Leaving "Home"

My grown daughter asked if I would come check out this church they were considering attending. Was it a "good" church? Did it have good teaching, good doctrine? While she had loved growing up in our little country church, there simply were very few young families. We had an aging congregation. My husband and I, in our late forties at the time, were the young people there! She wanted her kids to grow up with kids their age—friends who loved Jesus, too. So, she had been doing some shopping.

A Taste of the Intangible Yet Unmistakable

I remember stepping through the doors of the church. We were greeted with smiles and warm handshakes. They offered steaming hot coffee or a cold soda. People were milling around—all kinds of people. People of different ethnicities, different ages, different income levels. People in suits and Sunday best . . . people in tattoos and tattered jeans. And there was something else—something intangible yet unmistakable. There was a freshness, a vibrancy. Looking back, I know now it was the Holy Spirit!

There was no liturgy, there were no altar cloths. In fact, there was no altar. It was in a windowless warehouse. Not a single stained-glass window in the place. The lights were low and the music was loud, but they were praising and worshipping! Again, that intangible, unmistakable something. People were standing, some with raised hands, closed eyes. Some with tears quietly sliding down their cheeks as they basked in the radiant presence of the Holy Spirit. As they sat in the presence of the One who had given them new hope—the One who had made them new.

Something was different. I needed more of this . . .

Faithful . . . But to Whom?

We came back the next week, and the next. For three years, we went to both churches almost every Sunday morning—even if they were a forty-five-minute drive apart. Whether it was our resistance to leaving "home"—to sever ties with people who had become like family—or whether it was with a mission to bring some of this freshness, this vibrancy, back to our comfortable church, we found it very difficult to leave.

I remember feeling at times like I was committing adultery! Like I was being unfaithful to our little country church. Like my marriage was to that place and those people—rather than to Christ—and I had been cheating on them. I had to really stop and think about what defined "church." God was reminding me that the church was not a building, but a body—of believers. It didn’t require liturgy, or altars, or stained-glass windows. It required followers of Jesus. It could meet in homes, or churches with steeples . . . or warehouses. It was people who gathered in his name to praise him and worship him, to learn about him, to study his Word together. Most importantly, it was people who were sent out—to be the hands and feet of Christ in this dark and broken world full of lost and hurting people.

This was where I began to serve the women at the county jail. This was where we started to host children through Safe Families for Children: kiddos who needed a safe place while their mom or their parents worked through some things. This was where I learned that "serving" meant far more than serving coffee cake after the service . . .

Going Out—In Good Graces

We finally came to the decision that we would simply attend this new church. We would finish out the month at our little country church since it was my husband’s turn to usher. I sat alone in one of the back pews, where my husband could slip in and join me for the sermon. We knew it was one of the last services we might attend there, and I had no idea how to share that news with the people who had been our church family for nearly 20 years.

It came time for the passing of the peace. There are good things and bad things about every church. This was one of the really good things about this one. Passing of the peace could take a good 10 minutes. Everyone knew everyone. We wandered from pew to pew until we had shaken nearly every hand in the small sanctuary. We knew each other’s kids, we knew each other’s families . . . we knew each other. Toward the end, one of the matriarchs of the church approached me, making her way to the back pew. Once again, I would get to see how good God is. He always provides a way.

With her snowy white hair and friendly smile, she approached and extended her hand to pass the peace. And then she asked me, “Would you consider speaking the next time the ladies meet? We would like you to share with us what you are doing these days. We don’t really know what you are up to, and we would like to know.” This was my in. I would have the chance to share our news—and to remind them of the goodness of the good news!

The night of the meeting, I was able to share how God had called me to jail ministry and how my faith was being absolutely transformed. I had finally been discovering that the gospel was just what it claimed to be: good news! I was getting to see women’s hope restored, the power of forgiveness, and joy . . . in the jail! It was then that I shared that my husband and I felt that we needed to commit to this other church, that we would no longer be attending our little country church. I think they were surprised, I think they were sad—some cried, I cried. But those beautiful sisters in Christ got up and surrounded me. They laid hands on me and prayed for me. I was being commissioned.

After the meeting, the elderly woman with the snowy white hair approached me with a tear in her eye. She rested her hand on my shoulder and said, “I feel like we failed you in some way. . . .” God gave me just the words to respond with: “You didn’t fail me, you prepared me . . . and now you are sending me.” That little country church had preached the truth faithfully. We had loved each other well. It was time to go share that truth—and that love.

“For where two or three gather in my name,

there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:20 NIV

“For just as each of us has one body with many members,

and these members do not all have the same function,

so in Christ we, though many, form one body,

and each member belongs to all the others.”

Romans 12:4-5 NIV

“So after they had fasted and prayed,

they placed their hands on them and sent them off.”

Acts 13:3 NIV

“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you!

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.””

John 20:21 NIV

“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served,

but to serve,  and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Mark 10:45 NIV