The reasons are obvious to me and everyone who knows me! It certainly doesn’t take much explaining. I know the reasons I am not God—gross deficiency in things like omniscience, transcendence, omnipotence and such. Like every other human being who has touched terra firma I want to be God, I really do—to control my life, the circumstances around me, other people (especially in traffic) and even the One who is the Alpha and Omega. This is the very root of sin isn’t it? The desire and the intention to be God or at least control God.

There are moments where I am made more keenly aware that I am not God—not even close. Sunday morning was one of those epiphanies for me. I was dragged to visit a little church that was thought (by the denominational powers that be) to be dead. My wife, who works for our district, was asked to pay a surprise visit to this tiny outpost and report back any signs of life. I was an unwilling accomplice; but because I love my wife I was obedient.

We pulled into the grass lot adjacent to the mildew-stained cement block and stucco building overgrown with weeds and rogue plants. I wanted to turn around and go home. An electric organ greeted us on the front porch. I really wanted to go home. We pulled the door open and were met with cool, mildewed air. Please, let me go home! Three persons, one of whom was the pastor, sat askew the front two pews engaged in Bible study. We were immediately welcomed and introduced. We were trapped now!

Twenty minutes later others joined our small group. A multi-cultural congregation of about thirty people including a handful of children and youth joined voices in praise and prayer. Loud joyful singing and laughter interlaced words of prayer concerns and praise reports. One of the members was commended by the pastor for delivering several bags of groceries to neighboring families in need. Another was complimented for the floral arrangement she made and had delivered to a 90 year old man in the hospital who had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. At least four times we were mentioned by name as honored guests.  An hour and a half later we walked through the gauntlet of hand shakes and hugs and the repeated invitation to, “please come back and see us again!”

In the car we looked at each other, smiled and agreed that God had indeed shown up in this tiny place. Where we had earlier so desperately wanted to go home–we found ourselves home in a most peculiar way!

If I were God, at 10:30 am Sunday morning in the city of Orlando, I might have written this church off as insignificant and unimportant.  “We’re all about kingdom building,” I would have reasoned in my god-ness. “Not much opportunity for that in a place like this!” And I would have been wrong!

As we’re busy planting churches across the United States let us not get trapped into  thinking that our small outposts are unnecessary or expendable in our mandate to reach more people, more diverse people, more young people for Christ. These God-centers may be the only avenues for reaching certain folks in our culture!

I am not God– and because of that I can rejoice today that Someone so majestic, powerful and pervasive can be found in the most unseemly of places—in a tiny church tucked back in the weeds amidst an ever changing community where people still gather to sing, pray, serve and gladly welcome sinners like me!  I have hope!
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 8:53 am and is filed under Gary Shockley, New Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.