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Senior Pastor
the Rev. J. Dan Turner
Attendance
about 30
Sample Worshipper Dress
gray slacks, oxford shirt, blue Mr. Rogers cardigan
Service Length
1 hour
Special Offer
free gas for the congregation’s first 100 families
Congregation Fervor
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While performing the prayerful torch ballad “This Is the Air I Breathe,” Worship Minister Jason Blake did his best to turn the congregation on —to the light of the Lord. “I’m lost without you/No one else satisfies/Nobody else gives us what we need,” sang Blake, as he riffed soulfully on an electric piano during the song’s refrain. HHHHH
Food for the Soul
During his Thanksgiving sermon, Turner displayed a photograph of a tortoise balanced atop a fence post. After allowing the congregation a few moments of bewilderment, he explained that the picture had hung in the office of one of his mentors. “He kept it on the wall because when he looked at it, he remembered that he didn’t get up there on his own,” Turner said. “He had help.”HHHHH
Food for the Body
After the Nov. 19 service, Northwest held its first-ever Thanksgiving meal—which included cranberry sauce, stuffing, three kinds of pie, brownies, green beans, macaroni and cheese, fruit salad, and a turkey prepared by Turner’s wife. The reverend implored the congregation to help polish off the bird: “If you don’t come down for turkey, it will be turkey sandwiches the next three weeks.” HHHHH
Overall Worship Power
The recently opened church is making an effort to incorporate the sacred and the contemporary—which explains why both the Lord and Lost inspired the church’s first four services. A mailer sent out by Northwest appropriated the popular TV series’ logo and listed island-themed services such as “Navigating Through the Dire Straits of Your Finances” and “Finding Your Way off of Isolation Island.”HHHHH
—Aaron Leitko