{"id":224,"date":"2009-02-25T16:29:57","date_gmt":"2009-02-25T16:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/?p=224"},"modified":"2010-12-22T13:09:36","modified_gmt":"2010-12-22T18:09:36","slug":"6892","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/02\/25\/6892\/","title":{"rendered":"Rock \u2018n Roll \u2013 A Different Pathway to the Gospel"},"content":{"rendered":"

PAXTON, IL (February 25, 2009) \u2013 In all of its 130 years, the Evangelical Covenant Church of Paxton<\/a> never had a worship service that even resembled the one they celebrated Saturday night.
\n
\nThe congregation averages 70 people on Sunday mornings, but about 100 people made a loud, joyful noise at the inaugural \u201cRock \u2018N Roll Church\u201d in this farming community. Although the initial service was geared more toward older adolescents and young adults, the audience included people ages two through 80, says Pastor Craig Pinley.<\/p>\n

The theme of the initial service was \u201cI Can\u2019t Get No Satisfaction.\u201d The service included music from The Rolling Stones and U2, among others, along with videos, a skit and a message from the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes.<\/p>\n

\"Rock\"Two of the church\u2019s parishioners, Rick and Mike Nelson, came up with the idea. Tedd King and Larry Bemount, a pair of local musicians from area churches, gave their support and committed to three monthly Saturday night services.<\/p>\n

Rick, the church\u2019s chairperson and a farmer by trade, had been a drummer for local bands for more than 20 years. He had played with King (the lead singer) and worked with Bemount (bass) in bands before. Mike Nelson, Rick\u2019s son and the lead guitarist on Saturday, had traveled throughout the Midwest with the Christian band Kwench during his high school and college years.<\/p>\n

Mike\u2019s rousing guitar solo during the Doobie Brothers\u2019 song \u201cJesus Is Just Alright With Me\u201d was the musical highlight of the night, says Pinley. Click here<\/a> to see additional photos.<\/p>\n

Much of the area is tied to agriculture, but Paxton also serves as a bedroom community to Champaign-Urbana, which has more than 100,000 people and is home to the University of Illinois. Given that the median age of the local community is 37, church leadership believed that an alternative worship experience might be worth a try.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsing secular music and hard rock might not be the norm for traditional churches, but we believe that there is a significant young adult population that might not be at all involved in church in our region,\u201d says Pinley.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pray that communicating the love of Christ in a non-traditional form might give folks a forum to ask questions about God and to dialogue with Christians that might enjoy hard rock music,\u201d says Pinley. \u201cWe expected young people from other churches to attend, and we hope that they\u2019ll return to their congregations with more enthusiasm for the gospel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOther churches may have other resources to reach people that aren\u2019t currently attending church. We have quality musicians that have a passion for Jesus,\u201d Pinley says. \u201cThey took the lead in making this happen and we\u2019re glad the church could affirm their efforts. They were awesome and I\u2019m sure God was honored in what we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next Rock \u2018N Roll Church service will be March 21 with the theme \u201cKeep Pushin\u2019 \u201d using the REO Speedwagon hit song as a catalyst for the\u00a0 message of persevering during tough times.<\/p>\n

There is no charge for Rock \u2018N Roll Church and childcare is available. For more information about Rock \u2018N Roll Church and the congregation\u2019s other activities, call Pinley at 217-379-3554 or email the church<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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PAXTON, IL (February 25, 2009) \u2013 In all of its 130 years, the Evangelical Covenant Church of Paxton never had a worship service that even resembled the one they celebrated Saturday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRock \u2018n Roll \u2013 A Different Pathway to the Gospel - Covenant Newswire Archives<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/blogs.covchurch.org\/newswire\/2009\/02\/25\/6892\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rock \u2018n Roll \u2013 A Different Pathway to the Gospel - 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