This week Tom and I took another stab at church by attending worship at Mt Rose Community Church.  We tried going to Trinity Lutheran Church in Hovland.  We enjoyed their service so much the one Sunday we were able to go.  One of the draws of this congregation was their Wednesday night vesper service.  We figured, even if we work on Sundays, we can go on Wednesdays.  So Wednesday, June 29, we drove to Hovland to attend vespers.  I had checked the church web page and called the church to verify they were having vesper services.  But when we arrived, there were no other people.  The church is getting a new roof and the back door was wide open.  But the lights were all off inside and there weren’t any cars in the parking lot.  We decided someone had left the door open accidentally and shut it before we sadly left.

So this Sunday we attended the Mt Rose Community Church here in Grand Portage.  The advantage to this church is that their only worship service is at 6 p.m. on Sunday evenings.  Val and Johnny, RV volunteers with us, have been attending here since Memorial Day weekend.  After we got done at work, we changed clothes and headed to church with them.

When we got to Mt Rose a couple of minutes before 6 the parking lot was full but there wasn’t anyone in the sanctuary.  We headed downstairs where the congregation was still eating supper.  They have a meal at 4:30 on Sundays.  We don’t get off work until 5:30 so we were not able to join them.  About 6:30, when all the dishes were done, we headed up to the sanctuary.

The Mt Rose Community Church sanctuary is circular, and we helped arrange the chairs in a circle where about 20 people sat.  Several young children and their mothers sat outside the circle because they were moving around a lot.  There were no bulletins and we took a moment for everyone to introduce themselves.  About half the people in attendance (all the young people) are Ojibwe.  The pastor, Jacob McCormick, is married to a member of the Grand Portage band.

We sang a couple of songs accompanied by two guitarists and a native drummer, had some prayers, and then Jacob talked about the youth conference, Warrior Leadership Summit, he had just been to with the youth from the church.  It was in Missouri and had Christian youth from over 800 tribes represented.  After listening to Jacob and the youth converse about this conference for 30 minutes, we read a few verses on prayer from Matthew 6, had some more prayers and finished with a couple more songs.  It was very loosely organized.

Mt Rose Community Church is an independent church with baptist roots and affiliated with Converge North Central.  Converge is a group of new church starts that focus on young adults and youth.  Their theology is “biblically conservative without being fundamental. Our congregations are teaching-centered, grace-based, spirit-filled, seeker-sensitive and purpose driven.”  I’m not sure if seeker-sensitive is the reason there isn’t a sermon or if it was the size of the congregation.  Val and Johnny said it is unusual for there to be a sermon – they only have one when there is a guest speaker.

Since we attended Mt Rose, we received a phone call from the pastor at the Trinity Lutheran Church who assured us they would be having a vesper service on Wednesday nights.  Because of the construction they had skipped the one evening and she forgot to put a sign on the door.  So we will be heading down to Hovland this week to try another worship experience.