During my spring break I had an amazing opportunity to travel to Manaus Brazil to travel down the Amazon River distributing and giving medical and dental care to tribes along the river. The trip was absolutely amazing and one of the most amazing parts of the trip was one night before we got on the boat, we went to one of the larger churches in the heart of Manaus. Now before I explain to you how amazing this experience was, I have a confession to make. When I was flying from Miami to Manaus I was thinking about the experience that was ahead of me and I was thinking about the spirituality of the Brazilians. I had this spiritual ego that was rooted in my American thought that said that any preaching or sermons I would hear would be watered down and weak. I mean when I think about major thinkers in spirituality I think about C.S. Lewis, though born in Ireland, a gifted writer from Oxford who wrote “Mere Christianity”, or Martin Luther, the radical German theologian who nailed the 95 Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche (Castle Church). My thinking was saying that anyone who really could think about Christ in an educated, challenging way was either in Europe or America.
As the service started all the Americans occupied the first two pews on one half of the rather large church. My mindset was shattered the moment the service started; the pastor welcomed everyone to the church and then asked everyone to get into groups of two or three and pray for the service and for the worship and for each other and the world around us. After about five minutes of prayer they opened with a few songs of worship. As I looked around I saw the congreation in deep fellowship and communion with God through worship, not the typical “just stand their and move your mouth” American church worship, but real, raw worhsip. Then an associate pastor gave his testimony and more worship followed.
Sadly, as the head pastor rose to give the sermon, my mind had not fully overturned it’s prior ways of thinking about the spirituality of the people around me. Then the pastor spoke. I was taken back as he delieved a sermon on a highly controversial message on James 1:19-27 about “Listening and Doing” and pure religion and moved to James 2:14-26 on “Faith and Deeds” and how “without faith it is impossible to pelase God…” (Hebrews 11:6). He challeneged the congreation to act, because if there are no actions, James claims there is no real faith. A real faith in God propells and motivates actions of love in the name of Jesus Christ. He challenged the congreation to recognize the drugs in the community, and the orphans and widows and to love them, and take them in and take care of them.The service not only blew me away but challenged me more than any church I had been to in years.
Afterwards came a few more announcments, one of which was an older women who was announcing a play about Jesus and crying, and begging the congreation to bring their neighbors and the community around them because she believed that the play would have an effect. As she walked off stage we got up for communion and many members of the church came and walked from the other side of the church to comfort her and encourage her. The entire experience was so breathtaking and amazing, and that was just the first 24 hours. My eyes were opened to so much that whole trip through my Brazilian and American teammates on the boat and experiences in the city.
Before I left I was already struggling with the issues in the church of America. We are so split, with so many denomenatnions, what happen to Ephesians 4, “Unity in the Body of Christ”? It bothers me that we don’t open in not only in prayer as a church, but in prayer with the people around us. It bothers me how it’s become so mundane when we sings things like “open the eyes of my heart” or “I’m coming back to the heart of worship and it’s all about you” or “you’re more than enough for me”, we don’t mean it. I don’t understand how we can say such powerful statements and walk away unchanged. As I open my Bible I find that when the disciples got together after Jesus died, among the things they did was devoted themseleves to Jesus’ teachings, to looking out for each other, communion, and prayer and “the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” I may not know exactly what we are missing, but until we start seeing these things happening, something is wrong. We need more pastors to speak Truth, to challenge the church to live for Christ, not listen to Him on Sunday. “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourseleves. Do what it says” (James 1:22). We should not run from broken people, broken homes or broken neighborhoods, for we are the “light and salt of the earth!” We need to see the evil but overcome it with light, not shy away, but realize that “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Maybe the reason this is a problem is because we have the “educated writers” and thinkers of Christianity, and not enough leaders of living Christianity. Coming back from this trip, that was the cry of my heart. To stop thinking, I know what the Bible says, it says to “love my neighbor” and I don’t need to look into it anymore. The Greek and Hebrew all add up to the same thing: “love your neighbor”, so why do I not even know my neighbor? “O God let us be, a generation that seeks, that seeks your face o God of Jacob” (Give us Clean Hands, Charlie Hall).
