River Crossing

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

By Jake Nichols

There was a man. He was like any man. He had been walking in the backcountry for many miles, many hours. He was lost. At first, the trail was well-marked and of easy grade. He remembers when it grew too steep or too difficult to follow, he simply checked with his map and compass and invented a detour or two. That was a while ago. It now grew late and he was hungry and weary and alone.

Instinctively, the man knew he must reach higher ground. Lost in the valley, in the thick canopy of trees, it was impossible to find the way. From on high, the man knew he could make sense of the underlying terrain. The man finally reached a high rock and was overjoyed at seeing the trailhead, but his heart sank when he realized he must cross a mighty river to get there. To the animals of the forest, the river meant life. To the man, it seemed swift and deep, and he was afraid.

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-“Welcome to the river. Come on in, the water’s fine.” – Pastor Mike Atkins, to the congregation Sunday, Jan. 10, 2010.

Pastor Mike Atkins has been making a joyful noise at the little church in Rafter J called River Crossing going on 13 years since his second coming in 1997. The 53-year-old Tennessean built the congregation from a loyal 50 followers or so, to nearly 500 today.

Atkins draws them in with a fresh approach to worship. Wooden pews are replaced with plush chair seating. The altar backdrop features not crosses or frescos, but expansive floor-to-ceiling windows that let in the majesty of the Teton Range. Contemporary music pounds out of a state-of-the-art sound system courtesy of artist-in-residence Eddie Anders.

But it is the message that holds the flock and keeps them returning. Mike Atkins does not sugarcoat it. The self-made preacher came from a broken home. He went from high-school class president to college flunk-out in a year.

“I grew up in the streets,” he admitted. “I experimented and dabbled around with a lot of stuff, so I got a good taste of life without faith.”

Atkins’ ministry has followers worldwide. He is a respected speaker and teacher. At home, in Jackson Hole, Atkins’ self-effacing approach to the Word has found purchase with local residents. JH Weekly sat down with the father of three.

Jackson Hole Weekly: The style of worship at River Crossing is dynamic. This is not your grandfather’s pipe-organ cathedral.

Mike Atkins: We do different things than just a normal church. I think a part of that is because churches as a whole are evolving in America to engage the culture. They’ve gone from just ‘smells and bells’ to adjusting their methods to kind of be more contemporary to the culture around them.

But we are a solidly Christian congregation, founded  on very orthodox faiths and Christian beliefs. The message has not changed. The methods have changed. We do things a little more contemporary. We try new things. We take risks with ways to express that truth, but it’s still the same old Gospel that’s been preached for two thousand years that we’re proclaiming. Nothing’s changed.

JHW: You’ve brought in some world-class musicians at River Crossing. Why the focus on the performing arts?

MA: I’ve always felt like the performing arts are kind of first claimed by the church. If you look at Beethoven and Bach and the great painters and artists, the arts were almost exclusively used for many centuries of time to portray sacred themes and things of that nature. To me, the arts and the sacred go together beautifully and always have.

I think the unique thing about being a pastor in Jackson Hole is this is an area that has 6,000 town residents, 20,000 in the county, but three-and-a-half-million tourists coming through the area. It seems like, for most people, Jackson Hole is an event, not really a lifetime experience. For most of them, this isn’t a ‘womb-to-tomb’ place.

hey are mostly going to pass through this area and it’s going to be an event in their life. So being conscious of that as a congregation, we thought, “How can we make that event not only a great recreational event like skiing or fly-fishing or riding a horse, but spiritually, how can we make it a really impacting event in their life?”

JHW: Something about River Crossing appeals to the youth. In an era when many churches are losing the 20-something.s, your church seems to cater to them.

MA: I think that is true. Certainly my background with college ministry for 10 years has a lot to do with that. [Atkins grew a college ministry to 400-strong in Atlanta after starting there as the janitor.] I think that fashioned a lot of my style and teaching, because college students don’t take things on surface level.

They question everything. So I learned to really think through my faith. I know how to speak to that age group in a way that makes truth relevant to them.

I’m a passionate believer in the truths that I talk about. They rescued me in a very dark period of my life. They’ve been the foundation stone of my life, my marriage and my own children. So when I stand up and talk about them, it’s not a dry intellectual exercise expounding on some idea. I’m talking about life-changing truth. And I think that with young adults particularly, that’s something that matters to them.

