My family and I gather each week in our home with other
followers of Jesus, many of whom live around our southside neighborhood. We eat, celebrate the Lord’s supper, pray, worship,
share, minister to each other, and encourage/challenge each other in the making
of disciples. (As a side note, we aren’t
all part of the same large church fellowship.
There are about 3 or 4 churches represented when we gather. That wasn’t planned. It just worked out that way).
The other week, the 15 of us (children included) piled into
our little living room. As part of our
time, my dear wife issued a challenge.
She noticed that for the last couple weeks, while the weather was warm
and sunny, we were inside the house with the curtains drawn. She made the observation that there are
churches across the globe who are under great persecution, and as a result have
to meet as the “underground” church in order to survive – and that we, for no
good reason were meeting like the underground church.
After some very brief conversation, we decided together that
the following week we would gather in the local park at the center of
town. Nothing was going to change about
what we did, other than we were going to do it in public and allow whoever
might be passing by to join us if they wanted to. There was an element of risk to all
this. There we were, for the whole town
to see. What if we were overwhelmed with
all kinds of strangers? Would there be
enough food for everyone? What if they
brought a bunch of screaming kids? What if
some “weirdos” decided to join us? These
thoughts, I’m sad to say, were all thoughts that crossed my mind. But we effectively said, “So what!” and
decided to just go and see what God would do.
My wife’s sister, who’s been living in our neighborhood for
a couple months now, has been a regular part of our gatherings. She has some connections at the local women’s
mission just a few blocks from our house.
So, she thought she’d put the word out to a couple ladies at the mission
and see if they wanted to join us for a time of fellowship, prayer, and sharing
in the park. She called my wife and told
her that two of the ladies had agreed to join us. The day of the gathering, we got another call
from my wife’s sister. She said that
there were now around 4 or 5 women that wanted to join us, and she wanted to
make sure that was ok. We told her of
course it was ok! A few hours later, the
phone rang again. It was my wife’s
sister. She said there were now about 12 people that wanted to come, and wanted to know if that was ok. We told her of course it was ok! Just before we were supposed to meet that
afternoon, the phone rang again. It was
my wife’s sister. She said that there
were a total of 19 people from the women’s mission that wanted to join us and
wanted to know if that was ok. We told her of course it was ok!
Boy, did we have a time in the park that afternoon. We ate together (there was plenty of food), we
laughed, we prayed and lifted up praises to God, we shared with one another,
and we ministered to one another. One
lady even belted out a song, right there in the park. As a side note, I was humbled when I saw that
many of the women, homeless women who don’t really have much of anything,
brought food items so that they could contribute to the shared meal. I used that as an opportunity to talk about
how this gathering was a spiritual potluck.
EVERYONE had something to offer.
God had something to say TO and THROUGH each one of us there. EACH of us had something to contribute. And just about each person did contribute to the
time – whether that was through praying, or giving testimony, or sharing a
piece of scripture.
Afterward, we talked about the experience with some of the
core people in the group. We talked
about how wonderful it was and how God had brought so many people out to the
park that day. We talked about how we may not be able to do that EVERY week, but we could certainly do it once a month
and see what happened. And we felt good
about leaving things there.
Then today, as I was out watering my grass, I felt the Holy
Spirit speaking to me. I became very
convicted by what He said. You see, in
our sharing time with the group, I’ve often talked about how GOD will build His
church and that we just need to concern ourselves with being a disciple and
making disciples – nothing more.
Essentially, we need to adopt a hands-off mentality when it comes to trying
to control or build the church, because that’s God’s role. As I stood there today watering the grass,
feeling good about what happened the previous Sunday and where we planned to
head with it, I felt ashamed at how I was trying to control and manipulate what
God was doing. As I stood there thinking
about our “regular” core-gathering that we were going to have that afternoon in
my living room, I heard God say, “What about the 19 people I brought you last
week? What about them?”
I told my wife what happened. I apologized to God for my arrogance. I knew immediately what had to happen. I didn’t have to DO anything. As a group, we didn’t have to DO anything –
other than take our hands off and allow God to build His church however He saw
fit. Our job was just to be available,
be open, and be obedient to whatever He puts before us (even if that meant cramming 34 people into my little living room each week - and not just once a month - if the weather wasn't nice enough to meet in the park).