Have you ever been somewhere and had it instantly feel like home? Even if you were in a different culture where they spoke a different language, but it didn’t matter because your soul was at peace? Well, I was fortunate enough to experience this last month.
Last month, my team was stationed in Honduras. While we were there, we had several different options for churches we could go to. So of course, I chose the one with the shortest walking distance. It was this random sheltered area in the middle of probably the smallest village in Honduras. There were no windows, no walls, not even a door. And yet, there was something so special about this place.
The service would start with about an hour worth of worship. All of the songs were in Spanish, and while my Spanish skills have greatly increased on the Race, I still had difficulty understanding the songs sometimes. They’d start out slow and then build their way up to faster songs. These were always my favorites. Most of these songs came with motions. Various songs would require us to jump, spin, dance, shake our hips and even run up and down the rows. And there was constant clapping. And I don’t mean how we clap in our American churches where everyone starts out strong and then die out halfway through the song. I mean constant clapping. And if you weren’t clapping you were dancing or praising or something.
But these people weren’t doing it for show. You know those people right? Those people who hoot and holler and wave their arms in church so that others see just how good of a Christian they really are. These people were different. They didn’t start out with their hands in the air – they started out praying. Coming before their Father and just talking. Then, as they talked with Him more and they let the Spirit speak to them through the music, you would see a transformation in them. You could actually see the moment when their heart truly entered into a time of worship. And they didn’t care who was watching. It was as if the only ones in the room were them and Jesus.
Now if you go to my church you may be asking yourself, “Why does this church remind her of home?” Now don’t get me wrong – I LOVE my church. But if you were to walk into my church, you wouldn’t see us spinning in circles or running up and down the rows. So why did this church feel so much like home to me? For most of the month, I was asking myself the same question. It wasn’t until our last night there that I asked God and He gave me an answer that warmed my heart and broke it at the same time. He said, “This is what Heaven looks like. Your heavenly home.”
This small picnic area in the middle of nowhere was my John moment. This was my glimpse of Heaven. This church with less than 40 members, with no walls, no windows, no doors, not the best sound system, no projectors, no stage lights, not even cushioned chairs, they got it. They got what so many churches around the world don’t get. It was just about them and God. That was it. That was all that mattered.
In Matthew 22:36-40, Jesus says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind. He then goes on to say that everything hangs on this. That if you get this right, everything else will fall in to place. This church understood that. They understood that if they just focused on their relationship with God, then everything else would fall into place – all the politics, all the service projects, all the small groups, all the mission trips. All of it.
I barely understood anything that was said at that church, but it didn’t matter. I felt the Spirit. And He was well pleased. What would our churches look like if we put God first in everything that we did? What if churches weren’t about Christians anymore, but about the love of God? Somewhere along the way, church has become a weekly club meeting for Christians. A weekly meeting where we get together and do service projects. But what if it was more than that? What if it was a time where we just sat in God’s presence? Jesus said that if we put God first, then everything else would fall into place. I believe Him. What if our church believed it too?
