To celebrate their church’s first birthday, the congregation of City Church in Anaheim was invited to a radical step of commitment: to get tattoos of the church’s logo. Such invitations are not too shocking to these churchgoers, however, since they’re accustomed to holding services in a punk nightclub, using KFC buckets as offering baskets, and displaying their wooden cross on a wall that also contains a sign prohibiting mosh pits. Kyle Bonenberger, the 26-year-old lead pastor, says his congregation calls itself “the church for people who don’t like church,” encouraging his colorful flock in the tattooing by saying that God had tattooed their names on His heart. The church finally succeeded in its goal to double the church’s usual 100 attendees with the tattoo-offering, with churchgoers saying the tattoos were a sign of their commitment to the church’s vision and an expression of gratitude for the church’s service to them.
