This is church.....

Wow what a fantastic day today was. So much of what I think church should be happened in my life today. The Sunday morning was great, I particularly enjoyed not doing anything, apart from trying to make sure people hadn’t got missed, who need to get into Light Groups. Then after the meeting, we were lunch hosting. A really great thing we do as a church, where you cook for a certain number of people and then frantically go round inviting whoever you can find. So we ended up with a rather cosmopolitan dinner table to say the least. Not a single person who came was British! A Frenchman, a Brazilian, a German who grew up in Brazil and an asylum seeker from Eritrea. Man, I realised again why God calls us to hang out with the oppressed and the poor (which Marcos definitely was) – so that God can humble you and remind you just how flipping blessed your life is.

This guy Marcos from Eritrea was a full on refugee, having seen his parents murdered when he was just 15. He made it all the way to Calais and then got into the country under a truck. He now has full rights to stay. But man you hear a story like that and you just think, again, I don’t know I’m born. What an immense privilege to share a table with someone who has gone through that and to simply show him that he is of such value to God.

I don’t know what you think makes a good church, but for me I had the ultimate compliment today. Jacques, the French guy mentioned above, said he only comes to the Light because it is the sort of church he can bring the homeless and refugees he meets and knows they’ll get a great welcome. Whatever else we build in the Light, I can't think of any greater compliment.

This evening we had our Prayer and Ministry Night at church. It was awesome. Before Chris had started the first song, everyone was off praising God just naturally flowing out of them. An amazing night, the presence of God so tangible it was just brilliant. The highlight being a guy called Darren. Darren has been coming on a Sunday for a few months, and has been on our discipleship course. Tonight as we were praising God I looked over and he had tears running down his face with his hands in the air. I went to pray for him and just asked God to keep doing His stuff. I asked Darren, when he had given his heart to God, his response – I’ve just done it. Wow, he was just blown away by the power of God. It’s been a while since I’ve seen someone so overwhelmed by being forgiven and receiving a fresh start from God. It reminded me not to take my salvation for granted and just how precious it is to be born again!

What a Sunday!