Church. In a movie theater.
About a third of the overall membership fills the first Wednesday of every month with those who, according to Grace Point Church lead pastor Devin Hudson, 35, desire "worship and communion in a more intimate environment" than the Sunday services—held at North Las Vegas' Brian Cram Middle School—offer. "On Sunday mornings we're a church that attracts people from all different backgrounds—people that have never been to church before," Devin says. "Sunday mornings are led by a rock band, and the teaching is very applicable to your life whether you're a Christian or not, so [here] we're looking at an environment with a little more in-depth study." But in a movie theater?
"I was sitting there getting ready for a movie one day and they were showing these ads of like a cat chasing a goldfish, and I thought, ‘What better time to engage people with something spiritually healthy?'" he explains.
More songs and karaoke-style lyrics follow, as does a remarkable amount of dancing, clapping and hopping on one leg. Devin, wearing jeans and an orange hoodie, reads Psalm 107 ("Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, and his mercy endures forever ..."), then eases into the sermon. "We tried to bring it way down tonight," he begins. If this is "way down," Sunday services must give Beacher's Madhouse a run for its money.
A 5,000-year-old corpse was recently discovered between Italy and Austria, the best-preserved corpse ever found, Devin tells the crowd. It had tattoo markings. Mummies with tattoos have been found. Tattooing is the sixth-fastest-growing business in America. Probably 30 or 40 percent of the congregants have tattoos.
"Is it painful, John?" he shouts to a member.
"Not really," comes the reply.
This is no stodgy, stale, finery-draped service—the sermon includes jokes about dogs peeing on carpets. In Hudson's mind, tattoos are morally neutral. It depends on the tattooee's motive—will the inking provide glory to self or glory to God?
"We recognize that we're in Vegas, so we have a come-as-you-are mind-set," says Devin, who notes that the full Sunday "Tattoo" series includes a volunteer getting tattooed on stage while he speaks. "We just want to kind of help you take the next step, so we do a lot of creative stuff like that."