Hands off! That's mine.

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).