. God tells us to be in fellowship with one another:
Acts 2:42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
Ice cream may not be “bread” but it is a way to connect with one another, to have time to lift up your fellow believer. To make new people feel welcome and have the opportunity to connect instead of just running in and out of a church. River Church did this long before they had throngs of people coming, back when we only had 1 church service. There is always coffee and snacks to promote a feeling of fellowship and make an excuse to interact.
And looking at the people who only come once or twice a year, we want them to feel welcomed. We want them to grow in their faith and come back more than that once or twice a year. It isn’t a worldly gimmick. It’s about treating people like people and making them feel welcome and at home.
Now, about that selfie station…
Every since they started River Church, they have offered family photos on Easter Sunday. As a mom who always is the one taking the picture and not in it, and who doesn’t always get organized to get family pictures taken often, I appreciate the opportunity to have that photo. We spend so much time getting ready for Easter, that it is so nice to stop for a second and focus on our family. Or friends. Or both. And in the past, they would have someone take your picture and send it to you later.
This year, they changed it to use your own phone, etc. So the so-called “selfie station” is just a way to accommodate the church’s growth and still offer the opportunity. They had people there, helping take pictures of your family. And they had taken the time to set up a pretty backdrop so you could get a nice picture. I do know that last year, it took quite a while to get our photo back. So having people use their own phones/cameras and not having to fill out contact info, enabled a lot more people to get through the line (more people, things have to be streamlined) and also took out the chaos of trying to get photos back to people. As the church grows, accommodations need to be made.
I love seeing how my family changed and grew…not just in height, but in numbers as we added our son, Lukas. THIS is the “selfie station”. And again, it is a way to make a church feel more like a home. When you are at a family gathering, do you take pictures? Do you snap some photos of your children’s birthdays? Why? Because it is your family. And our church is also our family.
So the real question is… why is the church so big? Some might say it is because of the gimmicks of ice cream and selfie stations. But the reason I came, and why so many others came, had nothing to do with being entertained or getting free treats. When I first came, I felt God there. And that is why we came. Not the coffee. Nor the snacks. Nor the ice cream or family photos. It was, and still is, the undeniable presence of the Holy Spirit, and a pastor and worship team that preach and sing to God. And I walk away every week feeling inspired to be closer to Jesus.
THAT is why River Church is growing. God is moving. God is present. And God wants us to grow with him and grow with our church family… even in the presence of some ice cream and photo selfies.
Sure, some people might come for the ice cream first, but we hope that they end up staying for Jesus.
A Life Full 