There was a worship conference in Dublin last week with other world race squads
and I felt heavy there. This wasn’t your average Amy Grant Christian worship
session. In fact, I wonder how many people would still even be FaceSpace
friends with me if they caught ten minutes of the live feed online. And I felt
like the Lord was manifesting his presence left and right all over the room.
Shoot, even I couldn’t help but go up and dance around in the front with all
the crazies. It was maybe the most free I have ever felt in a worship setting.
Tambourine girl even handed me her tambourine and I started a Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles chant to the tune of “Go Jesus, Go Jesus, Go!�
Some of the Jesus mosh-pit might have just been peoples
emotions getting in the way. But so what? Can we only dance at our favorite
concert, or jump around at a march madness game? Says who? Also crowd surfing
was involved. Good stuff.
Please still be friends with me. This is not an evangelical
charismatic cult.
You don’t have to jump around and be in the front of the
room in a Jesus mosh-pit to feels God’s presence. Do I want to have that
intimate moment with the Lord? You bet. Does the Lord often reveal himself in
times of worship? Yes. But it’s not about the experience of a manifest presence
of the Holy Spirit in the room that defines your life as a Christian. It just
so happens that when the Holy Spirit does fall in a place; that tongues,
prophesy with interpretation, freedom in worship, and visions are often
present. I tend to think people get caught up on spiritual gifts, not because
they don’t fully agree with them, but because they don’t want to feel like the
person that has those types of gifts are more spiritually along than those that
don’t.
The experience is not the end goal here people.
So when I tell you all about my experiences in worship,
please don’t get hung up as a church in only talking about worship styles or
spiritual gifts. Please understand that this is much more about me relaying
that God’s presence is thick over my squad and gifts are being revealed.
Something big is brewing.
Oh, and I swear I will right a funny blog soon about the
three b’s of bugs, bus rides, and body odor.
Post. Script.
I tried to sneak a System of a Down song onto a list of worship songs someone had wrote down and brought to church for the day. It was tucked in nicely between song 7 and 9 on the list. Never got played. I think they would have liked it.
System-My-Guilty-Pleasure-Band-Salley
