From 7-11 pm on Friday, and from 10 am to after midnight on Saturday, I met with believers.
For 18 hours, we laughed, cried, prayed, hugged, visited, listened, worshipped, shared God's word with one another, shared testimonies, blessed, encouraged one another, and provoked one another to love and sharing the gospel.
I shared food at the table of others, and I invited others to share bread and wine at my table.
I did not make it to the gymnasium this morning to sit in a chair and listen to the worship band and the speaker.
Make of that what you will.
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16 comments:
I did not make it to the gymnasium this morning to sit in a chair and listen to the worship band and the speaker.
Soooo, you're saying you did forsake the assembling? ;) hehe
(sorry, I couldn't resist)
Sounds to me like you understand the difference between attendance at a meeting and assembling together in order to encourage on another.
Maybe one day Steve will learn this. :)
-Alan
Sounds like a beautiful nourishing weekend!
18 hours straight..?
I don't think most people spend 18 hours doing all that stuff in a year.
Sitting in a chair and listening to the band and speaker for hundreds of hours, yes, but not that stuff.
Well, I guess some people go to church when it's convienent for them.
;)
Alan, we'll have to pray for Steve. ;)
Barbara,
It was nourishing.
David,
Not 18 hours straight, 4 hours Friday and 14 hours on Saturday. I'm not sure I would want to do it every weekend, but for this weekend, it was good.
RWK,
I'll catch the band next week. :)
how glorious!
Nothing like coming back to check on these comments and finding I was being talked about...hmmmmm
I feel the love ;) hehe
are you backsliding?
:-)
(that's a throwback to the 80's, now aint' it?)
you found church outside the gymnasium? on a day other than Sunday??
scandalous. and beautiful.
beautifully scandalous.
hmmm... interesting... someone else was called "scandalous" or "offensive" when he refused to do things according to tradition (Matt 15:12, John 6:61).
-Alan
Sounds like the kind of weekend you COULD do over and over. What a great time!
B~
Ari, so I go, alan, and Bruce,
Yes, glorious, beautiful, scandalous, a great time!
Smiles to Steve and Pam.
I feel sad that the license to dispense with tradition throws aside the primacy of preaching and the corporate worship of the local church family on resurrection day. This feels like a smug group of back patters to me.
jim,
It does look like back patting when most of us agree about a topic, doesn't it. Maybe that's just the nature of blogs, that like-minded people tend to flock together.
Whose tradition are we to follow? Some involved in simple/house churches attempt to follow the tradition of the early new testament church.
I'm not sure how well you know me, but I'm not really a house church only proponent. I have a great regard for "traditional" church. In fact, most Sunday mornings will find me at the gymnasium attending church.
Yet I am also interested in exploring expressions of church that express the fellowship of believers in a deeper way than I have found in the congregational setting.
primacy of preaching - My thoughts are that preaching is primarily for evangelism and should happen outside of a church setting. I do value teaching and the corporate study of God's Word.
corporate worship - Is great! I've experienced this in many settings including both churches and living rooms.
local church family - I am no longer willing to limit my understanding of my local church family to the members of one building.
resurrection day - I am also no longer willing to limit my interaction and fellowship with the body to just an hour on Sunday.
I agree with you that Sunday morning worship with a specific group of believers can be wonderful and important. I also believe that church can become much more than that in our lives.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts about this.
It sounds to me like you had the more authentic "church" experience that weekend.
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