Not Your Normal Church Experience

I have no great words of wisdom today, but I would like to share with you about our Church experience we had this morning.  As I have mentioned in some of my previous posts, we have been listening to many of Pastor Steven Furtick’s sermons over the past few weeks.  For those of you that don’t know, he is the Pastor of Elevation Church, based out of Charlotte, North Carolina.  I think they currently have 13 campuses, but they also have a huge online following.

A few of our friends who live in Charleston recently began to gather in their homes in an effort to eventually bring an Elevation Church to Charleston.  Yesterday we received an e-invite off of Facebook.  As we were watching TV last night, my wife looked at me and said, “Do you want to go to the watch party tomorrow, since the boys are out-of-town with their grandparents?”  She didn’t have to twist my arm too hard.  I texted our friends in Charleston for information, but they were heading out of town and wouldn’t be there.  My wife asked if I still wanted to go.  We both agreed that it’s not about who was there, so we decided to still attend.

Now, for some reason, I assumed that this was going to take place at like a community clubhouse.  I don’t know why that made it seem more comfortable, but for some reason it did.  As the GPS said we had arrived, we were sitting at the end of a long driveway to a house.  We drove on down and there were a few people on the front porch.  We got out of the car and she said, “Now this may be out of my comfort zone.”  I was right there with her.  We headed up to the porch and the guy made a comment that if I showed up in my Mississippi State polo in the fall we might have some problems….since this is clearly South Carolina and Clemson territory.  I knew at that point we would be okay…….not to mention the Krispy Kreme donuts he said were in the kitchen.

We went in, found some seats, and as 11:30 got closer, the living room started to fill up.  All in all I would say there were around 40 people in the room…….not counting all the children that had been sent down to the basement to play.  As the service started, it was like I was in a real church.  The host went over to his audio cabinet and said, “Let’s turn this up loud enough we don’t have to hear ourselves sing.”  So I’m in the back of the room watching all these people worship God like this was a real Church.  It kind of went back to what our Pastor said, I believe just last week, that a Church isn’t a building, but the people.

The sermon was by Holly Furtick, Pastor Steven’s wife, and while I sat listening, I began to realize why we were there.  She was talking about being a mother, about how hectic life can get, and those times you question if you are really the person for the job.  She used Mary as an example…..when the Angel came down and said she would be the mother of Jesus, and how she reacted.

After it was over we said our farewells, they invited us back again and we left.  It was quit amazing to see the work of God, in a living room, with all kinds of different people……white, black, young, old, men, women, teenagers…..all worshiping God.  If we wouldn’t have gotten insecure….gotten out of our comfort zone we would never have been able to experience this.

And what’s even cooler, when you look at is, is the similarity of this small “Church” and the parable of the mustard seed in Matthew.  “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field;  and this is smaller than all other seeds, but when it is full grown, it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR COME and NEST IN ITS BRANCHES (Matthew 13:31-32.)  The mustard seed represents the church….and I sat in this smallest of churches, in a living room, watching God work.

Who knows what will happen with this extension of Elevation Church in Charleston?  But what I do know is the size of the building does not determine what God can do in our lives.  It is the people, the gathering, the worshiping……the being together as God’s children that allows his work to be done.