Hip Hop churches appear to be a growing trend in contemporary ministry. But Madison has a Hop Hop church.
Mad City Church, a 10-year old come-as-you-are church, has no permanent home for its worship services. It maintains offices in the East Madison Shopping Center on East Washington Avenue. For the past half-dozen years it has been worshipping most often in the auditorium at LaFollette High School, just off Stoughton Road on Pflaum Road. However pre-scheduled events have sometimes forced the church to hop over to the gym at East High School, the alma mater of senior pastor Shane Holden.
There are not a lot of locations that are big enough for the church’s Sunday services; total Sunday morning attendance is usually over 1,000. This summer the LaFollette auditorium is being remodeled and for some reason the East High gym is unavailable. The congregation tried the gym at LaFollette. But unlike East High, chairs are not allowed on the LaFollette gym floor. And the bleachers are a hard place to sit for sermons that typically last in excess of one hour. After two Sundays on the bleachers, more options were under consideration.
So this morning this "church in transit," as pastor Holden put it, hopped over to the west side for services at the Madison West Marriott Hotel. For the rest of the summer, with the possible exception of August 6th, Mad City Church services will be at 8:30am and 11:00am at the Marriott Hotel, 1313 John Q Hammons Drive in Middleton. For more information, call the church offices at 210-8000.