Sunday

Worship x 4

I went to four worship services today. All Souls (John Stott's church), Hillsong London, Glory House and Oasis. All Souls was wonderful and rich and deep and beautiful. Choir, coat and ties, liturgy, order of service. And we took the Lord's Table. They passed the bread and then the cup. The cup. We all drank real wine out of the same cup. The church was silent for the first half of communion and then the choir sang. It was beautiful. Brought tears to my eyes.

Next: Hillsong. High energy passionate enthusiasm. Young men and women who have a worshipful zeal for the lord. We sang about being free to sing and dance. They did. I thought (was reminded) Jesus is the one who makes us free from our fears. Brought tears to my eyes.

Next: Glory House. It was their third service. A church that is predominately black. The choir was amazing. The lead female worship leader was filled with the spirit. We asked God to open the eyes of our hearts. We sang about Him being all we need. The emotion was electric. They love the Lord and they are willing to stand before Him for a long time to worship Him. Brought tears to my eyes.

Finally: Oasis. This is a small church of 20-25 people. It is a service conducted in Arabic, Farsi and English. A man and ministry are reaching out to Muslims, and seeing some come to faith. It is small and fledgling. We sang in arabic (transliterated) and english and farsi. The overheads were....overheads. The pianist was just learning. We had the Lord's table. The bread was hard and the juice was in shot glasses. It was messy as it was passed out. It was not "sharp." It was beautiful though. Brought tears to my eyes.

The Lord is in all these places and more. He is in the formality of All Souls, the exuburance of Hillsong, the charisma of Glory House and the simplistic blue collaredness of Oasis. Friends, He was worshipped well in London today!

I pray He was in Atlanta!