Tonight our church hosted a city-wide worship celebration. Of course the term "city-wide" is a bit of a euphemism, or perhaps a bit of a prophecy, or perhaps a bit of a pipe-dream, depending on who you ask and when.
Every time there are five Sundays in a month, we take the fifth Sunday evening and gather as a city church to worship and pray together. Sometimes we hear a prophetic word or timely message. We've been doing it for a few years, but I've noticed a shift happening just in the past few months: there is some kind of grassroots groundswell going on, some kind of "rustling in the tops of the trees", some kind of buzz circulating. People are hungry again, not just to have a nice worship service together, but to really see Christians released to be the church 24/7/365. On the job, at school, at the grocery store, not just in church buildings, all that stuff. And it feels different from the sensational fuzzies that sometimes get stirred up. This feels substantial, sober (but giddy). I see in people's eyes a certain flinty desperation, and I trust it. And I see it in the faces of the leaders. We're not just trying to bring home a paycheck anymore, we're not just interested in inflating our church memberships, we're not holding on to job security anymore. We've put all our eggs in Jesus' basket, and if He doesn't come through, we're toast. And we're okay with that.
It's almost like the Holy Spirit is starting to move... I'm keeping my ear to the ground. Tell me what you're hearing...
