encounter

We walked into the elementary school lunch room/church sanctuary. It was dark, the worship band was wrapping up their warm up time. We were greeted by Laurie and given the bulletin and visitor's card. My daughter, 14, walked to lunch benches used as pews and chose our seat. Then the lights went out! I mean the electricity went out in the whole neighborhood. There was no light. In hind sight this was kind of a symbolic foreshadowing of what was to come for us.

As people began calling the power company the pastor/worship leader, Zach, called those who wanted to to come down front and to begin to pray. People lined the altar and started praying, out loud, all at once. At first I felt kind of voyeuristic like I was invading a private moment. My daughter squirmed uncomfortably but watched it all. During this time people were coming in and out, talking, eating food in the back, and then some were up front praying. Kind of ADD atmosphere and no one seemed to mind. In, fact it was kind of like that during other parts of the service but it wasn't distracting it just was what it was. If you were hungry you got up to eat. If someone needed to be greeted you went to greet them. They prayed for 10 minutes, not just about the lights but about coming into today with surrendered hearts and about forgiveness. Then just as Pastor Zach said "amen" the lights came on (can you hear the Twighlight Zone theme music?).

That was the prelude for worship. It was interwoven with meditation, prayer, words form the Lord, meaningful lyrics...it felt like pure worship. Not even once was it about me or any performer on the stage. It was an offering to God. I kept looking over at my daughter and silently prayed God would soften her heart for Him and that she wouldn't completely freak out when we were on our way home. I was pretty sure she was a bit out of her comfort zone.

Rochelle, the pastor's wife, spoke during worship and reminded the worshipers that our first ministry is to the Lord. Is our worship enough? It was beautiful worship and you could not help being drawn in by the Holy Spirit. Being a spectator was no longer an option.

An hour later we stopped even though it only felt like a few minutes. We were challenged by Mark 4:21 from one of the guys in the band. He remarked on how Andrew and Peter were out doing their job, their life-purpose, being fishermen, that when Christ called them and they dropped everything "at once." What is Christ calling us to do "at once" but often we respond that we will do it as soon as _________ (you fill in the blank with your agenda item).

Pastor Zach preached for the last part. He emphasized the Spirit being the motivator, the guide, the inspiration for everything else we do. The Word without the Spirit just makes us more religious. We are busy creating worship programs/church but don't invite the Holy Spirit to come in and lead. We plan and set vision and all the while He is at the door of every church saying, "Let me lead. I have a great plan."

The cause of Christ is the churches' vision; to see like Jesus, to be compelled by love toward unity. Love is the passion for oneness. Luke 4:18,19. And fittingly, the service ended with prayer at the altar, laying on of hands, ministry to individuals, and thanks to God.

We left church 3 hours after we got there and I didn't even mind. But between you and me I was not looking forward to the "teenage fallout" when we got in the car. The one thing my daughter asked when we decided to do this pilgrimage was that we didn't pick churches with 3 hour services (Ha, God is a funny guy). So she gets in the car and she looks at me and says, "This is where I want to go. You don't understand. I don't want to go anywhere else." She proceeded to share her thoughts and experience (she was sitting up front with a friend). I hope she shares them as a comment on the blog today. Amazing first day of the pilgrimage.

We encountered God at Encounter. Can't wait to see what else God is doing in Vegas.