When Church Gets Dicey

I ended up rather unexpectedly staying with a friend in what I will call, for the sake of anonymity, "Quaint Small Town in Southern VA," or "Quaint Small Town" for short. Perhaps if I feel like it I'll diverge from Kingdom stories to tell you about the people I meet here, such as the waitress with star tattoos in both arm pits that I met in a restaurant today. I kid you not. This is part of why I like strangers so much- you never know where they have tattoos! But I digress...

So I have come to stay in Quaint Small Town due to some rather unfortunate personal reasons. I had hoped to lay low, refocus on life and the ongoing task of inner healing, and just enjoy the lovely scenery and kind people in Quaint Small Town. My friend asked me if I wanted to join her for church, a small church that is rebuilding its membership after things got sort of ugly. This is the downside of church, when we are reminded of the Fall and that even our Christian brothers and sisters are broken people who fall short of the glory of God. Perhaps Small Church saw more than the norm of broken people acting out of their brokenness.

I sat in the service of Small Church expecting to observe and hopefully learn something. I was pleased to feel freedom during the worship service. The congregants were kind and expressed a deep and genuine faith. But the pastor decided to preach out of Matthew 10. Hello people- the kingdom of God- healing... deliverance! But did he mention these things in his sermon? No. He spent what had to be 30 agonizing minutes talking about how different the disciples were. He asked if anyone knew what a Zealot was (as in "Simon the Zealot"). Unfortunately again, I already knew what a Zealot was, and I had just been further educated by my friend's rabbi father-in-law over Thanksgiving. I had to raise my hand and inform the whole church what a Zealot was.

Then the pastor just kept on talking about the disciples. His point was something like we should welcome all members of the Body even if they are different and might make us uncomfortable. I bet he will regret making that point. And then I started shaking. I'm talking Randy Clark Holy Spirit conference shaking. My heart started racing like thumpthumpthumpthump like I was going to have a heart attack. I knew I could not just sit there silently in the pew. I was going to have to draw attention to myself. I had to interrupt the sermon. So I raise my hand. The pastor seems to not want to see my hand. But then this quite charismatic elderly lady behind me is pointing to me and my friend says, "Um pastor, excuse me, I think Liz has something to say."

I say, "I'm sorry, I can't take it any more. Are you going to read the rest of that passage?" He says something like "I'm going to get to it" but it was apparent he did not intend to that day. I say, "Look I'm sorry I'm a visitor so I can just say this and leave, but I sat through your Sunday School where you said we need to deliver what we advertise. In Matthew 10 (I read the rest of the passage) it says we have authority to pray for healing. You said we should welcome different members of the Body. I am here to tell you that the Holy Spirit is here and He wants to heal people. He's ready to heal people. I feel it. I know there are people that need healing here b/c I didn't get past your front door before someone needed healing. You have a choice. You can let God do what He wants or you can not, but if you don't He won't be moving in your church again. I'll pray for people who want healing."

The pastor looked shocked, but I think handled it quite diplomatically. He hemmed and hawed a bit about different people and he was sorry if you were a visitor, but we have to accept everyone. But then he said, "Ok I am going to let you listen to God for yourselves and decide what you want to do next." Then a college-aged girl came up to me and said "I need healing." She asked for prayer and wrapped her arms around me and I told her how beautiful she is and that God loves her so much and prayed for her.

Then the pastor said, "Ok if you want prayer line up here in the front." About 8 people lined up. He told the rest they could stay or leave. Nobody left. The people who weren't receiving prayer continued to worship. I prayed for people who wanted prayer for addiction or illness in their family. I blessed people. After everybody had received prayer some woman was talking and she said, "This guy ran out to the people who were in the nursery and weren't in the sanctuary and said, 'Hey, if you need prayer for healing come in the sanctuary!'"

Since that Sunday I've met with members of the church and they are excited about what God is doing. I have prayed to encourage them in their gifts and have shared how they can allow God to continue to move in their church. But one member of the church has decided she doesn't want to come back.

I share this to show you how the Holy Spirit operates. When He shows up it is on His terms and He is not really concerned about our schedule or formalities. When He comes He comes in power and it doesn't always look like we'd expect. And some people don't like it because they prefer their structure and for things to be kept under their control. We can choose to go with the flow of the mighty river wherever it may take us, or we can decide to sit in our pews resolute on having things stay the way we like it. I prefer the adventure of the unexpected, even if it means I have to be bold sometimes and do things that make me risk looking foolish.

As the charismatic elderly lady said to me, when the Holy Spirit comes it can get messy. But do we truly want to encounter the Living God or just sing comfortable songs and hear intellectual sermons? If we want all of God, then we must let go of all our limitations on Him, including how and when He shows up- in our church services and in our lives.