Pastor William, from Ghana, West Africa, is visiting with us this weekend and joining us for three of our house church gatherings. After pastoring in a traditional church, he is now planting a simple church expression that "focuses on the person" rather than on "buildings and church."
Last night, William encouraged us with a wonderful message from John 4. Here is my brief summary:
The Samaritans were caught up with the discussion of where does one have to go to meet with God-- what location can He be found at. Meanwhile, Jesus simply shows up and declares that worshipping God is about "spirit and truth," not a location.So... here we have church...
An everyday location where people commonly went and hung out (a well). A "marketplace" location. An ordinary woman. In fact, not a woman that one would think of as being interested in God. An unlikely woman. But, in the midst of this everyday location and ordinary woman, there's Jesus. She encounters Jesus. He is there. She had been looking for the messiah (though her lifestyle wouldn't cause you to suspect that she was seeking God), and now she encounters Him powerfully.
Notice that the disciples have been cleared out and sent into town so that they don't get in the way. How often it's the disciples (us) that get in the way of "church." We get in the way of people simply encountering Jesus in everyday life. We get in the way because we are the ones saying that you can only REALLY encounter God in a certain place or at a certain time.
So... now this Samaritan woman, who has encountered Jesus, turns around and becomes a witness of that which she has experienced. She has no training. She was given no books to read or classes to attend. She has had a single encounter with the living Jesus and that's enough. She becomes a witness of that which she has experienced. The result? Shortly an entire town comes out to encounter Jesus.
Church is taking place wonderfully. People encountering Jesus and becoming worshippers.
Wherever we go, we take the living reality of Jesus. He is no longer "at an address" (as William put it). He is in our lives and going wherever we go to live our lives. We take church with us! We are the ordinary people who are going into the most ordinary of situations and discovering that Jesus is there-- in our midst. We encounter him in every situation we are in. We witness of what we have experienced and others encounter him also. Church goes where we go!
William also pointed out, wonderfully, how important this one woman was to Jesus. Just one person. Not a mass meeting. Not a media blitz. Just one unlikely woman. He poured himself into just her. Yes, the results multiplied. But this is always the case. We will never know how much we impact our world by our willingness to pour ourselves into just one person. God will multiply. We may never know how much. But that's not the point. This is the way Jesus operates. We are so often looking for the "big" results, but that misses God and His Kingdom. He loves people. He loves a person. He takes the one seed we sow and brings forth what He wants from it.
It's been awesome to fellowship with someone from another continent who shares the Spirit in the same spirit that we do.
