(no subject)
I'm back home from London and it's time to fill you in on my
trip. As I think I emailed you already, I did crazy evangelism
stuff adn some touristy stuff. Here's a more detailed account of my trip.
In the mornings we spent about two hours in worship and with
speakers. The worship was all crazy contemporary stuff with ppl raising their hands and generally giving off a big public
display. I was part of the worship band, playing and singing.
By the end of the week, the worship was pretty cool and everyone was just singing his or her heart out. I was the only lutheran there, everyone else was presbyterian or non-denominational and I really enjoyed worshipping with ppl from different backgrounds and churches. I'm really into the Church under God right now, instead of all the divensional and denominational stuff.
The speakers were really awesome. They preached about looking
foolish before others for God's sake, the importance of prayer
and about God's mission plan for the Church. The last one was
the biggest. They preached about how God's primary purpose for
the Church is to spread the Gospel through missions so that God is glorified and others learn about His love and grace and
forgiveness. I can expand more on this later if anyone is
interested. It's something that really hit me and that I feel
the American church has completely overlooked. Let me know if
you want to hear more about this.
Ok, so the crazy scary evangelism stuff. We did booktables on
the street, handing out tracts with information on the church and giving away free literature and Jesus films. That was pretty intimidating because who wants to act like a crazy evangelist handing stuff out on the street? We also did prayer walks on the street, stoppign at specific places to pray for the people there. That was pretty cool. Then at night we did door-to-door stuff, using a religious survey to learn more about the ppl in the neighborhoods. Some of the ppl we met in the streets that week were in church on Sunday. So it was cool to see even a very small part of the fruit of our labors.
Church was pretty interesting. We sang songs in Hindi and Punjab and it was TWO hours long. I thought a valpo service was long but this was nothing compared to it. They sang a ton of songs, had 3 testimonies, and a 45 minute long sermon. yes, the sermon was even longer than Walt Wangerin's. After the service, we had an Indian dinner, which was still very hot and made my mouth numb, Laura. Then they put in Bhangra music (Indian dance music)and we danced for a while. Dinner was cool because we got to talk with all sorts of ppl. Someone made the comment that it sounded like Pentecost in the hall because they were so many accents and languges being spoken. It was quite a neat experience.
I had a lot of good conversations and fellowship opportunities
with the ppl at the conference. I really enjoyed talkign with
everyone and meeting ppl from different parts of the country and from different churches, ages, and backgrounds.
So that's my London trip. Otherwise, I'm just working, doing the laundry, getting hit on by nasty old men.
trip. As I think I emailed you already, I did crazy evangelism
stuff adn some touristy stuff. Here's a more detailed account of my trip.
In the mornings we spent about two hours in worship and with
speakers. The worship was all crazy contemporary stuff with ppl raising their hands and generally giving off a big public
display. I was part of the worship band, playing and singing.
By the end of the week, the worship was pretty cool and everyone was just singing his or her heart out. I was the only lutheran there, everyone else was presbyterian or non-denominational and I really enjoyed worshipping with ppl from different backgrounds and churches. I'm really into the Church under God right now, instead of all the divensional and denominational stuff.
The speakers were really awesome. They preached about looking
foolish before others for God's sake, the importance of prayer
and about God's mission plan for the Church. The last one was
the biggest. They preached about how God's primary purpose for
the Church is to spread the Gospel through missions so that God is glorified and others learn about His love and grace and
forgiveness. I can expand more on this later if anyone is
interested. It's something that really hit me and that I feel
the American church has completely overlooked. Let me know if
you want to hear more about this.
Ok, so the crazy scary evangelism stuff. We did booktables on
the street, handing out tracts with information on the church and giving away free literature and Jesus films. That was pretty intimidating because who wants to act like a crazy evangelist handing stuff out on the street? We also did prayer walks on the street, stoppign at specific places to pray for the people there. That was pretty cool. Then at night we did door-to-door stuff, using a religious survey to learn more about the ppl in the neighborhoods. Some of the ppl we met in the streets that week were in church on Sunday. So it was cool to see even a very small part of the fruit of our labors.
Church was pretty interesting. We sang songs in Hindi and Punjab and it was TWO hours long. I thought a valpo service was long but this was nothing compared to it. They sang a ton of songs, had 3 testimonies, and a 45 minute long sermon. yes, the sermon was even longer than Walt Wangerin's. After the service, we had an Indian dinner, which was still very hot and made my mouth numb, Laura. Then they put in Bhangra music (Indian dance music)and we danced for a while. Dinner was cool because we got to talk with all sorts of ppl. Someone made the comment that it sounded like Pentecost in the hall because they were so many accents and languges being spoken. It was quite a neat experience.
I had a lot of good conversations and fellowship opportunities
with the ppl at the conference. I really enjoyed talkign with
everyone and meeting ppl from different parts of the country and from different churches, ages, and backgrounds.
So that's my London trip. Otherwise, I'm just working, doing the laundry, getting hit on by nasty old men.