Churches Plan Park Services Pastor Hopes The Events ‘Will Raise The Overall Spiritual Tide’

Pop artists Chris Isaak and Sheryl Crow aren’t the only big shows coming to Riverfront Park this summer.

More than 30 Spokane churches are joining up to sponsor Sunday-night worship services during July and August in the Gondola Meadows, next to the Bloomsday sculpture.

A combination of well-known speakers and professional music acts will anchor each of the nine services.

The churches, black and white, big and small, mainline and evangelical, represent a wide variety of worship styles and Christian beliefs. They include Presbyterians, Baptists and numerous community and non-denominational congregations.

“There are a lot of really good churches in Spokane that are well-kept secrets,” said the Rev. Dennis Sunderland, pastor at First Assembly of God, 838 W. Indiana.

Sunderland said he hopes the services “will raise the overall spiritual tide in Spokane.”

“Maybe in the whole city there’ll be a 2 or 3 percent increase in the number of people going to church on Sunday,” he said. “Then we will have accomplished our goals.”

While organizers won’t speculate about the crowds they expect, the numbers could climb into the thousands. Joint Sunday night services between two of the 30 churches last summer attracted almost 500 people.

“It’s been wonderful to see this take a whole new quantum leap into an arena that will network churches across the city,” said the Rev. John Repsold, pastor at Fourth Memorial, 2000 N. Standard.

Repsold and Sunderland have held joint services for the past two summers. That experience worked out so well for the congregation, Repsold suggested expanding it at a weekly prayer meeting of the Greater Spokane Association of Evangelicals.

From there the word spread among diverse groups of pastors.

Organizers worked hard to tie into other events going on in the downtown park this summer. A Native American speaker and musical group are scheduled for Aug. 25, the weekend of the annual Native American Pow Wow. Gospel musician Steve Camp will preach and perform on Aug. 18, the same day as a park concert by the Mavericks, a pop country act.

The services are designed to be concise and conclude before other events, such as the Royal Fireworks Concert, start. Services will feature local performers, the headline music acts and 20-minute sermons.

While the music will be modern, the message will be geared toward the entire spectrum of Christians, Sunderland said.

The act of organizing such a diverse group was as valuable to the Christian community in Spokane as the actual services will be, said the Rev. Ezra Kinlow, pastor of the Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, 312 E. Third.

“Denominational barriers are not easy to override,” he said. “That such a large group of pastors has been brave enough to approach this is very exciting.”

Churches remain one of the most segregated areas of society, Kinlow said. Several pastors sponsoring the park services met resistance among their worshippers, he said.

“And that’s within the congregations. Outside there’s going to be a tremendous force,” Kinlow said.

Repsold said individual pastors, as well as large denominations, are guilty of highlighting peripheral issues that divide the Christian church.

Worshippers focus on topics like abortion, the ordination of women, homosexuality and Bible translations. While Christians have different opinions on those issues, they all believe in Jesus, he said. Repsold hopes that in the future churches and denominations will focus more on what they have in common, not on their differences.

“The commonality that we all have is a basic commitment to Jesus Christ and a faith in him,” Repsold said. “We should be coming together on that core issue of faith.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SERVICES Sunday Night in the Park worship services are from 6 to 7:15 p.m. in the Gondola Meadow, except for the Sept. 1 service, which will be held in the Clocktower Meadow.