wow. These past few days have been crazy/ridiculous/amazing!
I just got back from a four day retreat at my church. It was so neat because i felt that God had revealed so much to me not through the speaker or the music, but through the personal worship time and just meditating on scripture. The theme of the week dealt with Worship and on Sunday, our youth group split into six sub-groups and each group went to a different church to experience different styles of Worship. There was a "Cowboy" church, a "Black Gospel" church, a Contemplative ("Hippie") church, David Crowder's home church, a Greek Orthodox church and "Church Under the Bridge" which was literally under the highway overpass. No group knew where they were going until they arrived there Sunday morning (the drivers were given directions and addresses, but no names). The night before, one of the leaders listed all the different churches that we possibly might attend and the moment she mentioned the Church Under the Bridge, i thought, oh dear, i hope i don't go there. and then i knew that THAT was where i would be going. i can't exactly explain how i knew, except that, with the conviction of the holy spirit telling me my attitude was COMPLETELY off and the first-hand knowledge that God often asks for the things we don't want to surrender, i just KNEW that i was going there.
It really bothered me that i felt that way, i mean it is not as if i had never participated in street missions, but i knew that i would feel uncomfortable in that setting. But then, church is not supposed to be comfortable.
The whole night, i struggled with why i had this strange aversion to the idea of spending my Sunday morning with the homeless. After all, Jesus came to minister to the brokenhearted and the weary and the homeless. The next morning during my quiet time before we left for the church, i prayed for God to work in my heart and change my attitude. No matter where we went, i wanted to be focused on God and uninhibited by my surroundings. We got in the car and thirty minutes later, sure enough, we pulled up to the Church Under the Bridge.
We got out and were handed bulletins to pass out to the people there. They had a stage set up and about three hundred folding chairs. There were tables with hot food available all under the highway. It was quite a sight to behold and i can whole-heartedly say that it was one of the most incredible worship experiences i have ever had.
There was such a sense of community among the people and the leaders of the church emanated incorruptible love to everyone. There was a homeless man there who was "not all there" and he was adamant about playing with the worship band, so the pastor took a cardboard box and a tambourine and told the man that he could play that tambourine as much as he wanted to as long as he stayed in the box (it was obvious that the man would have run through the crowd with it), so the man took the instrument and played his heart out.
We sang songs and the pastor talked for about half an hour about diversity and how we can encourage ethnic and economic diversity in the church and then we broke up into groups of about six or seven for communion. We talked in our groups and prayed for each other and then took communion from dixie cups and a loaf of bread. Then the pastor had the whole group hold hands in a huge circle and sing "We shall overcome" all together. it was the coolest thing ever. I honestly felt like God had sent me to the most exciting church ever. Hahah Maybe God is calling me into urban-streets-mission-ministry! :) Anyhow, it was such a great blessing to be there! God is good!
Ryan! That is so awesome! :D
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