Fellowship

When you work in a church, its difficult to actually worship during a service. Your attention is focused on getting the choir to the right place at the right time, marking the next event in bulletin where there is music, keeping the flow of the service working well, leading the hymns, praying for the pastor, observing the congregation to see if they are engaged, being aware of how you can improve for next week's service, etc. Don't get me wrong - these are all good things that I thoroughly enjoy.

But I need to spend time with God in corporate worship - something on beyond my personal devotions. I usually find a place elsewhere where I can become one of the faces in the crowd and concentrate on connecting with God instead of helping others to do that. Last year, I attended half a service at another church before slipping out to be on time for choir warm-ups at my church. Less than satisfactory. It finally degraded into watching a service on TV, but the fellowship part was definitely missing.

I do get the occasional chapel service in seminary, but I miss having that deep, intimate, satisfying connection with God that comes from spending focused time in worship with other believers where I do not have to facilitate anything. Its hard to find a place where worship is conducive to that kind of personal relationship.

Today I attended an evening service that was quite comfortable for me. One of the professors at the seminary organized a gathering committed to excellence in worship. The meeting reminds me of an extraordinarily well done home fellowship of the kind I have discovered once in awhile through the past decades. I think I attended my first home fellowship in the sixties, and every so often I encounter another one for a season. God seems to send them along from time to time, and the result is almost always spiritual growth.

I was surprised at how many people I knew in the little circle of believers. Even the set-up of the room was conducive to sacredness and thoughtfully appointed. The pace of the service was unhurried, the invitation to participate through both scripted and unscripted response comfortable. The music was intimately tied to the scriptures (and we read from numerous books of the Bible), the communion quiet and meditative. Every other week is a fellowship dinner so you can get to know people.

I believe I will visit again. It may well turn out to be that point in my hectic week when time suspends and eternity brushes you back to reality.