Rambling

This past Sunday (October 22), we had another wonderful day of worship. About 20 of the Congolese people showed up, 7 different families. In fact, many more wanted to come, but there was not transportation for all of them. I believe there were as many Congolese children as there were kids normally present in the service. And: add another prayer victory: I have been hoping that there would be people available to translate. I speak French well enough, but not, perhaps, as idiomatically as necessary. Also, I don’t know a lot of theological words.

So, when Irma preached at the seminary, I met a student from Benin, another Francophone country in West Africa. I was put in touch with a young man at UK from Cote D’Ivoire. And at the service, two Congoloese men, Cedrick and Safari said they had been translators in Congo.

Since this is my blog, and I can pretty much say what I want and people will still read it: there are too many books, seminars, and gurus running around trying to convince everybody that they know or stumbled onto something spectacular, something that will make your church grow, or otherwise be awesome in the same ways that the guru’s church has grown or is awesome. God save me from the compulsion to be seen with the latest book. I’m only partially kidding when I say I don’t read anything written after the 4th century…

All I can say about what happens at the Rock La Roca is that we have been trying to follow the Holy Spirit. It will look different somewhere else. It will look different at the Rock La Roca next week! Strangely, I see very little difference between what I am up to at The Rock La Roca compared to what I was up to at Dunaway, a small church in the country. Very different ministries, but so much the same because what was important at Dunaway is important at the Rock La Roca: where is God working? That means: “where do we go if we’re following Him?” Follow Him down one path, and He’ll get you ready to go down yet another. And before you know it, you’ll be sold out to His purposes!

So, you can see that I will never make it as a guru. You can’t have a 3-day conference where you say, “Just listen to the Holy Spirit. Any questions?” Or you can’t have a preaching seminar where you’re strategy is: “Pray and plead for anointing from the Holy Spirit. Any questions?” The trap for churches and their ministers is we want a plan. “Five Slump-Busting Principles” that will invigorate not only your church but your love life. I know, I know; at this point, Courtnay is warning me about my “ministry of scorn.”

The point is: what is happening at the Rock La Roca does not need to be unique. I am not going to write a book or have seminars because in the end all we have done is listen to the Holy Spirit. What happens as you follow is a darn good story, and I’ll tell that all day long. But all I can really say is: take a close look at where you are. Meditate on Jesus. See where God is working. Pray for insight. And let the Holy Spirit have His way. Do something like that and you’ll be on your way to being as freaked out as we are.