Faith Infiltration: Cross Pointe Church

After spotting this racy billboard on the side of Highway 55 North in St. Louis, Flimsy and I decided that we had to infiltrate the Cross Pointe Church. For those of you just joining us, Flimsy and I regularly “infiltrate” local churches and post our thoughts and feelings on the services from the perspective of atheists. To see other Faith Infiltrations, click the “Faith Infiltration” label at the bottom of this post

Cross Pointe is a little hole in the wall non-denominational church situated on a strip mall between a produce store and a coffee shop. It is such a hole in the wall that when we tried to visit it the first time, we were unable to locate it – after driving up and down the street, we finally found it about 10 minutes after the service began by parking somewhere and looking on foot. Armed with this information, we found it easily the week after. It is not the typical church that you see rising from the homes and business as you drive toward it.

Once inside, it is pretty clear that this church is a former business – it used to be a moving and storage place. This church is not about fanfare, comfy seats or state-of-the-art décor. The ceiling features the original white painted embossed tin tiles, and the floors are a mixture of bare concrete and original hardwood. The flooring is dulled and deeply marred by countless foot traffic and age – some places where the floor needed repairs were taped over to avoid creating a trip hazard.

There is a welcome area where people sat in comfy chairs and sipped coffee, and a simple sanctuary entirely devoid of religious iconography (and windows). In place of stained glass depictions of Jesus and cross centerpieces is a wall lined with flags of every country and a large mural at the front of the St. Louis cityscape, with the arch as a prominent feature.

Inside the sanctuary, the lights were dimmed candles are lit. This place is edgy: at the front a young worship team led the congregation in songs with drums that lack the characteristic churchy clear drum shield, a guitar and a keyboard. Lit candles perched atop waist-high wrought iron candle holders, which were draped loosely with stainless steel chains. Bits of office cubicle sections walled off the exposed furnace. Little baskets at the end of each row of chairs housed Bibles. The chairs are the kind you might find at a city restaurant. It is a church stripped of anything save the bare essentials.

When we first entered the church, we were greeted by a gentleman who asked us what had brought us to their church. We told them that the billboard had sparked our interest, and the gentlemen responded, saying something to the effect of, “Yes, that’s a pretty racy billboard. I wonder what kind of message it sends across – either we’re really bold or someone hates us.” We entered the sanctuary to find it filled with about 50 people or so, with an average age of mid to late twenties.

The worship team played four songs while displaying the lyrics on a rear-projection screen at the front of the sanctuary:

1. A very uplifting song, the primary message of which was “the earth is filled with the glory of the lord”.
2. An uplifting song, the primary message of which was “the lord is good to me”.
3. A slow, soulful song, the primary message of which was, “The lord is a fire of love for us”.
4. A slow, melodic song called “Sweetly Broken”, the lyrics of which can be found here.

There were some very interesting lyrics I took note of:

To the cross I look

To the cross I cling

Of its suffering I do drink

Of its work I do sing

I have heard of people saying things like this before: “I do the work of the cross”. I must admit, my literal mind has a hard time making sense of this. The cross in an inanimate object said to have been used to crucify Jesus. A cross cannot suffer. Is “cross” generally analogous to Jesus taking on the sin of the world? What does “doing the work of the cross” mean? Perhaps a commenter out there can explain to this heathen how a cross can suffer and how one can do the work of the cross.

Other interesting lyrics from the same song:

At the cross You

You beckon me

Draw me gently

To my knees and I am

Lost for words so

Lost in love

I am sweetly broken, Holy surrender

These lyrics reminded Flimsy of how a submissive sometimes feels in a dom/sub relationship during a BDSM* scene.

After the opening song, the congregation watched a video about the upcoming college Christian conference in St. Louis, Urbana ‘09. After the video, a young woman stood at the front and asked if anyone would be willing to volunteer to fill communion cups for the thousands of people who would be taking communion on New Year’s Eve during the conference.

The woman left, and I turned my attention to a stool in the center of the front of the church, upon which sat a bottle of yellow Gatorade. I thought, “Yellow. Gatorade. I guess the speaker needs more than just water up there.” The campus pastor appeared from stage left, and almost immediately explained the purpose of the Gatorade: it was not simply there for him to drink, it was a tool for his message.

