The Mayan

To this point in my life, I've found myself in two situations where, while I looked around and surveyed my surroundings, I found myself thinking "Who would've thought that I'd find myself here!"

My first such experience was when a group from Westerly Road Church went to the Tuesday night prayer meeting at the Brooklyn Tabernacle. We arrived early as we had heard seats were usually in short supply and they were that night as well. Even before the prayer meeting commenced, all of the women were invited forward to pray out loud at the front of the Auditorium while the men stayed praying in their seats. That went for about 30 minutes. Then the women were asked to be seated and the men were asked to the front. We prayed out loud for another 30 minutes before the service began. As the service was beginning, they asked all the men to fill the choir loft. Here I was, this missionary kid, in the middle of downtown Brooklyn, surrounded by strangers in the choir loft of the Brooklyn Tabernacle with a thousand or more people at the service. I remember looking over at our Associate Pastor, and thinking who would've thought we'd find ourselves here! Having only attended one of their prayer meetings, I don't know if it's a common practice, but in any event that's what they did that particular night.

I had a similar experience last weekend with another Pastor, different context, different city. I attended the Sunday night ministry of Mosaic - apparently a inner-city college ministry of their church. The church rents The Mayan theater which every other night of the week is a salsa club of some sort. From it's decor, you'd think the theater was one of the Survivor sets or something like that. And like a club, the worship music was cranked up. Here I was, in the middle of south-central LA, surrounded by college kids, and the bass creating CPR compressions on my chest. I looked over at Scott and thought, "Who would've thought we'd find ourselves here!

I've worshipped God in a variety of contexts, situations and locations. Each time, I marvel at how diverse the Church really is, how segregated we are because of our personal preferences and I wonder the shock we may endure when we worship God in every form imaginable during eternity.