Yesterday morning we attended the early service at church and arrived to see a wooden cross on stage and realized that we were having communion. I was anxious to see what communion would be like for a large congregation. Anxious and a bit uneasy.
I’m used to receiving communion with a smaller congregation and I have loved the serving spirit that was very much alive as the Pastor brought communion to everyone. The only other time I have received communion in another church was while visiting elsewhere and it was a large church and a very uncomfortable experience. Instead of having the Pastor (or elders, or ushers) serve the people, everyone received communion lunchables (as I like to call it) when they walked through the door. Each small lunchable held juice and a cracker. I supposed there isn’t anything biblically wrong with that idea but it was so commercialized to hear everyone ripping back the plastic wrap off the top of their communion lunchable when it was time to remember Christ’s suffering. It was a very odd experience.
So, naturally, I was a bit nervous when I realized we were going to experience communion with a large group of people again.
But, amazingly, a few of the Pastors and other men fanned out through the crowd and served every single person. It was beautiful and very inspirational and I was secretly glad that I didn’t have to deal with a communion lunchable.
After the service we attended Starting Point which is an introduction to the ministry of the church. We had the opportunity to meet a few of the pastors, a few folks from the actual congregation, and other newbies like ourselves. We had a really wonderful time mingling with everyone.
The presentation dealt with the mission, vision, core values, environments, and distinctives of the church. I love the mission: to “re-introduce” people to Jesus and the life He offers. And the vision: to see God transform us into a community of grace, living out the purpose and personality of Jesus in our world.
The humility of one of the elders who did most of the speaking was obvious. He spoke of his history with the church and how his life had been changed from a performance-based walk to a deep relationship with God and a desire to re-introduce others to Christ. Then a couple stood and told of how they met Christ, met each other, and came to the church. I couldn’t help but weep as the lady shared how she had made a list of all the things she wanted to change in her life before she could really “give all” to Christ. When she finally realized that Christ wanted her the way she was, it was a turning point in her life. She had such a broken testimony and came from such a horrible background but Christ has completely changed her life.
Daniel and I had the opportunity to sit with one of the community pastors and tell him our story of how we met and how we ended up where we are. After he got over the shock of our meeting on the Internet, he went on to say that he had much the same story as I did. He is a fellow former-BJU-er and from pretty much the same background. He encouraged us greatly.
The only weird part of it all was when we were headed to the meeting. We rounded the corner and came face to face with someone dressed from head to toe in a very realistic demon-like costume. Seriously. Head to toe.
Hey, at least they don’t handle snakes.
