Jamie Stark
Upon surfacing into the cavernous main floor of Blackhawk Church, I asked my friend, "Where's the Orange Julius?"
Heavenly skylights arc over a giant hallway that cuts the top floor in two. Well-stocked coffee carts and smiling churchgoers fill the space like a mall food court. Three large worship venues line the atrium, and smack in the center is a round information table, in case you need help finding the Old Navy.
Stranger yet, this all happens on the second floor. The ground floor is reserved for Sunday school classrooms and offices. In back, volunteers with air traffic controller batons direct cars through the bi-level parking ramp.
Someone like myself, accustomed to a congregation of 60 Lutherans, quickly feels lost. Despite Blackhawk's size, though, every detail runs smoothly, making for quite the experience.
Blackhawk, part of the Evangelical Free Church of America denomination, is all about being different. It's a megachurch, but with Madison overtones. On the surface, the church seems liberal, hip, with a regular student crowd. But for the evangelical in your family, the message is unashamedly conservative and Gospel-centric. Emotions run deep; it's tough not to feel moved by the music and join in on the eyes-closed, hands-raised praise-fest.
My friend knew well enough to prep me for the movie screen on which I watched my first Blackhawk sermon. The pastor takes the stage in the largest of three venues; if you're in one of the other two, you get a house band and a video feed. I preferred the live worship hall, finding it strange to watch a bearded man in a sweater on a big screen. But congregants with noisy kids find the video venues useful.
Blackhawk shies away from traditional Christian jargon and institutional norms. To Blackhawk, relating to people's everyday lives with modern English takes precedence over timeworn terminology. There are no keywords like "ascension" or "atonement"; sermons are called teachings, and the pastors, known as "teachers," have a contemporary view on worship. The mall-like design is probably intentional; malls are more everyday places than churches, and Blackhawk wants to bring its approach to Christianity to the everyday.
Much of the music played during services could easily be heard on a Christian rock station, but the message itself is more traditionally megachurch: conservative, Bible-centric, heavily evangelical. A good chunk of Madison residents love it that way.
Begun from a Bible study group in the 1960s, Blackhawk got its secular-sounding name from the street of its first church building. Two more moves brought the congregation to its current location at 9620 Brader Way, off Mineral Point Road in Verona. With 4,000 Sunday attendees, it's easy for Blackhawk to make an impact on the Madison region.
Still growing, Blackhawk is launching a downtown church at the Majestic Theatre, geared toward college students and young professionals. It will meet at 9:30 and 11:30 on Sunday mornings starting Sept. 19. The church also reaches out to students with its Study Day at the end of each semester. There are free buses from campus to the main church, plus lots of free food.
Going with friends to Blackhawk, I sometimes felt I was attending a Christian rock concert. The size and modern feel kept me from thinking I was at church. But the emotional high that can accompany such a large, celebratory congregation left me understanding why so many love Blackhawk. The church is perfect for the modern evangelical, a Bible-lovin' literalist who appreciates a live house band.
Jamie Stark is a student at UW-Madison majoring in journalism and political science. He is a member of Luther Memorial Church and writes about the diverse religious community in Madison.
