Experience # 5

This morning I attended Real Life Church, which is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. It was a mid-sized church, located in a warehouse space. When I arrived, there were people walking around chatting with one another. It seemed like most of the people knew one another. Everyone I met was very friendly. I had a number of people introduce themselves to me, and welcome me to the church. As I looked over the bulletin, I was struck by how many things this church has going on. There are groups, events, studies, and services every day. When the service began, it began with music. As I've stated before in my previous posts, I am not always a fan of contemporary Christian music, but let me tell you something. This music was funky...in a good way! (Double points for funk) They were awesome. People were dancing. It was very energizing. This week's service was a "mission" service. I'm not sure how I keep ending up at churches on the days that they're doing something special, but hey, who cares? Because it was a "mission" service, they spent a large portion of the time talking about the missionaries that they support in different parts the world. They spoke about some upcoming mission trips that were available for people to go on. There were two members of the congregation from Africa that spoke about the difference that missionaries made in their lives. It was very touching. The woman's father died when she was young, and she subsequently ended up being a victim of trafficking. She now holds a PhD. Pretty inspiring. After a little more missionary talk, the pastor began today's sermon/lesson. The reading was from 2 Kings 4:1-7. What I took away from it was that when you say you have nothing to give, what you are doing is closing yourself off from God. Basically, you need to make yourself available. I really liked this lesson, because I think it really relates to almost everything in life. If you constantly say that you can't, or you don't have time, or you don't have anything to give, then you are also keeping yourself from being able to receive. Overall, I enjoyed my experience, although I'll admit, it was a little more "tame" than I was expecting. :-) I would like to go back for a regular service sometime. Thank you Rebecca and Adrian, for bringing me along.