Sunday Musings

 

The kids are in bed, the washing machine is rumbling, it's the end of another weekend.

I can't help thinking: Another week already? Where did last week go?! And June is nearly upon us??!! Didn't we just have January?

But mostly as I sit here I am thinking about my day at church. A day where I have come full-circle.

Our church has moved into Auckland's Town Hall for our Sunday services. I had my reservations. I thought I would miss the old Mercury Theatre... but today I loved church at our new venue. Really really loved it. Like was sitting there feeling thrilled to be part of this wonderful thing.

The Town Hall is where I used to go to church as a little girl. I was seven when mum and dad started going to what was (at the time) the largest church in the Southern hemisphere. A huge change from the Catholic Masses we'd been used to. Unfamiliar music, unfamiliar ways, unfamiliar jargon.

My parents still laugh over the first time I heard someone up the front say "let's take up the tithes and offerings; just put them in the bucket and pass it along..."

I heard TIES and offerings... and loudly stage-whispered to my father: "Dad, don't you DARE put your tie in that bucket! Mum paid good money for that!"

This evening I sat in the balcony. Right where I used to sit with my daddy, when I was allowed to go with him in the evenings, just him and me. I can almost picture little me sitting there, over-awed with the bigness of it.

And now my kids are sitting there with their friends, jiggling to the music, then crowding out for fun and games and stories after the songs. Dash is the same age I was then.

Seven. That's how old I was when I first walked all the way down the front with my daddy, to pray a prayer and "give my heart to Jesus".

I'd forgotten all this. Until I sat in church today, incredibly moved by the stories coming back from Revolution Tour (80 young people from our church travelling around NZ for the last two weeks doing programmes in over 100 high schools and holding unbelievable concerts for a total of over 13,000 teenagers). Amazing stories.

And then there's the Jesus Changed My Life campaign our church has launched - moving real life stories of how Jesus has changed people's lives. Gritty and honest. Two of them (Val and Margot) are close friends of mine. There's a website, billboards, mailers... not telling people that our church is cool, and we have groovy music or a famous preacher, not that we are nice and hip and fun... no - it's all about Jesus, and what he has done in our lives.

From my balcony vantage point I look around and see people I've known for years. I know their stories. Miracles on legs, trophies of grace, every one.

And to think I ever doubted that I belong here? To think I was reluctant to move to the Town Hall?? I love it!! I'm part of this story. I'm part of something amazing and worthwhile, with people who are genuine and worth knowing.

So tonight I'm feeling thankful, in awe and just a little bit warm and fuzzy. I'm off to phone my mum and dad, tell them about my day, tell them about the new thing in the old place that's brought me full circle - right where I belong.

xx

Photos from Google Images, Equippers Church Facebook Page and http://revolutiontour.co.nz/