Church at the Lake

We had church at the lake today. Our church family has been doing this for several months now on the first Sunday of each month. We call it "church out of the box", and this is definitely an appropriate name for it. It is completely non-traditional, completely spontaneous, and completely wonderful! It is hard for me to express how God is working through our group. But I am moved today to try and share the wonders and excitement with you.

First, let me try to describe church at the lake. Flip-flops, lawn chairs, dogs, and children everywhere. We typically set up right next to the lake under the shade of some beautiful (huge) trees. The worship service is very casual, yet somehow (for me at least) very meaningful. There are no pews or bulletins, no formal worship service order. In fact, today we had our "house band" ready to lead the praise and worship time when two other guys showed up with harmonica and guitar in hand . . . so they joined the band for the day. It was awesome! God was there mixed in with the beauty of it all. And as we sang I couldn't help but become overwhelmed by the way that He had brought us all together. There are so many stories of how God has worked in different families lives to weave together this group of believers.

One family, in particular, are fairly new to our group. They were originally introduced to us through a weekly Bible study that some of the stay at home moms began. Eventually, the family came to one of our small group pool parties, and they were hooked. They have recently began attending Sunday morning worship services and God is already using them to make a huge impact on our group. This precious family decided to share their recent experience with the power of prayer to our group this morning. (I did mention that we are fairly spontaneous, didn't I?) So, halfway through the worship service, they took the microphone and shared that their four year old son had been extremely sick the previous week. In fact, he had spiked an extremely high fever and they had to take him to the emergency room where a battery of tests were given to try and figure out what was wrong with him. This went on for several days, leaving the family feeling desperate and defeated. Finally, out of desperation, the father called his grandmother (who he knew had a strong prayer life) and asked her to pray. A little while later one of the stay at home moms from the Bible study called and asked if she and another mom could come over and pray over their son. The two moms went to the family's house and said a short and simple prayer over the sick child. With tears in his eyes and a choked-up voice, the dad explained that before they even finished their prayer his son was sleeping peacefully and that within five minutes his fever had broke for the first time in days. This experience confirmed to his family the power and love of God and his people. Isn't God great!

Today, I am inspired by church at the lake. It was such a simple worship service, yet extremely powerful at the same time. There in His presence, we had a time of sharing, a time of powerful testimony, a time to be real and worship. It doesn't get much better than that!