Mercy Seat's punk service rocks the basement at St. Paul's

It's Lent--the darkest time in the Christian calendar--a season when worshippers reflect, contemplate and prepare for the light and the celebration of Easter. During Lent, many churches offer short, mid-week services, or vespers, and Mercy Seat Lutheran is no exception. Since Ash Wednesday, the year-old alterna-church has been holding evening prayers in the basement of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, where it shares space. But these are not Grandma Lena's Lutheran vespers.

"The tagline for our posters is 'Punk rock church: believe in oxymorons,'" explains Travis Gerjets with a grin. Gerjets is a third-year student at Luther Seminary in St. Paul, and an interim pastor at Mercy Seat. He created the punk liturgy as his internship project, writing the music with longtime friend and band mate, Zak Wilske.

It's just before 9 o'clock on a Wednesday evening, and worshipers are arriving for service in the lower level of St. Paul's Lutheran Church on Lowry Avenue. As people enter they meet a round table where they can pick up church bulletins, music sheets, and ... earplugs? Welcome to Punk Rock Vespers, a music service put on by The Mercy Seat during the six weeks of Lent. The services, which feature music from local band DBK, continue Wednesdays through the end of March. 9 p.m. at 724 Lowry Ave. NE. Northeast Beat

"The feedback I've gotten is that people enjoy the rawness of it," says Gerjets. "It's not cleaned up or real high church with all the bells and whistles and candles. It is what it is, and people have responded pretty well to it. One of the reasons I can pull off the punk rock liturgy is that I'm not creating a special kind of music in hopes of attracting people who are historically un-church to come and check it out. I'm a local punk expressing my faith in a way to see what happens, and I'm not afraid to fail."

Gerjets' soft-spoken voice and gentle demeanor belie his inner punk rocker. He's the lead singer of DBK, a local punk band that's been around for about three years now. Gerjets presides over the punk vespers with DBK as the house band.

Mercy Seat pastor Kyle Halverson recalls the first time he saw Gerjets perform with DBK. "Travis came out with this dark eyeliner and just started belting out a song," he says. "It was amazing. What he's doing with [the punk vespers] is very consistent with what we're trying to do here at Mercy Seat in bringing different musical genres to the church. The music is authentic; and punk, in particular, speaks to the dark season of Lent."

Mercy Seat has been in Northeast for just over a year. Gerjets says part of the church's mission is to reach out to artists. "Mercy Seat is rooted in Northeast Minneapolis and is very committed to reaching out to the artistic community here. The church puts on lots of music and arts events, and tries to foster creativity and develop a culture of creativity. It is about critical-thinking Christianity, social justice, lifting up the arts and music, and hopefully appealing to some of the people who may be turned off by mainstream church."

Sunday services at Mercy Seat are based on a jazz liturgy, co-created by Halverson and jazz musician Jon Pemberton. Gerjets' punk liturgy began on Ash Wednesday, and runs weekly through March 28.

Gerjets says the punk vespers crowd reflects the attendance at Mercy Seat's regular Sunday jazz services. "On Sunday we get people from across the board," he says. "Youngsters and hipsters, but older folks, too, and kind of racially mixed. And that's what's happened with the punk liturgy. It's been a different crowd every week--some youth groups and other people checking it out who aren't quite sure what to think."

The punk liturgy mixes authentic punk music with ancient worship components. Last week about two dozen people (mostly young and male) gathered for the half-hour service. Music usually starts about 10 minutes before the 9 p.m. service, and is thundering and raucous (a jar of bright orange ear plugs sits on the table at the entrance, next to programs). During homilies the band is subdued but edgy, providing an eerie-yet-soothing backdrop. And during "silent" meditations, the room fills with distorted feedback from the guitar amps.

Gerjets says the short sermons are delivered "mostly off-the-cuff." Last week his roommate and fellow seminary student, Ioan Ittu, talked about working with terminally ill hospital patients, and two weeks ago musician Wes Kuhnely spoke about anarchy.

Gerjets functions as the leader during vespers, but says he lets people know they can actively participate. "I've made sure to let people know that anything they want to do in the service, including preaching and presiding over the elements--the communion bread and wine, which normally is only something church officials can do--is okay. I've gotten the green light from my pastors to pass on the invitation, so anyone who wants to do this, can. There's no 'us' and 'them,' which is something that I think is very classically punk rock: that the borders between the stage and the audience are broken down and everybody can participate. Not everybody's willing to jump up and do something, but every week people test the limits a little bit more, so it's been fun to see that."

Mercy Seat Lutheran Church's punk vespers services take place Wednesday evenings at 9 p.m. through March 28 in the basement of St. Paul's Lutheran Church, 724 Lowry Ave. NE. For more information call 612-789-1777 or visit www.nemercy.org.