Local church offers 'alternative' service

A group walks into The Varsity Theatre. The team cranks up its guitars, mixes its sounds and checks its microphones. The event begins as a man steps on the stage.

But he is not the lead singer of a band. He is the pastor of a local church.

And for one night a semester, he turns what normally serves as a bar and music venue into a religious service.

Mike Haman is the college and young adult pastor at Healing Place Church in Baton Rouge. He leads a group that is taking college ministry far outside the walls of a church building.

LateNite, a college and young adults' ministry, began in 2003 with a mission "to be a healing place for a hurting world," according to the group's Web site.

Haman said he "dreamed of relating first-century values to 21st century life." To do this, he developed a service he says is creative, sacred and relevant to the age group.

LateNite's coordinators said they chose The Varsity as the location for the services because it already hosts many people they want to reach. The services consist of worship songs that carry an alternative feel using the theatre's sound and light systems.

The LateNite crew said what draws people in is that the messages are not only challenging and practical but also relaxed and friendly.

"It's not condemning," said LateNite coordinator Meghan Matt.

Matt said the most recent service drew in about 700 students.

LateNite coordinators said The Varsity had no objections to the services, nor did members of the church. But the ministry did face opposition from people it said simply didn't understand the group's work, including a church group that held a protest outside the theatre.

LateNite coordinator Terry Olivier said the goals for the free services are to bring people to Christ and to plant spiritual seeds in peoples' lives.

"Our vision is to see young people living the life God intended," Olivier said.

Members of Healing Place, according to its site, believe God is the creator of the universe and that Jesus offered himself as a sacrifice for the sins of all people. They believe in the power of the Holy Spirit and the Bible.

LateNite meets weekly at 8:30 p.m. at Healing Place on Highland Road. More information on the group can be found at www.healingplacechurch.org.

----- Erin Trabeau contributed this story to The Daily Reveille as a mass communication sophomore.

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