Name: Edge Church

Denomination/religion: Pentecostal

Location: 255 Old South Road, Reynella (South Campus)

Service times: Friday, 7:30PM

The best thing: the catchy hymns

The worst thing: no speaking in tongues

Overall rating: ✞ ✞

A preamble to you curious creatures who may visit this church on your lonesome: take a few pieces of bread to leave a trail, because you may get lost! Edge is the biggest church I have been to – it’s more like a shopping complex than a place of worship. There was a cafe, a bookstore, a kid’s area, a youth area, an outdoor area and the chapel. Luckily I had a former member accompany me, so she was able to guide me through the labyrinth. We arrived just after 7pm, for the 7:30pm service, to a lively bunch of people. We just missed out on ordering a hot dinner, (‘cause, ya know, they serve hot dinners), so instead grabbed a drink from the cafe. As we wandered about, one of the members handed me three free CDs containing messages about Jesus.

We took the elevator up to the chapel and took a seat towards the back, amongst the hundreds of other attendees. The chapel was actually just a giant concert hall, with a stage and three large screens. There were four video cameras set up to project the service onto the big screens, into the youth area downstairs, and to the Edge branches in Melbourne, Bristol and New York. I began to question whether I had entered a church service or the set of Australian Idol, and this feeling did not abate as the service began.

The evening kicked off with a Calvin Harris inspired hymn sung and played by a group of dashing young Christians. I must admit, when the song began the excitement was palpable: people had their arms up, their eyes closed and their emotions spilling over. The only other time I experienced this level of intense mob fever was when I watched the Justin Bieber documentary. Man, was this crowd zealous. The younger folk formed a mosh pit in front of the stage and jumped along to the catchy tunes, and there were also a bunch of kids at the back of the stage singing along and raising their hands. The group sung about three songs and the crowd was energised.

Although the high energy musical act did leave me feeling rather giddy for the remainder of the evening, I found the sermon a rather tawdry spectacle. It felt less like I was at church, and more like I was having an eager teenager tell me about his gap-year voluntourism trip. Pastor Jonathan Fontanarosa took us on his recent Edge mission to Zimbabwe to see where the funds of the 2014 Ride For Hope fundraiser were spent; it was the classic Christian progress narrative. As he recalled his experiences, Jonathan began to tear up, and thankfully a keyboard player was on stage to provide the emotional soundtrack to accompany his maudlin tale. Let me just paraphrase some of the shabby rhetoric repeated:

We are the ones who have, giving to those in need – so they have no need

We have the responsibility to respond with our ability

The sermon was interspersed with scriptures and short propaganda films about Edge’s work in Zimbabwe, featuring, the star of the evening, Pastor Jonathan. Yet, for me, the promotion of these charitable ventures was lost in a sea of glitzy production. Also, the claim that the congregation had the privilege and opportunity to be the ‘givers’* was repeated a lot. Pastor Jonathan said he was once overwhelmed with guilt because of his privilege, but was now overwhelmed with responsibility. He reminded the congregation about the church’s fundraising venture, Ride for Hope, and their goal of having each member raise $500 or more.

The service ended with a brief cross-promotional announcement: When Edge members shop at Drake supermarkets, 5% of their spend will go towards the Ride for Hope fundraiser. Great business deal, guys! It concluded with another song and we were handed our Drake key ring on the way out.

* This was one of many instances where I did a queer reading of the sermon.

– Anna K