The people in this congregation also feel passionately about these truths. It’s not just me. It’s really a living expression of our faith and love for a living God. That’s what makes it real to us. And when you have something that you feel passionately about, you kinda can’t shut up about it.

JHW: You keep up with world affairs. You have met with world leaders like Benjamin Netanyahu (Prime Minister of Israel) and Farah Pahlavi (Empress of Iran during Shah’s reign). Are you politically active?

MA: I’ve never been a hugely political figure. Candidly, I’ve always thought the political realm was temporal and the spiritual realm was eternal. I don’t put a huge amount of stock in the political process. I tend to think more in terms of what can I do to make a difference in people’s lives, rather than what can the government do. Over the course of my life, I have been engaged in the world – China, Africa, India, South America – involved in a lot of ministries that have been really making a difference.

JHW:  Jews and Christians have an interesting relationship. Both faiths are rooted in the Old Testament but diverge when the Book of Matthew begins.

MA: Jesus was Jewish. So that pretty much connects us to the Jewish faith. I think, historically, Christians have always viewed Judaism as being the roots of our faith.

The Old Testament is the same sacred books that Judaism honors. The foundations of our faith go back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and those storied figures. Most Christians I know have a love for the Jewish people. I would say here, locally, in Jackson Hole, I feel a great sense of alliance and affinity with the Jewish community.

JHW: So many people today self-medicate. They might or might not believe in a higher power but, basically, they live under their own set of rules – a kind of “Do unto Others…” faith.

MA: I think the reason why I landed at Christianity is kind of the same way Bono (U2) did. I remember hearing him talk about growing up with the idea of karma. If you do good, those things come to you and if you do bad, bad things come to you. And he said that worked for him as long as he was doing good things, but the problem was he started doing a bunch of bad things as well.

Then he encountered grace, and he’s been pretty open being a Christian and having experienced that. Grace says, essentially, that all of us have failed. We’ve all kind of gone our own way. I don’t think there is any human being that would want the whole story of their life written in a book and passed out.

The message that Bono talks about that captivated him is the message of grace: the idea that there’s actually a place where failure, rebellion, sin – whatever you want to call it – can actually be forgiven. Where it is not just what goes around comes around, but where there is actually someone who is willing to take a stand between our destructive acts and the consequences of those acts. And that’s really the message of the cross. 

JHW: Still, it is a difficult concept to accept.

MA: People get so confused by what Christianity is really about. I asked a guy one time what he thought the theme of Christianity was and he said, “Well, if you keep the Ten Commandments you get to go to heaven.” And I just shook my head and said, “It is so amazing to me that you could read the scriptures and miss the whole theme.” Because the whole theme is you can’t get to heaven by keeping the Ten Commandments. All have fallen short. Everybody’s blown it. There is no way man can fix his problems or sort it out for himself. He needed a savior.

Maybe someone could stand in front of a group of people and claim it, but I don’t know anybody that can look in a mirror and say: “I’ve got nothing that I need to be forgiven for.” But who forgives you? You just forgive yourself? Or is there anybody that you owe some accountability to? For me, it’s been such a life-transforming experience, as it has for Bono and for many other people, that I can’t keep quiet about it. I don’t go out and slam it down people’s throats but if somebody asks where is the hope that’s in me, I’m gonna tell ‘em. The hope that’s in me is Jesus Christ.

JHW: Can science and religion co-exist?

MA: I think it’s a tragedy that science and religion have become enemies.
Throughout most of science’s history, science has been married to religion in a very real sense. Many of the great scientists – the Pascals, the Newtons – they had very strong faith.

Unfortunately, now, there seems to be a sort of hostility, and honestly I see it more on the end of science, than I do on religion. It is almost a militant atheism that says: “Not only do I not believe, but you’re an idiot if you do.” I think that’s a great tragedy because I think we can learn something from each other. There is no question this universe is an extraordinary mystery. I think that anybody that takes just a brief glimpse at the complexity and order and design of the universe would have to come away with the conclusion that there is some thought and purpose that’s gone into what’s here.

JHW: River Crossing began as the JH Christian Center when the 600-acre Rafter J development was plotted in 1978. The property encompasses nearly 15 acres. And there are plans to expand?

MA: Back in 1992, we submitted a master plan to the county that we’ve been working on ever since, really. From the beginning we thought of enlarging our sanctuary space which is what this [proposed] new building is about. JHW

Photo by Derek Diluzio
Pastor Mike Atkins

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