From Eddie Chu, a fellow that has visited the last 2 weeks...
We went to a downtown church yesterday. It’s our first visit to this Calvary Chapel church that rents the gym at the Y. It is a contrast to the kind of church that we had been attending for the past year or so.
Most of the people were men and casually dressed. Our friends, who had been attending for about eight months, and the husband was preaching yesterday, told us some were from the addiction rehab halfway house, and some were homeless. However, some were also relatively well-off middle-class folks like we.
The service was simple. We sang about ten songs, accompanied by an acoustic guitar and a keyboard. Most of the songs were new to us. Then there was a brief time of sharing, with people from the congregation giving thanks. Most were “ordinary” blessings such as fellowship at the church, provision, air we breathe, and one was thankful that his father was cancer-free. It’s good to remember that every breath is a gift of God. Then we wrapped with a sermon. It was about love in action from 1 John 3.
I can’t help but to think, “If Jesus was on earth and looking for a church to connect with, would he go to the relatively luxurious suburban middle-class church that we have been attending, or would he go to this one?” I don’t want to knock the suburban church because it is a great place full of wonderful God-loving people who have been caring and welcoming toward us newbies in Ottawa. However, when I look at the upkeep costs and the mortgage of the beautiful new building, and the administrative efforts that are necessary to keep several hundred people and their activities organized, I can’t help but wonder whether our weekly donations and attendance make any discernible difference.
On the other hand, I know that if I would only reach out to a few of those guys downtown, just to be with them for a chat and care for them, I can make a difference in someone’s life. This is the nearest thing we can get to “the least of those” that Jesus talks about. Not that I think I’m so good that I have much to give, but I think I have been amply blessed relationally and materialistically, and Jesus does talk about putting to good use what God has given us. Compared to what Jesus teaches, I have to admit that I have been sickeningly self-indulgent virtually all my life.
Even as I type this, I have to admit that there is reluctance in my heart to attend this church and give of myself, because there is no way that I can pull the usual in-and-out trick that we usually do at the church with 500 people on Sundays. Christ in me will want to stick around and reach out to some of the people who are “the least of those” and the only one who can stop Him is my flesh, who would want to get out and have my usual Sunday restaurant lunch.
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