Church in a Park on Saturday Morning

Church in a park this morning (Saturday)? You heard it right. Terry & Suzette Goodwin lead several discipleship groups who are the foundation of a discipleship movement that will birth other groups who will serve as the Church alive and in action. Are they the Church? You bet they are. Did I go to Church? Not really! I went to be with the people who are the Church so we could be the Church in action.

I met with the Church at the park this morning. Wait until you see the pictures. It was indescribable, like nothing I have ever experienced in my life. God's Holy presence was there. We gathered together with I'm guessing close to 20 core people. We shared informally around the picnic tables drinking coffee and getting acquainted. We then hiked to the beach for several baptisms. You should have seen the people watching the baptism take place. Pastor Terry, lead planter baptized Sherry who just gave her heart to Jesus last week in his home. She grew up catholic and has attended an evangelical church over 15 years and through discipleship with the Pastor Terry & Suzette realized that she wanted and needed Jesus in a personal way. Two children, Danielle and Moriah were baptized by mom and dad after Pastor Terry pronounced baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Spirit. No baptism has touched me more as I witnessed parents taking the Great Commission seriously.

It gets better! We hiked back up to the picnic area and while the group was getting brunch ready, I walked over to a large Indian-Muslim group. They were real nice and I just loved them and joked with them. They gave me a Krispy Cream donut like you get when you "go" to church on Sunday.

As our group ate together we began to share and enjoy each other's company -informally of course. After we ate, Joe led us in some songs with his guitar. After we sang together, Pastor Terry introduced communion with a brief lesson from God's word and we shared some testimonials and thoughts from the group. We passed bread, breaking it ourselves and then we took communion in remembrance of the sacrifice Jesus shared on our behalf. It brought tears to my eyes. The children Danielle and Moriah are allergic to bread and grape juice so mom had a substitute and for the very first time they partook in communion. Whew!

Before we left - I asked the guys if they would be leaders in going out as the Church and let me introduce them to my Muslim friends and they said yes. So we all descended upon the picnic area of my new friends and both groups loved it. They offered us tea which we took graciously and we just got acquainted and pronounced God's blessing upon them. The guys in our group were touched by this interaction. I told my new Muslim friends that I loved them and their people and Dr. Sheik said, "It is easy to love people back when they truly love others." It really is easy to love and build relationships with people.

As we were readying to leave, a group of our new Muslim friends came over to us. They shared for 5 minutes about their Islam faith. They serve only one God -they stated. We told them we do also. They shared a brief and very simple and correct description of who they are and why they are Muslims. We shared with them about baptism (which they saw) and why we believe Jesus is our Savior and how He died for our sins and was resurrected (which Muslims do not believe). There was so much more shared by them and us. Neither group was defensive or argumentative -we just loved each other and respected each other and tried to understand each other. Really!

After our Muslims friends left Pastor Terry spoke to the group and other thoughts were shared as we again sensed that a God moment in time just happened. Our group understood that Jesus is missing in Muslim faith. Our Muslim friends saw and experienced our love for them. As an expression of kindness and love our Muslim friends brought us a large pan of chicken wings spiced up Indian style and they were yummy.

Again as we were readying to leave, Pastor Terry said, "Let's get a picture of our group with their group as one group". So we did! We took pictures of the entire group and they took pictures of the entire group. It was another one of the most beautiful things I have even been a part of. Our group "the Church" saw how easy it is to be the Church at the park today.

They have my business card and invited us to their meetings - so Pastor Terry & I are going to go. I told my new friends I didn't just want to go to their meeting -I want to get to know them personally perhaps in their home or at a restaurant or wherever. And, if they contact me which I am almost sure they will, we will go to them as the Church of Jesus Christ at their meeting or in a home or wherever.

This experience and God's work through the Church today has changed me in a deep fresh new way. It was a delight to meet with the Church, a new developing core fellowship with the Missionary Church. Can you believe this?