Journey

As a young child I was privileged to experience God’s ‘church’ in a very hands-on way. Interestingly, that expression of Kingdom shaped and melded how I see my relationship with God and others today, forty-two years later. I have a hunch it is the way God intended His Kingdom to be in this world.

Today the church is sorely lacking in the area of relationship. What? You say, “We have small groups and social events galore to foster relationship in the church.” I say, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” Jesus modelled relationship for us. He showed us His relationship with His Father so that we also might relate with our God in heaven. He died for us, becoming the ultimate sacrifice, that we might be reconciled to our God and King that we might have life in abundance. So is it too early to ask, “Why do we think God only wants to meet one day a week with thousands in attendance?” What’s He doing on the other days of the week?

Okay, it is not my intention to accuse the church. It is my intention to share my opinion in such a way that brings about change. For God desires that we all experience His perfect love. It doesn’t take getting all your priorities right before you can get there; it takes involving Jesus daily in your thoughts, words, deeds and prayers. He said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom and all other things will be added unto you.” Jesus’ Bride, the church, has been perverted by lesser ideas and means of how we relate to Him. Jesus said he came that we might have life abundantly. Not only on Sunday from 9-12. Now I know that’s not really what the church means to do. Man has somehow put the institution of church in a box that he only has/makes time for on Sunday mornings. He is driven by his desires and need to acquire and achieve so he can’t possibly be available on other days of the week. We've got diaries with busy schedules, after all. Harsh statement? Yes, but we need to talk about it, expose and reveal the truth that the Light of the World will come and lead us back to Him! Do you think Abraham was an intercessor with specific, appointed times to be at the church in prayer or do you think he was God's friend? Do you schedule the time with your friends by appointment only? Do you ever meet with them because you need their help or you just want to be with them? Or is your schedule just too busy for that?

The church of my childhood is not the same today. My parents knew the people and pastors in the church. And the pastors and people knew them and us. Today’s world is not conducive to community like this as people’s jobs transfer them all over the world. But God’s Kingdom was meant to be the place where we can find a home! And sadly, many of us do not want to be real enough to embrace ‘home’ today.

The people in my little hometown got together socially in addition to Sundays and planned events. They even had dinner together just because it was a nice day and they could. My church experience was like a committed family in community. And my family benefited greatly from those relationships.

Fifteen years ago when my husband and I were starting our family we were transferred 15 hours away from our family and community. We thought the new church we began attending would be an extension of this. Yet, we hardly ever had the chance to speak to anyone. Odder still! Our next door neighbors attended the same church. We saw them every Sunday but only threw up a hand to wave hello rather than make an effort to get to know one another. We saw the pastor every Sunday but again, we didn’t know him either. He didn’t know us from Adam! Even when our child was baptized, it was more like a liturgical duty performed rather than a joyous celebration of life between us all!

When my husband began to attend another church I was very concerned. I didn’t want to leave the one I had grown up in, even though this was a new location. But I simply could not find fellowship in this church. I felt rejected when I sang with the choir, who was I to sing when they were singing? Well, I thought we were all free to worshipping the Lord! When I accompanied my husband to the other church I found a place where people worshipped freely! Everyone was encouraged to join in. I wasn’t going to be fooled or tempted by that, though. That was not enough to lure me away. I began to ask the Lord in my prayer times, ‘was it about the building and denomination or was it about the personal relationship we had with him?” Funny enough, those prayer times were born out of wanting to enjoy fellowship with God and my husband together. So I just had conversations with God every morning asking him to bring my husband to church where we could worship Him together.

In time we found ourselves in discussions about God and our faith with a lot of the folks that attended the new church. We discovered commonality in our relationship and faith as we began walking it out together. It seemed as though God had led us in this direction. I hadn’t grown dissatisfied with the other church, but certainly was seeking to find God where He would be found. I had secretly prayed for years for God to bring my husband to church and to Him. I was shocked that God would answer that prayer by taking him somewhere other than the church my children and I attended.

The church I had grown up in had become so large it no longer communicated with the flock in a personal way. It had become a smooth running machine that was out of touch with the needs of its community. It became more about the needs of the church which should have been about the people in the church but it was more concerned with the hierarchy of leadership and how to support that than with ministering to its people daily. Again, I am not intending to make a judgment, only an opinion of my own experience. Perhaps it was as simple as finding another one of the same denomination that was more caring. But somewhere along the way I began to sense Holy Spirit leading us to the new church my husband had found. I sensed a cross over of denominationalism that would bring about true relationship with God and His people. And we began to dare to believe God was orchestrating a community of believers who loved God, served God and met with God daily in their own lives and homes rather than a set time and appointed place. It wasn’t about what we were on to but about what God was revealing to us in those times of coming together after church or when we gathered as a group to pray or share a word from the Bible. We began to see a small group of people taking shape that wanted to share in each other’s lives and walk with God closely. This was a far cry from the other church that had looked at me with disdain when I joined the choir in singing. I suppose if I wanted to sing I should have joined the choir and earned the right to be placed according to my voice and wear the right robe. It seemed so cold and sterile to me. Not the church I had been raised in where the pastors and nuns had been mother and father to us children when our mother was ill and our father was working long hours to hold it all together. Not the church that gave us a home and stepped up to the plate to help us learn to read and write and grow while our parents were unable to do so. What had become of that church? I found myself asking God where was he when I entered the building. I couldn’t find him there any longer.

