Last night I experienced “real” church.
We met in a friend’s living room. I was surrounded by friends. Some I have known for over ten years, others for merely months. All friends. Caring people. Concerned for me.
I needed their care.
My 19-year-old has gone astray in a profoundly self-destructive manner and has even hurt others. I was in pain. I was in grief. I was in mourning. I was in shock. I was broken… and still am.
But I was with a group of friends… who know how to touch God and who know how to love on others.
Last night was my night to need that kind of lovin’.
I got it.
We turned our hearts toward God for awhile… and then two dear friends came over and began to wash my feet. “I wouldn’t normally step out in this way,” one friend said, “but I really believe God wants me to just be His hands caring for you by holding your feet.”
I cried. I wept. I cried. I wept some more. Prayers spoken, words given, all helpful… but mostly I felt deeply and thoroughly loved. I wanted to take that love and somehow give it to my son… but he couldn’t receive it right now… and it was for me. So I did my best to open my heart and receive it. I wept, and God’s people loved me with His love.
That was real church. I will gladly invest my life with a group of people who want to be the church to one another rather than listen to (or give) a thousand awesome sermons where platitudes about brotherly love are given but rarely experienced.
This is not a statement of bitterness… I actually still love to preach. But it’s simply an expression of my incredible gratitude that I get to live life within a community of believers where I am known and loved for who I am. It’s awesome. For me, it’s a necessity of life. Don’t know how else I would hold up. I am profoundly grateful.
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6 responses to ““Real” Church”
My dear brother, my heart is broken on your behalf before His throne of grace. I’m thankful He has and will provide arms and hearts of flesh to embrace you with His warmth. You are deeply loved, even within your extended “real” church.
You are blessed by your experience of “real church”. Many don’t ever experience this sense of vulnerability, community and connection. I pray that we all might come closer to experiencing what it means to be “real” church.
There’s nothing like a community’s real actions to reach and teach people. They communicate things that words can only hint towards.
I’ll keep you and your son in my prayers Roger. Take care…
Prayers for you – but especially for your son. (Mine is a mere 11 years old, and I tremble to think what lies ahead…) You are blessed to have a group like this to support and love you.
Hello Roger, my children range from 21 to 7, so I felt your heart as I read your message. I ask God to have his way, and may you, in the midst of life’s strongest natural bond, know how to deliver the only thing that has the power for salvation–no natural event. Love, Tom
Hey Roger,
You are in my prayers! I know the pain that you are feeling. I too have a prodigal son that has chosen to live a self-destructive lifestyle. I wish that I could tell you that the pain will go away, but the Father put that pain there so that we will remember to pray for our sons. The hardest lesson that I had to learn was that God is a better father than I am and that he loves my son more than I do. He loves my own flesh and blood more than I will ever be able to – so it is into his hands that we must place our sons.
I have been in that same place for many years now, and it is the very same experience that has kept me in the small home fellowship. It wasn’t in the big chuch that I found the comfort and support that I needed, but in the small home fellowship. It has been almost 10 years now dealing with our prodigal son but it has only been in the last 4 or 5 years that we have been in the home fellowship getting the love, prayers, and support that was needed and that was totaly lacking in the large church. I am not saying that there was something wrong with the large church, only that it was unable to meet personal needs simply because it is large. It is only through living in community with our brothers and sisters that we can comfort eachother with the comfort that we have received from Father.
It was because I experienced true community in the small home fellowship that I decided to seek out the house church model. The contrast between the large church service where one is lost in a crowd of spectators and being in a small band of believers united in prayer and pain over an individual’s struggles was so sharp and so clear that I have only been back to the big Sunday event a few times. My focus in now on the home fellowship and building relationships where real ministry can happen.
You and your family are in my prayers!
Peace & Love!
Kevin (in the north county)