Power? We don't need no stinking power.
Midway through the third song on Sunday morning, things suddenly got very dark. The power went out on the church building, and we were suddenly sitting in a windowless room with the only light coming from the emergency lights at the exits.
I've never preached in the dark before, but I have to say it was kind of fun. There was a totally different atmosphere in the room when you came in, especially second service when we had the candles lit. There were even some who came second service because their own churches were closed, cancelled services for lack of power.
Paul said in the New Testament that his preaching relied not on wise and persuasive words but the power of God. It's like he didn't want anybody to think he was so great a preacher, he just wanted them to connect with God. That's a hard place to stay. It's hard because you want to be good at what you do, you want people to find value in it, but at the same time you don't want to get between people and God.
We do a lot of things on Sundays to make the worship experience the best that we can. We use lighting, sounds, multimedia and graphics to draw people into worship and illustrate how great God is. But you know what? Even if you take away all those things, take away all the impressive elements that a church is capable of, I'd like to think that there is still something worth coming to. I'd like to think that the power of a church does not rest on it's technological toys and order of service, and that a church's impact on its community is not limited to its multimedia capability. I'd like to think that if "church" were nothing but a dark room, a few candles, and the word of God - that would be enough.
All the rest are tools, they are things that we use but we must never forget that their true power comes from God himself. That even when the lights go out, there is still power in the church.
What a great reminder of that we got to experience this week.
I've never preached in the dark before, but I have to say it was kind of fun. There was a totally different atmosphere in the room when you came in, especially second service when we had the candles lit. There were even some who came second service because their own churches were closed, cancelled services for lack of power.
Paul said in the New Testament that his preaching relied not on wise and persuasive words but the power of God. It's like he didn't want anybody to think he was so great a preacher, he just wanted them to connect with God. That's a hard place to stay. It's hard because you want to be good at what you do, you want people to find value in it, but at the same time you don't want to get between people and God.
We do a lot of things on Sundays to make the worship experience the best that we can. We use lighting, sounds, multimedia and graphics to draw people into worship and illustrate how great God is. But you know what? Even if you take away all those things, take away all the impressive elements that a church is capable of, I'd like to think that there is still something worth coming to. I'd like to think that the power of a church does not rest on it's technological toys and order of service, and that a church's impact on its community is not limited to its multimedia capability. I'd like to think that if "church" were nothing but a dark room, a few candles, and the word of God - that would be enough.
All the rest are tools, they are things that we use but we must never forget that their true power comes from God himself. That even when the lights go out, there is still power in the church.
What a great reminder of that we got to experience this week.
posted by Jeff at 1:22 PM
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