For those outside the Grace Chapel Community, last week we held one one worship gathering for all services and campuses in an arena and called it One Church Sunday. I posted a reflection called “Moments I Won’t Forget” on our Staff Blog and this post aims to process it a bit more out loud.
When the idea was first given in a staff meeting, I liked it, I think we all did. The thought of looking at the Grace Chapel congregation and thinking, “This is who we are” felt great. Of course, in reality, one gathering is never comprehensive as there are always people missing for one reason or another but knowing this would serve as some type of representation felt desirable. Who and if I may, “what” am I praying for when I pray for the community of Grace Chapel?
The hope of our time was to worship God all together, celebrate what He has been doing in our community and collectively seek what He desires for us next. The hope of us all asking God together was exciting. But I am not really a chaser of excitement, I was drawn more to how needed and appropriate this time could be for us.
Then as the previous staff post mentioned, there was the reality check of pulling off such a service. We have some really great logistical minds at work around here but as you would imagine, this was an enormous project. Between what we do with children, getting people in and out without burdening the city of Lowell, all our worship teams, and deciding to finish our service with baptism. This was becoming logistically impractical.
There were certainly a lot of questions and a fair amount of anxiety. Not to say there wasn’t any excitement, we were excited, but such things often go hand in hand.
What if only half our congregation decides to come?
What if this thing becomes a church-wide pat on the back?
What if hardly anyone brings blankets, clothing, supplies for our local organizations like we asked?
What about the traffic and parking?
What if the mayor of Lowell and Brad Stevens fight in the green room and they both leave?
I’m just kidding, I wasn’t really worried about the traffic ;)
What if no one decides to come down for these “spontaneous baptisms?” And what if too many people come down? (We should have extra clothing on hand. Twice as many who have signed up ought to do it).
As with anything important, the anxieties and the hopes and the questions and the passion runs high. Here’s a download of what I learned and what I was reminded of throughout the week:
Logistically-impractical is often a Pre-Cursor to God’s Greatest Work
Need to move a few million people out of Egypt while an angry Pharaoh and his army are chasing? Head for the water. Need to feed thousands of people spontaneously? Ask if anyone packed a lunch or two? Need to feel God’s presence and empowerment? Return to the city where two powerful establishments have united to erase any trace of your narrative. Then begin a public ministry in the name of your recently-executed rabbi. Oh and call him “Lord”, the same title Caesar uses – that will help.
Logistically-impractical is often a pre-cursor of the Holy Spirit’s leading and words like ridiculous and risky often create on-ramps for something amazing. Now it might sound like I’m over-reaching to compare some of the greatest miracles of Scripture to our One Church service and maybe I am. But I’m not asking for a ebenezer stone here, I’m merely trying to point out that the same God who is at work then is still at work now. For those that find it ridiculous to obey ideology from an ancient book of religious wisdom, know that I think so too. What as profoundly changed my life and what I was reminded of last week was that God’s presence is never confined by a book, or by an institution or by difficult logistics.
Just about everything about God’s work is ridiculous, impractical and at times, risky. A resurrected Jesus, weekly worship services, sharing our faith and countless other things “Christian” fit in those categories and so did this “One Church” Service.
Over the weeks as the logistics were getting worked on, one thought was coming into focus: Everything great is often logistically impractical. Graduation services, weddings and just about anything related to kids from taking them on vacation to raising them. And we do such things because they bring us a unique occasion to gather, celebrate and gain together in a unique way. We stand/sit in the heat, travel long distances, load up our gear, gather our friends, and expect something.
The second is what does it say if we do great and logistically impractical things for countless other reasons and not for something that is so central to our lives? If we believed in the purpose of this Sunday of gathering all together to worship together, to celebrate what God has been doing through the life of our church and collectively seek Him for more, then logistically impractical is part of the package (which echoes the first point, everything great is impractical).
Third, logistically-impractical is a relative term. As is often the case, doing enough in the name of God often leads to a baseline of mediocrity. To be completely truthful, many of these logistics were very difficult to navigate and there is always a lot of energy and dedication towards any endeavor that is being done once for a great cause. It felt great to have contributed ridiculous energy and time for such a time but the morning of, it still felt like bringing a picnic basket to a party of a 5000 dinner guests.
It’s around here that as a pastor I’m supposed to say something predictable and dramatic like “Then God showed up.” Hold up, I forgot the exclamation “Then God showed up!!”
But He did. As much as it pains me to sound overly-dramatic and use such cliched phrases, the words are true. I could use a different phrase of course, but what I am really trying to get it is that I was utterly humbled and excited by what happened throughout that morning. From people walking into the Tsongas Arena carrying in blankets and sheets to be donated to local partners and organizations to our multi-cultural, intergenerational time of worshipping God together, to our time of baptism.
Humbled and excited are often the two paradoxical feelings one experiences upon encountering God. And upon such experiences, the feelings and emotions run high and we wonder what’s next and we hope not to return to our fears, anxieties and settled mediocrity. It’s been my prayer that we not hold on to the high because it feels good, but to remember what God has been doing in our midst and to move towards what more He has in store. It will likely be risky, inconvenient, untimely, and logistically impractical, but if it’s truly of God, it will be more than worthwhile. I’m grateful that our One Church service brought this and more. You can read the first reflection here and watch the service here. Grace and peace. Tim
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