Three teenagers in an old car, heading for the beaches of Florida. I was 17 and we had just graduated from high school. Two PKs, preacher kids, and one we called “the ringer” had slept in our car at a rest stop. We had grabbed breakfast at a Stuckey’s somewhere in Dodge County, Georgia. As we stood in the parking lot, we could hear singing coming from an old church nearby, and were reminded it was Sunday. We looked at one another, then crossed the road and walked in.
Immediately we thought we had crossed some invisible line, and for a moment we weren’t sure what to do. Before we could decide, we were warmly welcomed by ushers in the name in “Our Glorious Savior”, and shown to the only pew that had seating. Ours were the only white faces in a crowded country church, God’s house.
But, what a service! The gospel music was amazing, and everyone seemed to join in. But it was more than the music, there was loud participation in the scripture passages and the sermon, with lots of “Amens”, raised hands, and a few hallelujahs. Probably 10 minutes after we sat down we were part of that congregation, in the midst of a worship service like none of us had ever even imagined. I suppose that service lasted nearly two hours, but it didn’t seem that long. As we filed out, nearly everyone wanted to greet us, and wish us God-speed. What a feeling, a feeling I couldn’t identify, at the time!
I have thought often about that worship experience and knew I had been to “church”. That time was so different from the congregational Christian services that I had attended all of my young life. In retrospect, it does cause me to wonder about how we get locked into the familiar worship service, and that takes a bit of the praise edge off. For me, the liturgical services I attend feels comfortable, predictable. But I have to ask myself, am I participating in praise of my Lord, or am I simply an observer? What am I investing in my praise of my Lord?
I suspect that I am not alone in wanting to sing songs that are familiar. Hymns that allow me to get into the words and worship with my voice. I want to know how the message of the service fits in with the scripture passages, as I try to follow along. When the pandemic came, and took away our church building with pews holding our hymnals and Bibles, and we came face to face with a different kind of worship, called “streaming”. Too often, just another TV show?
From time to time I think about that experience in Dodge County, Georgia. Much later I could identify what I felt when I walked from that old church, more than 60 years ago. I felt cleansed, spiritually cleansed. I had truly worshipped “Our Glorious Savior”. Without any question, it was a God experience, a gift, that to this day, is there in the back of my mind, a remembered day when I stepped across a nonexistent line into true worship in the Spirit.
How is your worship experience? Do you know the feeling of being spiritually cleansed? Of having been to “church”? Yes? Praise the Lord. Amen.
For What It’s Worth.
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