Lots of church meetings right now - on Sunday afternoons - at night. I have a love/hate relationship with meetings. I hate them when they drone on and on in circles or when they inspire people to take sides. Those things can happen in meetings anywhere. Churches don't have a monopoly on that.
But, churches do have a higher probability of something really beautiful happening in meetings. Yeah, I'm a church nerd. And, yeah, meetings are not my favorite. But, sometimes....sometimes, something happens.
Someone prays a prayer that ushers in a new spirit.
Someone shares from the heart and the mood changes.
Someone offers a surprise act of generosity.
Someone speaks to how they think God might be guiding them.
Someone prays for God to guide them.
Someone actively looks for how God is moving right then.
The Holy Spirit blows in.
I don't know. It just seems to me that when church meetings get bogged down, God has been left out of the picture, and when church meetings take off, God is right there in the center moving in ways we could not imagine.
I wish I could figure out how to tap into that every time. One author I read over the summer suggests that churches struggle with letting God into meetings because we do not really believe that God is actively at work. So, we don't allow space for God to work. Once a conversation starts, we seldom stop to pray or listen. But, sometimes, God still finds a way to crash the meeting.
So, I've just been wondering - how can we create a space in this kind of setting where people can encounter God? How can we create an atmosphere for a meeting that still has a little worship dripping in?
I haven't figured it out, but I suspect it has something to do with prayer...and maybe cupcakes.
Anyway, FUN meeting tonight with CWF!
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