August 11 1997

ARTICLE TOOLS

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Part two of two parts; click here to read part one.

Today, around 700 attend the Saturday night service, two-thirds of them with no church background. Ed Dobson wears ripped blue jeans and a T-shirt—a far cry from the Bob Jones days when he could not go to class without a tie, and his hair had to be off the ears, off the collar, and three finger widths above the eyebrows. He has been known to sport even a short ponytail. "Yes, the service feels entirely different from the three Sunday morning services, or the Sunday night service," he says, "but there's not much difference in what is said. Our purpose the whole weekend is exactly the same: We are gathering to pay attention to God.

"On Saturday night, blue jeans have a way of equalizing the social strata of the crowd, which is great. This last Saturday night I met a former crack addict. God is changing his life. In the same meeting were well-paid professionals.

"The questions scribbled on people's cards at the end tell me what a wide variety I'm facing. A couple of weeks ago one of the questions was 'Do I give up hooking [being a hooker] and then commit my life to Jesus Christ, or should I commit first and then give up hooking?' "

After someone comes to Christ in the Saturday night atmosphere, the move to Sunday morning is not as huge as one might imagine, Dobson says. While Sunday morning is traditional (the bulletin asks worshipers to refrain from applause during the service), the pastor is not afraid to rock the boat occasionally. One Lord's Day he intentionally kept his clothing and hair style from the night before. "I was preaching about how Christians get concerned about things that don't matter while not getting concerned about things that do matter. I preached ...