A few years later I wrote the pastor of that church telling him we had joined a new fellowship and what we were doing. He never called or wrote. But the church bulletin arrived always in the mail. When our family moved to South Africa I again had to write them to tell them to stop sending the bulletins since we wouldn’t be there. I had enjoyed reading them and staying in touch with what was happening but I was sure surprised they didn’t want to know about us. And then I just realized I didn’t want them to waste their money sending mail when we wouldn’t be there. Again, they never wrote back. Even when I wrote a thank-you letter to the original church that had helped our family, they also never acknowledged receiving that note or that I even existed. How could that be God’s church? You might think I wanted this to be about me, I assure you I did not. I wanted fellowship but it did not come. I don’t know if that was because it could only be on their terms or why. But I did give it more than the old college try. All of these churches are not alike though, I know the church my mother attends is in great fellowship with one another and the pastor. I know my sister is deeply involved in her church and the fellowship of believers so I do not believe all church is like this. However, there is a danger of becoming apathetic to God’s purpose for church and those who lead in the church and who they are leading.

The pastor of the new church, and his wife and family, got to know our family. We often shared meals and birthdays together. We met with them often to pray for them, for us or others in the church who also were in need. Our kids enjoyed spending the night together, riding bikes, swimming and celebrating birthdays together. It began to look more like the church I had grown up in and the one I read about in Acts 2. Relationships grew with one another and God. As we matured and the kids began to grow we were able to get even more involved in ministry to the poor. At first this was through part-time outreach but it grew into a full-time ministry that God said we should name Blood N Fire.


We read about a man, John Wimber. He was out in a desert one day, broken and alone when God began to speak to him. God restored his marriage and family. He began attending church and his life began to change. One day he walked into the church and asked, “When do you do it?” They replied, “Do what?” He said, “You know, the stuff that is written in the Bible.” They replied they only read about it but didn’t do it today. John was challenged by their response. I think he must have believed God had it written down to give us the opportunity to live the Word. When Jesus said he had come that we might have life and have it abundantly he meant it, right? He modelled it for us! Surely we were supposed to follow his example. Isn’t that what He meant in the Great Commission? I don’t want to be one of the goats to whom Jesus says, “depart from me I never knew you.” I don’t want to have to ask, “When? When were you in prison and I didn’t help you? When were you sick, needy, naked, hungry?”

The way I see it, the Pharisees and Sadducees were reading about it and teaching about what the Word said, but not living it in their day. And don’t we find ourselves living in a similar time today?

We dared to believe Wimber was on to something. And we began to walk it out as Holy Spirit led us into the streets of the inner city of Atlanta. And eventually that is what led us to Cape Town, South Africa and the nations of Africa. It’s what we began doing at Atlanta Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Atlanta where Holy Spirit began leading us to the streets of the inner city of Atlanta to the homeless, addicted and the poor. On this journey we’ve met many of God’s wonderful nameless and faceless people. You know, the ones without important titles and positions. We’ve learned a great deal about relationship. And we are still learning even more. We’ve been allowed to walk out a life of faith that keeps challenging us yet brings the kind of rewards that don’t have price tags! Money can’t buy these journeys! While cruising through Africa two years ago we realized the only way we were going to cross the borders was through faith, relying on Holy Spirit to open the gates that we might cross over to the other side. And truly there were testimonies in every country and relationships that developed with friends we made along the way. Some of them remain nameless and faceless yet our God knows their name and they know well the scripture: “my Beloved’s is mine and I am His.” To have been able to go through these nations reaching out, discussing, receiving and sharing with a people we’d never known was absolutely transforming. Journey to the Promised Land is about the journey of life we are all travelling on and what happens along the way that shapes and moulds and leads us as we step into the destiny God has prepared for us. My prayer is that it will enlighten you, teach you and lead you into a life with God that will change your life forever! Get to know God! I stand in awe of His Love and Majesty! He has never forsaken or forgotten me! He never lets me down, but is always right by my side, allowing me the pleasure to be by His right side. And I am thankful for all those people He put in my life along the way that guided me in His direction, knowingly and unknowingly! From one sojourner to another - Bon Voyage!