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| The Hope Church in Orlando, Florida |
| You can't always rely on GPS to get you to where you need to be.It happened to us this week in Florida. It was Sunday morning and we were headed east from Orlando and we looked for the closest Episcopal Church to attend. On the Internet -- St John's, Kissimmee at 10:30 am. |
I put the address into my GPS and off we drove. On the way, passed a large church called "The Hope Church" and Sabine agreed it was a great name. We also noticed they had an 11 am worship time. W\
But we continued on to St John's and found ourselves in an industrial park. We checked the address and entered it again. Still no church. So we decided to drive on to Hutchinson Island when Sabine reminded me about the church with the 11 am worship time.
Okay. Let's try that one we said, it's always good to see how other folks are doing church. When we pulled into the parking lot we saw a lot of black people. And when we got inside, we found we we were the only white folks present among a congregation of more than 200.
Now you get to know a church community pretty fast in the first seconds you enter. And this church was not only alive but welcoming as we were continually welcomed by various members of the congregation.
And the music! Wow! High-energy praise, young girls doing a liturgical dance, communion with what some Protestants often overlook that this is more than just a remembrance as the pastor prayed that this bread and wine would be unto us the body and blood of Jesus!
Oh yes, there were the hugs. I think we are a hugging congregation at our church in North Lake -- but The Hope Church had us turn around and hug our neighbor, pray for him or her, and give out encouragement at least three times during our worship together.
There was an altar call for healing prayer, recommitment, and strength to "press on." Tears came to my own eyes when I saw Sabine heading up the aisle for prayer. You know, it doesn't get much better than this.
The preaching was powerful, relevant, spoke to us and was deep into the African-American preaching tradition on Philippians 3:14 -- have real self-view, who you really are, leave self-sin-success-sex behind, press on, press on to those things which are ahead -- the mark of the prize in the high-calling of God in Jesus! Press on! You're weary -- press on! You're tired -- press on!
Maybe that's what we need in Christendom today to break down the walls which separate us -- to worship together black and white. Maybe one Sunday a month should be inter-racial worship; two congregations black and white -- 1/2 stays in place while other half joins a racially different church. We need to remember that we are one in Christ -- this is one way to do it; clasp hands and give a hug and affirm the teaching of Jesus and his Gospel!
That Sunday morning I came away feeling that God had something different, that he was going to move me from what was familiar to me to what he wanted for me. GPS will never mean the same thing to me again -- I need to keep tuning in to God's Positioning System.
