A very lovely woman greeted me and my friend after the 9 a.m. worship service at Denton Bible Church, located on University Drive east of Texas Woman’s University. She eagerly asked, “What did you think about it?”
I hesitated for a moment, looking for the right words to express my heart and mind, and finally said, “It was impressively professional.”
And it was, with enthusiastic applause to the exquisite music performances that sandwiched a clearly delivered 40-minute message.
We had arrived a few minutes before the service. The first thing we saw as we entered was the well-staffed media center, giving us opportunity to purchase copies of messages and books. Bypassing it, and after introducing ourselves to the ushers, we entered the worship center where the service would take place.
According to the posted notice, the space would hold about 4,700 people in comfortably cushioned theater seats, complete with seat numbers. From the catwalk above the stage, to the strategically positioned cameras, to the massive screens, to the to-die-for sound booth, to the setup of the large orchestra, to the subtlety of the everchanging lighting on the giant cross in the background, we found ourselves prepared to focus our eyes forward.
We found a couple of unclaimed seats in one of the front sections, noting that many prime seats were saved for later occupation by Bibles placed across arm rests. At 8:58, the orchestra began to perform Bach’s “Sleepers Awake,” with the space about 20 percent full. As the sounds of music helped usher in many others milling in the spacious hallways, the casually dressed choir began filling the wide risers at the back of the stage.
The prelude was immediately followed by several minutes of announcements made by a well-dressed man. The first thing we learned was that multiple voter registration booths were set up around the campus to encourage greater participation in the upcoming elections. The announcer stated that because of increasing threats to religious liberty in the United States, the church would also be playing host to a Religious Freedom Conference in a few weeks.
At 9:06, we were invited to stand, sing and greet one another. Then the audience lights darkened, brightening the stage, as we were treated to an anthem that told the story of Jesus, almost a creed set to music. Another well-dressed man came to the pulpit and read the Scripture passage for the day, 2 Corinthians 1:12-24, as everyone around us opened their Bibles and followed along.
Now 9:24, all attention went to the screens as the youth pastor spoke on video of the challenges of their meeting space. Photos displayed clearly the overcrowding and how much they need the new building currently under construction — an 80,000-square-foot, $10 million facility that will provide everything needed to keep the youth happy, taught and connected to each other.
At this point, senior pastor Tom Nelson, one of the 13 male elders who oversee the church, came to the pulpit to deliver his message. As he began, he reaffirmed the need of the new building and explained the financing and construction timeline. He also disclosed that the current youth building will be leased to Serve Denton, an umbrella organization that will bring together under one roof many social service agencies in the area. The lease terms? A dollar a year, Nelson said.
Pope Francis may be warning of World War III breaking loose in this messy world, but inside the walls of Denton Bible, things are clean and orderly. Nelson assured the congregation that children being raised in this church environment will not make the same mistakes of their parents. Within these ministry walls, they will be safe and far less prone to fall into error. They will, he said, pay their American Express bills on time.
Nelson then began an in-depth exposition of the 2 Corinthians passage. It begins with the writer, the Apostle Paul, straightforwardly addressing the Corinthian church’s complaint: that he had not kept his word and visited them as promised.
Nelson stated this was the equivalent of someone complaining of a spiritual leader’s choice to drive 80 mph in a 60 mph speed zone and overlooks the far more important work of proclaiming the uncompromising truth. It is this task to which Paul is called, and he, as the bearer of that truth, is the glory of the Corinthian church — it is he who gave them the light of salvation. Without blushing, Nelson proclaimed that he, too, is the glory for this church and for other groups where he speaks and gives the unchanging, never-compromised truth. He reminded those in worship with him that they, too, can be glory-bearers as they take the truth from this place and offer it to others.
At about 10:20, before the orchestra began another piece to indicate the dismissal from our comfortable seats and back into the world again, Nelson offered the invitation to receive Jesus and be saved. As their doctrinal statement clearly reads, “Man is created in the image and likeness of God. In Adam, all mankind fell into sin with the result that all men are sinners. Men are justly condemned to eternal judgment and can do nothing to merit salvation.”
While gender-exclusive language is not the written or spoken norm in most other places today, it is here, both in the written statements and from the pulpit. I know that I personally have to interpret each use of “man” to see if the usage also includes women, but also know that such language reflects the important emphasis on male headship and leadership that characterizes this church and its uncompromising stance on truth.
