Allan Appel Photo
Musicians Ricci Harke, Ben Littrell.
The small fellowship warmed up for worship by singing along with a three-guitar Christian folk-rock band playing U2’s “Where the Streets Have No Name.” Later the pastor delivered a sermon quoting chapter and verse from the Acts of the Apostles — read from a Jobs-ian tablet.
Welcome to the “Goatville Worship Service,” the latest effort of Christ Presbyterian Church on Whitney at Bradley to become what it calls an “urban-facing church” reflecting the whole city of New Haven.
This service aims for those who have roamed free of their Christianity, just as goats found a way beyond their fences in 19th century East Rock — thus giving the name “Goatville” to that part of East Rock east of Orange Street and this small church within a church.
About 25 people in their 20s and early 30s gathered in Christ Presbyterian Church (CPC)‘s main sanctuary Sunday afternoon at 4:30 for the effort’s first formal worship service. Led with the help of an iPad.
The church was founded in 1992. In 2002 it obtained the 1850s Gothic-style cottage in which it is housed now, greatly expanded and renovated.
A summer camp the church ran in the Hill has evolved into a separate Sunday service of about 50 or 60 people held at the Boys and Girls Club on Columbus Avenue.
That’s just one step in the church’s building what a brochure terms “a community that will look, feel, taste, and sound like urban New Haven.”
And that’s where Goatville comes in.
For a year people feeling not quite comfortable in their church experiences have been meeting to study, play spiritually relevant music, and talk about what they wanted. They met in houses of people such as musician Ricci Harke.
The gatherings were triggered by people who are part of CPC’s main Sunday morning service, which Graham described as having a more Yale and suburban “vernacular” or sensibility.
Doug Bruce and his 4-year-old Nathaniel.
The Goatville service that evolved is different, more informal in feeling, more jeans and chinos than jackets and ties. It draws young families like Douglas Bruce and son Nathaniel. (Douglas’s wife and two other kids were praying nearby.) About the comfortable chamber could be seen at least four pregnant women.
Bruce is affiliated with Yale University. He said the “value added” of the Goatville service for him, among other qualities, is a style in which “townies and gownies can come, and that distinction doesn’t have meaning.”
The music that Harke and the three acoustic guitarists make is decidedly for a younger crowd. “No horns and harps,” said Harke. Those are evident in the live music group in the regular service, she said.
She’s associated with Colin Meyer, a bass player in the Goatville group. Meyer plays both in Christian and non-religious bands around town. He is also key in the evolution of the Goatville “vernacular,” which is full of easy to listen to and easy to sing expressions of faith.
The music is not only a more contemporary sound than that of the CPC traditional service. The language of the hymns or the songs are also more easily understood than the traditional hymns, from which many are adapted.
An example of one lyric: “Jesus, draw me closer/ Closer Lord to you/ As the world around me fades away/ For I desire to worship and obey.”
“Half the words of the [traditional] hymns no one understands any more. No one talks like that anymore,” she said.
Hands-Free Prayer
Other differences include projection of songs, hymns, and prayers via computer onto a large screen beside the altar. So no formal prayer books are used, at least thus far.
Pastoral Assistant Craig Luekens.
Pastoral Assistant Craig Luekens, who helped organize the service and conducted readings from Isaiah, Acts, and Revelation, said of the hands-free approach: “You’re not holding anything. You can raise your hands in prayer.”
That said, Rev. Graham preached an old-fashioned sermon. First, though, he disarmed worshipers by asking what they dislike about sermons.
Those critiques were freely offered by the young crowd: A preacher usually goes on forever. Fear of condemnation. The preacher focuses on himself, or strays from the gospel to teach a wishy-washy doctrine of self help.
None of that was in evidence in what Graham preached. “The service will be the same exact order and high grace theology,” just with a different face, he said.
Graham (pictured) spoke of the world-weariness of the early Jewish Christians. They were disappointed that Jesus did not return and that he even said to give unto Ceasar what is Ceasar’s, instead of challenging Rome, he said. Such positions, he said, made them feel the church might be moribund, had missed its more radical agenda, and was no longer relevant.
They also likely infuriated the early Christians, said Graham, speaking with the impassioned twang of his native Georgia.
“The Jewish Christians in Acts and John had lost the temple, were disoriented. Christianity was on the verge [then] of becoming a lost-cause movement,” he said, reading the scripture from his iPad.
He drew that parallel to what Goatville worshippers may have been experiencing elsewhere.
Harke, Luekens, and others judged the first Goatville servicea success.
In the future, said Graham, “Who knows? Maybe we’ll have some craft beer offered afterwards.”
On this first Sunday,there was roast beef, to which the young families went directly to eat and socialize after the service.
Organizers are meeting on Tuesday nights at 7 to refine the service for the weeks ahead. Those interested can call the CPC at 203 – 777-6960.