The campus pastor (Kurt) was a young guy sporting a long ponytail, a black beard, and dressed simply in a pair of worn jeans and a t-shirt. As he paced the stage, the floorboards beneath him creaked, but not so much that it was a distraction. He explained that in sports, in order to be a professional, you must have (among other things) proper nutrition, proper training, rest and hydration. The slogan of Gatorade is “is it in you?” and the line can apply not just to the capacity of an individual to be a professional sports player, but also the capacity of an individual to be a good Christian. It is important, he said, to put the right things into one’s life while keeping the wrong things out of one’s life.

Kurt referenced Mark 7-14 (apparently Mark 7 had been used in last week’s sermon, and this week’s sermon was intended to finish up the story of Mark 7-14). Mark 7 is an allegory for people setting aside god’s commandments by inventing their own traditions and not realizing that what a man “does” (evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly) is what makes him unclean, rather than his lack of religious tradition.

In Mark 7, Jesus’ disciples do not quite understand his message, and he explains it again. Kurt said that this was meant to show the reader that even though it may be tough to ask a seemingly dumb question, it would be worth it in the end to not be afraid to ask anyway. A question on his mind is, “Why does religion even appeal to people if there are so many rules?” The answer is that these rules are there not because people are supposed to necessarily follow all of them, but they are there to show people that the law cannot actually be kept. The standard is so high that even ultra-faithful individuals (such as the Pharisees) fall cripplingly short of following it. Furthermore, we should absolutely not judge other people by their shortcomings, because doing so only serves to make ourselves feel better about ourselves by pointing out the flaws in others.

At this, Kurt’s voice cracked, and I could hear the intense emotions he felt in his voice as he explained that in the past he had cheapened Jesus’ death by minimizing his own sins and wrongly seeing himself as better than other people. It was fairly clear that he considered himself to be a wretched person without Jesus.

Kurt brought the congregation full circle, back to his Gatorade. He said that even though people put the proper things into themselves, they – like those who never become pro athletes – will never be good enough. He can’t meet the high standard of becoming a pro athlete and so too, people “cannot just have a little Jesus” or “a little religion” and expect to be saved. None of us are good enough based solely on the things we put into us – we can only be good enough because of Jesus’ sacrifice to humanity.

Like every Faith Infiltration, this review is not meant to be extensive or complete – one visit to a church is really only enough to get a general impression of things. I have heard speakers say that Christians should not be judgmental before, but this way of presenting this concept seemed to be especially powerful. I also found the concept of “god’s law” being given to show we cannot keep it an interesting one. I wish other churches could understand this – specifically, understand this to the extent that they do not try to use political power or legislation to oppress the rights of individuals to break “god’s law”.

I don’t, however, think the idea that one is a worthless miserable human being simply for being alive is a healthy idea. To me, if you behave unethically, then you are a miserable human being. If you behave more or less ethically, then you are a more or less worthwhile human being. If you behave ethically nearly all of the time, then you’re a pretty worthwhile human being. If you are always at the peak of ethical behavior, then you are a rare gem indeed. This standard is based on something meaningful – I am not comparing the largeness of numbers by comparing them to infinity – I am comparing them by comparing them to other numbers. If I judge the ability of five-year-olds to paint by comparing painting abilities to other five-year-olds, I can say something much more meaningful about their abilities than if I compare them to Alyssa Monks (whose paintings look so real they are often mistaken for digital photographs). If we only compare ourselves to perfection, then we can only be seen as worthless. I don’t think it would be helpful to tell five-year-olds that they are expected to be Alyssa Monks. But the point is not to improve their painting skill – the point is to make them surrender to their own shortcomings.

At the very least, I was pleased that I did not hear yet another sermon condemning atheists and secular humanists for ruining the world. There was a distinct lack of “us vs. them” mentality so common to other churches.

After the service ended, we spoke to a few people at the church, let them know who we are and gave them business card. They invited us to come back to LifeGroup – which is a weekly small group meeting and bible study. We’re considering it, but we don’t want to fly in and hijack someone’s small group, so we’re a little hesitant. They seem like nice people.

*I am not mocking this song. I have great respect for BDSM and the people who can practice it safely, sanely and consensually.