Being Church

My husband and I used to attend the Assemblies of God church that I've complained about in earlier entries. Tonight we had some friends over from that church -- beautiful people whom we love a lot -- and spent some time talking about the goings-on at that church since we left it.

They mentioned one time during this very snowy winter when the church service was canceled, and in a knee-jerk reaction I said, "Oh, we should have gone!"

The one time we enjoyed that church more than any other time was once when the service was canceled due to snow, and we didn't hear about it in time. We went anyway, and so did perhaps a dozen other people. It was the best time we've ever had at that church! Someone put on some music in the sanctuary, and a couple of people went in there to pray and worship in song. One woman danced in worship, someone whom I've never seen dance during the "worship service" at all. A lot of us hung out in the lobby, just chatting and shooting the breeze. I started talking with a woman whom I'd been wanting to get to know for a while, but we just hadn't clicked yet. She and I talked for a good hour, getting to know each other and finding out how much we had in common. It was great... and more to the point, it was church.

During the time when our attendance was trailing off, Grey went to church by himself one morning. There was the usual bellowing guy, the red-haired Southern woman hollering out some "prophesy" full of thees and thous (because everyone knows that's how God really talks, right?), and Grey got fed up and walked out before the singing had even ended.

A woman driving past had stopped right across the street. Her car tire had blown out, and there was something else wrong with her car; it wouldn't start. Grey went over to see if he could help. He ended up changing her tire for her, and then used his own AAA card to call for a tow truck. He even waited for the tow-truck with her. She thanked him profusely and drove away.

A week later, Grey got mail from this lady, who had heard him giving his name and address to the AAA rep in the tow truck. She send him a thank-you card with a gift certificate in it, and asked for God to bless him.

It's ironic that Grey got the opportunity to BE church for this woman only after he had become fed up with "church" and walked out. I'm sure many of the congregants still sitting in there were judging Grey as somehow less-holy-than-they, for walking out, but the fact is that he was obviously supposed to leave when he did, and he got an opportunity to serve that they were denied.

Moral of the story: it is far more important to BE church than to "go to church."