Friday Church Worship

For those who seek a no-frills, no-bull, honest-to-God time of faith, hope and love, Friday Church -- our first service of the weekend -- may fit the bill.

Each Friday at 7:00 p.m., 125-150 people come together to think and pray. We come as we are -- from work, school, homeless shelters, halfway houses, the streets, wherever -- to take time apart to bring to God our deepest needs and hopes.  We dress as we are.  And we try to remove any masks of pretension or prejudice that keep us isolated from ourselves, each other, or God.

 Music lifts us to move, think, and express.  Our Friday Band begins with a song, Trading My Sorrow, that invites us to move toward God, to say Yes, and to leave pain and shame behind. It has become a kind of theme song for Friday Church.

Services vary. We celebrate birthdays once a month for folk who often don’t have family to mark the importance of their birth.  We celebrate sobriety.  A poet may rap an original piece.  Or someone may share their story of recovery and God’s deliverance. We share communion on the first Friday of the month.

Joe Phelps gives the weekend’s sermon customized for those who attend Friday Church.

Over the six years of Friday Church we’ve seen miracles, healing, redemption.  People have had their lives turned around.  Drug dealers have been baptized and entered into ministry. Prostitutes have come in from the street.  Middle-class people have found their fears transformed and a new crop of friends develop.

In 2011 we called David Stillwell as our Friday Church Minister. He reaches out to all who show up on Fridays to connect them to God and to the larger community that is Highland Baptist Church.  Our goal is that there is a seamless web between Friday’s casual community and the more ritualized worshipers of Sunday, for we are all brothers and sisters together!

A reflection on Friday Church from the Pastoral Care Minister for Friday Church, David Stillwell:

I love you. Yes, this is David Stillwell, Pastoral Care Minister to Friday Church and I love you. You don't even know who I am. It doesn't matter, I love you. How can you possibly say that when you have no clue who I am----much less know who all could be reading this? It doesn't matter who you are, or who is reading this, I love you and them as well. But you have no idea of all the things that I have screwed up in my life, much less the screwed up thoughts that I have! It doesn't matter what you have done, nor the thoughts that you have; I love you. Yeah, it's easy to say that, but if you really knew me, you couldn't say that.  What if I said to you that by knowing you, I would love you even more?  No way, I don't believe it. I know you don't believe, neither did I at first; that's why I am going to show you by the way that I treat you each and every opportunity that I have. That's kind of weird, why would you do that?  I know, it seems a little strange, given the world we live in; but, I was created to do that -- to love you as God loves you -- furthermore, I am blessed to be a minister at Highland Baptist, which means that I kind of get paid to love you; talk about weird! Aah, so that's why you love me; you're getting paid to love me. No, because God has opened my eyes to the power of love and changed my heart, I am being paid, in hopes that I can help others know God's love, the way someone helped me; and then they can help someone know God's love...believe me, if money were my motivation, there is a lot more money to be made doing something other than this!
 
You and I both know and sense whether someone really loves us. If we can accept that God loves us and then accept that other folks truly love us, (or for you it may be the other way around), the power from that knowledge and acceptance is truly amazing!  Maybe you have experienced that kind of love.  Maybe you haven't.  For me, one of the most trans formative aspects of my life in the last year has been how I began here as a minister and started meeting people and shaking hands and having those awkward moments of silence.  Now, there are very few handshakes and a whole lot of hugs; not much silence, but a whole lot of laughs--- and sometimes tears.  I say "I love you" a lot and have folks who tell me that.  I've begun to measure my life and my ministry by how many folks I can say that to, truly, and how many of those folks know it and feel it without me even saying the words, and thus, say to me that they love me as well.
 
How does it strike you to measure your life this way? I sense that my whole life has been lived in order for me to come to this understanding.  I am excited to see where God takes me!  Please join me, if you haven't already, in living to truly love.  I'm excited to see where God takes us and all of Highland! 
 
With much love, David   
 
For more information about Friday Church Worship, please contact David Stillwell.