A church service to remember

Port Huron, Michigan is no place to go in
the winter, but my visit there this past Sunday gave me a wonderful reminder of
just how great the local church can be.

In many ways, Cross Current Church,
a church of 650, looks
like other churches, and last Sunday it started off in an average way.
The worship seemed bland and uninspired. As usual, my mind was
wandering. Then the pastor (who I’m partnering with to
coach the World Racers), Michael Hindes, stepped up and asked a member
of the
congregation named Mike to come pray.

Because the Holy Spirit was directing the
service, not a bulletin, it didn’t matter that Hindes was unaware of the fact
that God had been talking to Mike.

At God’s direction, Mike was wearing some
old camouflage pants and his warrior-like prayer was a call to battle.

Just prior to his prayer, I felt God
directing me to the first verses of 1 Chronicles 10, 11, and 12. If you
look at these three verses, you see
that there is a battle, we have a tribe, and we have a role.

Someone
handed me a microphone and I read the Scripture and said, “What God did
with David in Scripture, he did with Mike today. And as he’s calling
Mike, so he’s calling
this church.”

At this point, whatever plans had been made
for a sermon were shelved. Hindes
stepped up and asked people what their role in the battle was. He asked those who felt God giving them the
gift of evangelism to raise their hands and prayed for them. He asked what else God was saying to people
about their roles. Hands went up around the auditorium.

“I’ve been called to mentor younger men,”
one man said. Hindes immediately called
out three men whom he knew needed mentoring to the man and asked them to begin
meeting together.

A number of people said they’d been told
they had the gift of healing and immediately were given the opportunity to pray
for those who needed healing.

A homeless man came to the front and shared
about his epilepsy. About ten people
came up and laid hands on him and prayed for healing.

Around the auditorium, three things were
happening:

• People connected
  with God
• They connected with
  how God had gifted them
• They connected
  with one another

The body of Christ actually grew spiritual
synapses and began to do what it is uniquely designed to do.

The whole service lasted nearly three hours
and even at the end people stayed and continued to bask in God’s presence,
praying and counseling with one another.
I didn’t mind leaving late, asking myself on the way home, “Why don’t
more churches do that?”