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With a beard, button-down shirt, jeans and glasses, the Fenway Church Team Leader hardly seems like a pastor. With bar stools, strobe lights and bottoles of liquor, Fenway Church hardly seems like a place of worship. Perhaps that’s why David Hill, a 2003 Boston University graduate, refers to himself as the “Preacher Dude” and the church is a bar called Church. Hill’s eyes swell with tears as he speaks about the sacrifices God made for humanity. Although his faith wavered in the past, he is committed to his calling — a young church. Hill’s father is a pastor at Abundant Grace, a sister church in Brighton, and he grew up surrounded by faith. During his time at BU he noticed students lacking religous tradition. Hill worked with different campus ministries to promote college to break through the stigma surrounding religious participation among students. After graduation, Hill and 20 people began meeting regularly to pray. “We felt we should start a Sunday service because there’s still a culture in America that says if you want to learn about God, or whatever you are seeking, you should go to church on Sundays,” Hill said. The atmosphere is lighthearted and Hill incorporates pop culture in his service. “It’s the ultimate gangster movie plot line,” he says, explaining how Judas betrayed Jesus and led him to death. “Someone in your posse is selling you out to the police.” By the end of the service, tears are running down people’s faces. Everyone rises to their feet to sing along “You can just feel it in the room,” James Krikorian, a sophomore at the New England Institute of Art, said. “The faith is real here. You just don’t get that in a lot of churches.” “We’re a spirit-filled group,” said Jeremy Jackson, a substitute teacher in the Boston Area. A troubled family history lead him to abandon his religious beliefs, but he reconnected with his spirituality while attending McGill University in Montreal, met Hill upon arriving in Boston is involved in the church. “We’re orthodox in our beliefs but non-denominational and non-traditional in a lot of our expressions,” said Hill. “One of the reasons we’re meeting at a bar is we want there to be a convergence of the cultures.” A bar called Church seemed a perfect fit for Hill’s services because it was an alternative environment for an alternative religion. “We assumed it was named Church in an irreverent, mocking way,” he said, “But we decided to check it out and we discovered the setup of the club site was really conducive to what we wanted to do.” Fenway Church held its first Bible-based service on October 5, 2008. Hill’s team spreadi the word to people they knew, especially students. “It’s mainly done by word of mouth,” said Hill, “My people live around here and bring their friends.” “I got a flier in the mail and decided to show up,” said Marine Valet, a senior studying political science at Simmons College. “I’ve been coming back ever since.” LaShondra Riddle, a senior at Simmons, heard about the church through the grapevine. “It’s a really good atmosphere,” she said. “I agree with the principles of the church, which is very important to me.” The church now has a regular crowd of 50 to 60 people, and will soon launch a second service at 10:30 a.m. for early risers, some of whom frequent the meeting base at weekend nights as well as Sunday mornings. While the followers are dedicated and the community is welcoming, the fact remains that most members of the 18 to 24 year-old demographic Hill is reaching out to will move on and out of Boston when they graduate from their respective schools. “We understand Fenway is very transient,” said Hill. “The majority will move on after several years, but that’s okay because one of our missions is to help people get to know God and establish a relationship with Him while they’re here that they can then take with them wherever they go.” Hill said the community is also constantly looking out for people who are planning to live in the area long-term. Nancy Ammerman, Sociology Department Chair at BU, thinks the transient environment poses a challenge but is not necessarily the handicap some believe it to be. “Any church that tries to build membership based on people who will be gone in four years will have a lot of turn over,” Ammerman said. “But given that the average time of moving in the overall American population is five years, it’s not all that different from the rest of the population.” The movement is theologically conservative but tries to reach out to young people in non-traditional ways, said Deanna Klepper, Chair of the Religion Department at BU. “They’re trying to build up committed communities,” she said. “I think the process of reaching out to younger people in a style that’s typical to them is working.” Klepper pointed out that while membership in traditional churches is down, general interest in religion remains high. “I think people are looking for that kind of religious conversation in alternative ways,” she said. Fenway Church seeks to fill the niche of spiritual students who are seeking an outlet but don’t like the feel of the more traditional communities they might have grown up in. “Students are encouraged to see their college years as a time of experimentation, leaving old habits and obligations behind,” said Ammerman. “Ordinary plain vanilla congregations are very unlikely to find many college students in their pews.” Alternative churches have sprung up around the country as a result, attempting to meet students where they are, both geographically and culturally, she said. “People tend to be against religion because of the culturally right-wing fundamentalist notion associated with it,” said Jesse Sudirgo, who works closely with Hill at Fenway Church. “We want to eliminate the culture barrier and help people see what God is all about.”
With a beard, button-down shirt, jeans and glasses, the Fenway Church Team Leader hardly seems like a pastor. With bar stools, strobe lights and bottoles of liquor, Fenway Church hardly seems like a place of worship. Perhaps that’s why David Hill, a 2003 Boston University graduate, refers to himself as the “Preacher Dude” and the church is a bar called Church.
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