Catacombs

Is a top-notch worship service every Sunday night, 10-11pm, at Gordon College in Wenham, Mass, near Beverly. A few of my good friends (shout out to Bekah and Stacey!) go there, and I'd heard good things about this service even before they went there. So I finally made it up in December, and again last night. Excellent both times, worth the 45 minute drive, and catching up with friends is always rewarding as well. But aside from telling the world that I had fun, a few observations I made at Catacombs last night:

- This is obvious, I know, so please excuse me for reinventing the wheel. Any mature Christian has experienced how much God cares about even our insignificant little problems and troubles, and that fact is stressed to children and new Christians who are not sure how to approach the all-powerful but all-loving God. But anyway, this thought came to me as I stressed in worship about my own minutiae: If the omnipotent God is concerned with my life and concerns because He wants to have a relationship with me, how much more should I reciprocate to His love and show concern for what's on His heart! How selfish of me to think God only wants to focus on me - what a one-sided relationship I have built with my Father and Creator! He deserves 100 percent of the attention in our relationship, but in His grace and love He wants to deal with my troubles, and lets me be blissfully ignorant of many of His weighty concerns. By being selfishly unreciprocating I cement my status as a child too immature to be entrusted with the matters of his Father. Lord, help me to grow up!

- This second observation is more specific to Catacombs, which is held in the main chapel, with all the lights off and a somewhat solemn atmosphere. Silence is maintained in all but worship and prayer. Now, I'm generally critical of American Christianity, which buys heavily into the culture of individualism. A few years ago in a daily worship meeting of 8 or 10 people we were reprimanded by a teacher for holding individual quiet times there instead of corporate worship. Her reprimand was well taken - there was something lacking. And that was NOT lacking at Catacombs. Somehow, though we could not see each other much, we were unified. God showed me that such unity is possible because we are most unified with other people when we put our focus on God. Thus, proper corporate worship is neither introspective nor extraspective, but deispective, so to speaktive.