I will spare you the superlatives. It's always honest and from the heart but it does get repetitive, does it not.
As always, we are clear about why we gather, i.e., to spur each other on to love and good works. It's the ways we find to do that that surprise me.
Quite a few years ago, we began to talk, from time to time, about the lies we told in a song we have just finished singing. The classic, for us is, I SURRENDER ALL. We can't sing that one without referring to our corporate prevarication.
Today, we were gearing up to sing LOVE LIFTED ME and took note of the absolute commitments mentioned in the second stanza. We agreed that at any time we were about to sing a lie during that song that we would sing, but put a hand over our mouth.
The less inhibited among us actually did that. Then, both before and after talked among ourselves about honesty and about the way we, too often, do things mindlessly when we gather with other disciples.
This group can be extremely lighthearted yet intensely serious at the same time.
We had a few tense moments discussing the fact that the twelve year old in the gathering was actually visited at home by a local police officer because he was bullying a girl his age. Tough moments. I suspect that we will be working on this issue for some time.
We had an extended and varied time of prayer lasting, I'd guess, nearly a half hour.
After all of that, we were nearly two hours into the gathering. Evelyn had pointed out early on that LOVE LIFTED ME was based on the story of Peter walking on water. So, we read that story and talked each other through it and used Peter's faith and doubt to direct us through a time of self-examination in taking the bread and cup.
A new gatherer, Sue, a former coworker of mine, had prepared the main course of what turned out to be an amazing meal.
By the time the last people left our house, we were nearly four hours into the gathering. Amazing, eh.
The Lord is good!
About the prayer time: It really did span about 30 minutes and that was all time in prayer. There was no sharing of prayer requests.
ReplyDeleteIt strikes me that how we pray in a gathering compared to what traditional Christendom, contemporary, seeker-sensitive "churches" do is a microcosm of the difference between us and them.
An ERC Conference keynote speaker from about a decade ago spoke, briefly, about the importance of the pastor offering the priestly prayer on behalf of the congregation. And, that happens every time a pastor speaks to God for his/her church.
When we pray together, a free for all, literally all, takes place. There is never chaos but there is freedom. We have no pastor. Truly, we all think that each of us is accountable to live in the world as a priest.
Prayer is both relaxed and passionate.