Congregation Has Date After Evening Service Pastor Thinks Dancing Can Build Sense Of Community

The Rev. Tom Shelly was thinking about the needs of his congregation, and decided that while his flock always needs a loaf of spiritual bread, they could use a little slice of social life, too.

“There’s an increasing trend toward individualism and privacy in our society, but people want community, too,” he said. “It’s difficult to have both.”

So what did the pastor of Christ Lutheran Church decide to do? He decided to give the masses what they want.

Some boot-scootin’ boogie.

After tonight’s 5:30 p.m. worship service, Christ Lutheran will have country line dancing lessons at 6:30 p.m. The lessons are free to the public, and are held at the church, 13009 E. Broadway.

Shelly hopes more than 100 cowpokes will mosey on up for the event. He hopes some of those will be folks new to his congregation, too.

He first got the idea of integrating pulpit and pasture from a friend of his who leads a church in Seattle.

“They actually had a Western-type worship service,” Shelly said. “They took a lot of the old hymns and put them to country music.”

Shelly has no plans to do that quite yet. But he said he will continue to plan fun things for churchgoers to do on Saturdays. The night service itself is fairly new - the church had its first the weekend of Bloomsday. Shelly scheduled a carbo-loading spaghetti feed after the service, and the turnout was so good he decided that adding the social dimension not only packs them in, but it’s actually sorely needed as well.

“I think people are looking for ways to connect with one another, and I think helping them is one of the missions of the church,” Shelly said.

If line dancing is a hit, Shelly will offer it again in August. From his congregation’s reaction, he’s pretty sure that won’t be a problem.

“Quite a few people were really interested,” he said. “Members of the church referred me to three (dance) teachers right away.”

Will he be out there cutting a rug? Maybe. While he’s not really much of country fan, he said he’ll give it a listen.

Choir performance

Spokane Valley Methodist Church, 10422 E. Main, will have a special choir performance Sunday morning at 9:30 a.m. The church’s two adult vocal groups - the Chancel and Joyful Sound choirs - will perform along with their handbell choir and a brass ensemble from Eastern Washington University.

Choir member Doris Swehla said the 35-voice combined group will perform for most of the service. A brief message, “The New Pentecost,” will follow.