Mike Schramm

At a Lutheran church in the suburbs, the pastor stands before the congregation and leads them in prayer. He reads the words of confession, then asks the group to rise for a song. Suddenly, Bono, wearing his trademark sunglasses and cowboy hat, steps on the altar from stage left and breaks into "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For."

To be fair, it's not really Bono. It's a look-and-sound-alike named Matt Easter, lead singer of Vertigo, the local U2 cover band. And Vertigo is playing at the Lutheran Church of the Master in Carol Stream as part of what they're calling "Nexus," a series of services developed by Reverend Tom Lyberg designed to support what he calls (there's a lot of buzzwords tonight) "the emerging church." People age 44 and under, he says, are part of the "postmodern generation," and they're looking for a religion without the traditional trappings of "church"--a loose combination of the spiritual and the secular.

To that end, Vertigo plays during communion. As parishioners make two lines to receive the wafer and wine, the band churns out "Angel of Harlem" and "Where the Streets Have No Name." The faux Bono has moved out into the crowd to encourage a little audience participation, so the Lutherans have to dodge him on the way back to their seats. At the end of the service, after Lyberg leads a prayer for the world to become "One," he reads a passage from Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" about following "The Road" of life.

"It's about learning ways to speak the `language' of the postmodern generation," says Lyberg, a pastor of seventeen years, who also runs a podcast called Wired Jesus. Next month, the service will feature the Johnny Cash cover of Nine Inch Nails, "Hurt." Lyberg says it'll be perfect for the season of Lent.

(2007-02-13)

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