MORGANTOWN — Todd Mullens may not have realized it, but he was a musical metaphor, of sorts, for the message at Chestnut Ridge Church on Easter Sunday.
He plays bass guitar in the house band of the massive church at Cheat Lake, where he also serves as assistant musical director.
On Sunday, the deep, rolling notes he was giving life to reverberated and pulsed, like the beating heart of Jesus.
Without getting in the way, the rock-steady member of the rhythm section always managed to drop in a flurry of musicianship in the middle of every chorus.
The little overtures were breakthough moments that drove the tunes.
Those breakthrough moments of the spiritual persuasion — when one fully, unquestionably embraces faith — are what Pastor Tim Haring wanted to talk about on Easter Sunday.
The heavens don’t always part and the choirs don’t always sing down from on high, Haring said.
Sometimes, the pastor said, it’s simply a matter of praying, “Dear God, I know I’ve sinned in the past, and I can’t do anything about that.”
That’s fine, the pastor said, because what’s important is what comes the following day — and the day after that.
Outreach fills the calendar at Chestnut Ridge Church.
The church recently announced a new fundraising campaign for Chestnut Mountain Ranch, a home for troubled youth just outside of Morgantown.
While the place of worship has been known to draw more than 1,000 people for its services, it doesn’t feel like a mega-church, Jeannie Frazee said.
Frazee faithfully makes the 45-minute commute from her home in Oakland, Md., every weekend, she said.
“Even in the winter.”
Her breakthrough moment with Chestnut Ridge came by way of a lesson plan that didn’t work out the way she thought it would.
She’s a home-school parent, and she took her daughters — Hannah, 15, and Elisa, 11 — on a spiritual field trip.
“We were talking about religion and mega-churches-versus-the little, community churches like the one I grew up in,” Frazee said.
“I was thinking this place was going to be impersonal because it’s so big,” she said.
Just like a Todd Mullens bass line, though, a groove was quickly established.
And her pre-planned teachable moment, she said, got turned around.
“We were welcomed the second we walked through the door.”
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