April 13, 2006
The Play's the Thing at Pittsburgh Church Targeting New Crowd
by Suzanne Sataline
Wall Street Journal
At a rehearsal of his play about Jesus' death, Jim Walker, the co-pastor of Hot Metal Bridge Faith Community, sidled up to the actor playing Satan and urged him to be bolder. The pastor tried to inspire the shy student playing Judas. "He's Satan!" Mr. Walker cried, arms wide. "You hate this guy!"
"Judas' Kiss," is Mr. Walker's biblical "Groundhog Day," in which Judas is condemned to relive his betrayal of Christ over and over. It will be performed Sunday for the congregation -- an eclectic group of drunks and college kids, suburbanites and street people, Catholics and scrawny punk artists with New Testament citations tattooed on their chests.
No one preaches at Hot Metal Bridge. Plays are its liturgy. Mr. Walker, a soon-to-be ordained United Methodist minister, leads the church with his friend Jeff Eddings, a Presbyterian seminarian. "Instead of coming to our church and listening to a sermon, you can be part of the sermon," Mr. Walker says. On Sunday when many ministers all over the country will be complaining about church attendance the rest of the year, Hot Metal will be grappling with where to put the 300 people who pack the Goodwill Industries cafeteria every Sunday, not just Easter and Christmas.
Hot Metal Bridge is part of the emergent church movement that rejects rigid orthodoxy and strives to use hip language and culture to draw in young Americans who stopped, or never started, attending church.
Read the complete story (Some news sites require registration)
Related Headlines
Abortion dispute with Catholic bishops could hinder Obama's health care bill in Senate
DuPage County evangelical churches struggle with immigration debate
