November 11, 2002
ON A RECENT Tuesday night, worshippers at The Station listened to a non-linear message delivered by Tony Celelli.
JESUS IN A STOREFRONT:
Reaching postmoderns in Corpus Christi
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___CORPUS CHRISTI--If Jesus were walking around Corpus Christi today, where would he go and who would he talk to?
___Tony Celelli is pretty sure Jesus wouldn't hang out in a church building.
___That's why the Baptist minister has set up shop in downtown Corpus Christi between a tattoo parlor and a bar.
___The Station is part mission church, part coffeehouse, part rescue mission and part postmodern outpost.
___"We wanted to do something outside the traditional boundaries," explained Celelli, associate pastor at Second Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, which is among backers of the 2-year-old mission. The Station also has received funding through the BaptistGeneral Convention of Texas and Corpus Christi Baptist Association.
CELELLI meets with the band to plan the final details of a service.
___E.B. Brooks, coordinator of church missions and evangelism for the BGCT, lauds The Station as one of the state's most creative efforts to reach people untouched by traditional churches.
___"The Station is one several churches developing in Texas focused on reaching the emerging culture," Brooks said. "Second Baptist Church of Corpus Christi, led by Doug Jackson, has been visionary in sponsoring this congregation."
___Celelli and his wife "have committed themselves to a task that is daunting," Brooks added. "I am thrilled with the progress of this church."
___Nevertheless, the first two years of launching the ministry proved to be years of excruciatingly hard work and questioning whether the vision was of God. This fall, however, the years of sweat and tears finally have borne more visible fruit, with attendance at The Station's two weekly gatherings more than doubling, to as many as 50 some nights.
___The reason for this fall's spiritual bounty is "two years of praying over this building and two years of crying over this building," Celelli said as he sat in the storefront listening to the band practice on a recent Monday night. "This has been the biggest challenge for me. I felt like a failure for two years."
___Some fellow Baptists in the area told Celelli up front they thought the effort would fail. Many others could not understand why he would devote so much time and effort to this mission beyond his full-time work at Second Baptist.
___What drove him, however, was the question of where Jesus would walk and who he would talk with.
___Even though Celelli was tempted to walk away, "God wouldn't let me," he said. "I couldn't help it."
IN KEEPING with the decor of neighboring establishments, The Station displays a bright neon "Open" sign in its window.
___Celelli, a 32-year-old husband and father, admits he is not a postmodern himself. But he has developed a burden to reach postmoderns and others neglected by traditional churches.
___A typical Sunday evening or Tuesday evening event at The Station may draw young families, college students, single young adults and the homeless. Often, patrons of the adjoining Axis Tattoo or Dr. Rocket's Blues Bar stop to peer in the storefront window. Some come in and ask what kind of store this is.
___Inside, these new friends may be served cappuccino from the coffee bar, and they're likely to hear the ministry's house band, which plays alternative Christian rock.
___"It's a place where I can learn and get fed and yet also bring non-Christians," said Heather Taylor, a recent college graduate who started work this year as a schoolteacher.
___When inviting friends to The Station, she talks about the casual atmosphere, the coffee house feel, the music, the fact that "anybody can talk about how they feel."
___That's also a selling point for Taylor Creech, a university student who plays electric guitar in the band.
___"I tell people it's kind of like a church but it's not," he said. "I tell them about the couches, the music, that it's laid back, that there are not a lot of rules here, that it's not a program where there are people telling you what to do.
___"Here, I can praise God with my fingers," the guitarist said. "I've never been able to do that before."
___The Station, Taylor concurred, proved to be an ideal place to bring a friend who doesn't like churches.
___"It's a place for her to get back in touch with God, because it's not God she has the problem with," Taylor explained.
___While thoroughly evangelical, leaders of The Station shun an in-your-face approach to witnessing or ministry.
___"We're not counting conversions but conversations," Celelli said, explaining that he believes God is capable of bearing fruit from the seeds that are lovingly planted at The Station.
___Likewise, The Station doesn't preach an easy gospel. "We don't give pat answers, cookie-cutter answers," Celelli said. "Yet God still convicts people."
___Primary meeting times are Tuesday and Sunday evenings, and a Cocaine Anonymous group meets at The Station on Wednesday evenings.
___On Tuesday nights, Celelli leads a time of music and worship, and on Sunday nights, Grover Pinson leads a time of music and directed prayer. Pinson, a local campus minister, is a member of First Baptist Church of Corpus Christi.
___Teaching moments at The Station often include the visual as much as the verbal. On a recent Sunday night, Pinson passed around large puzzle pieces for each person to use as he talked about piecing together the puzzle of life.
___An array of white candles light the small storefront, which also features exhibits by local artists on the wall. The band plays on a dimly lit stage, backed up by a wall-sized projection of visuals and lyrics.
___The furnishings, an eclectic collection of sofas and armchairs, were obtained from garage sales.
___"It's like your living room and people are able to come in to your living room," explained Pinson.
___Services and special events often include food, and it's typical for those inside to carry the food out to passersby on the street as well.
___"This is church--what it's supposed to be," Taylor said.
___That sometimes defies description, even to those who experience it.
___Sometimes, non-churched people who visit The Station comment on the peaceful spirit they feel and ask Celelli or Pinson, "What is the presence in here?"
___Celelli answers: "We're followers of God, and what you're feeling is God's presence."
___On a recent night, a man walked into The Station, arriving late for worship. During the service, he took a paper plate, scribbled out this poem about what he was experiencing. Then he handed it to worship leaders as he left:Stars in the corner ___
Songs on the wall
Worship
God's presence is here
Voices from Heaven
In candle light
We Worship the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit calling to us
Calling us to spread the Gospel
Spread the Word in so many different ways
God Loves us
Jesus Loves us
Spread the Word.
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