Refreshing Worship

Our pastor at church always gives an altar call at the end of the service. Not the "Just as I Am" type of altar call. It always relates to the service: come forward if you want to be a better father, come forward if you want to commit your marriage to God, come forward if you want to love your neighbor better. To tell you the truth, I'm not sure what to do with it. I went forward one or two of the first times we visited. But I could honestly go forward every Sunday. And sometimes I just don't want to go up there. I'd just like to be prayed for from my seat. But sometimes it's nice, too.

Today, we had a guest preacher who talked about being last ("Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, "If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all." - Mark 9:35). At the end Pastor Efrem Smith came forward and gave an altar call for people who wanted to stop putting themselves before others and God, for people who wanted to stop striving for perfection and upward mobility in their lives and be willing to wash another's feet. Them Pastor Smith decided that he needed some prayer for that himself, so he invited the guest preacher back up to close the service in prayer and went down with the people for prayer. That was refreshing.

It's also good to see the couple gray-haired ladies who come to the morning service raising their hands to the hip hop music. They're not so concerned about style. They're concerned with God--and with praising Him. That's what it's about.

And I also love to watch Anders and Nils "dance" to the hip hop worship. Nils started clapping with the music today. I don't think he's done that before.