Worshipping with 2,000 at Redeemer Presbyterian

By Nathan Vickers

 

The Rev. Leo Schuster stood before the crowd in Redeemer Presbyterian Church and called the congregation to worship with a psalm.

“The Lord is my light and my salvation,” he called out quoting Psalm 27 to the well-lit Hunter College Auditorium on 69^th St.. “Whom shall I fear?”

Except for  an altar rolled out to the middle of the stage and a crimson banner draped over the lectern’s purple Hunter logo, nothing about the part-time sanctuary even echoed what most Christians would think of as a  traditional service.

There were no candles, which are a fire hazard in an auditorium. There were no stained glass windows, no pews and no hymnals. The electric organ and string quartet on stage had given an impression of performance and not accompaniment as crowds of people shuffled into the auditorium during the prelude, a Brahms arrangement of a German hymn.

What made Redeemer an impressive church was not its sanctuary. Rather, it was the 2,000 people trying to find a seat inside the hall. Getting 2,000 people who come in from the Manhattan streets into the mood for prayer involves something of a ritual in itself.

One person was Allison Wong who in her mid-thirties was one of oldest people sitting in her section. who arrived five minutes before the service but had to settle for a seat near the back corner of the congregation.

“I feel like I’m hiding,” she said. “Usually I sit in the middle with my friends but today it’s just me in the corner.”

The music had stopped and Schuster had uttered the first official words of the service. By then approximately 1,500 people had found a seat and answered back over the din of late-comers  filling the balcony and what few seats were left in the auditorium behind Wong.

Redeemer is a megachurch, an increasingly popular type of congregation that trades small, traditional ceremonies for massive worship services.

Most of the congregates were younger than Wong. All but a mere dozen had  thick, full heads of hair. The congregation was  a sea of young people in casual hooded sweatshirts or flannel shirts with the occasional gray-haired flotsam wearing blazers or printed dresses.

“I know some people here,” said Wong. “Sometimes we come together, as a group. But it’s hard to coordinate all the time.”

A few seats were left unfilled even as Schuster finished the call to worship and bowed his head for the Lord’s Prayer.

The auditorium, now a place of worship, roared with the unison invocation. But the sounds of the last seats filling and the ushers closing the back doors to the auditorium tamed even the imagery of “the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

The beginning of a church service involving 2,000 people might seem chaotic to most people. But Wong said the church, which she’s attended for seven years now, is her time to take a moment to organize her thoughts.

“I have to be very organized all the time,” said Wong, who is a mid-level manager at an accounting firm. “And so I come here and I just take a minute because it’s hard the rest of the time.”

Wong’s moment came seconds later when Schuster encouraged the 2000 shuffling, coughing, murmuring worshipers, to pause in silence.

Mark Costales, a friend of Wong’s who had volunteered as an usher for the day, said it’s important for him to overcome the distraction of the crowd in order for him to be alone with God.

“It’s like, I should be focused, why am I not focused on God?” He said after the service. “At this point, it’s something I just take as a given.”

Schuster said it’s important for Christians to take a break to focus on themselves and God. He said it’s even more important in such a large congregation with many distractions.

“You’d think it would be hard to find your own personal moment here,” he said. “But I think there’s also an element of hiding, just like in the city. There’s so many people around everyone tends to cling to their inner self when the room gets quiet.”

The moment officially lasted a little more than 40 seconds. The first 20 were a decrescendo of a musical “humminahumminahum,” the official sound of a hush falling over a crowd.

The din died out and the only sounds left were a few coughs and a handful of rustling papers. But the crowd seemed to try harder as the moment continued and at 30 seconds it finally reached its zenith—complete silence.

Wong stood with her head bowed and her eyes squeezed shut. Her hands rested on her thighs clutching her bulletin with both hands and turning the paper out slightly to reduce the inherent risk of a rustle.

For the next five seconds Wong and Costales stood in a room full of 2,000 alone with a personal God, offering silent praise. Wong organized. Costales focused.

But after 35 seconds the room began to feel uneasy. Someone cleared their throat and a few shuffles cracked the silence before Schuster raised his head and hands and closed the prayer on behalf of the group.

“Lord, you are our light and our salvation. With you we shall not fear.”

Wong and 2,000 people raised their heads and opened their eyes to the well-lit auditorium, squinting a little.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 7th, 2012 at 4:57 am. It is filed under Nathan Vickers, News, View From NYC. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.