Let's Do Church

So many friends asked about where we might go to church while we were overseas. I know their curiosity was innocent but many times I felt a twinge of the belief that “real church” only existed in America. Or at least church in the way we have grown up understanding it. I appreciated the sweet concern but somehow felt like it would work out. I wasn’t really sure what to expect but I wasn’t worried either. I knew that God would not take us to a foreign land and leave us here by ourselves and if He did, He would provide enough grace to sustain us.

Jason and I were, however, interested in finding a church to call home while we are in Poland. The embassy provided a short list of services held in English and I checked out the only one that had a website. The church’s beliefs mirrored ours, so we decided to try it out our second Sunday in Warsaw. It wasn’t at all what we are used to and every week we decide we like that more and more.

Today the pastor asked everyone to share where they were from and use their native greeting during the ‘shake your neighbors hand” portion of the service. Believers from Nigeria, Korea, India, Poland, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Texas greeted me in less than five minutes. The pastor had just read verses from Revelation about all the nations declaring that Jesus is Lord. Wow

After the greeting time, the pastor asked if anyone had something they wanted the church to pray about. After a few people asked for prayers for healing of loved ones and shared praises about what God has been doing in their lives, a precious young Korean woman timidly shared that her father had passed away two weeks ago and that the church, in Korea, he had started and devoted his entire life to was now without a pastor. I, with my firm rule against crying in public, couldn’t stop my eyes from overflowing. I don’t know her but I know that she is living in a foreign country like I am and that she loves Jesus and that makes us family. I hurt for her and am committed to praying for her. Then a woman volunteered to pray for her. In prayer, the woman recited God’s promises to meet our needs and to abide with those who abided in Him in a very thick accent. Wow.

This was followed by the praise team leading us in Revelation Song. While I know I was supposed to be giving my full attention to worshipping Christ, but I couldn’t help but take in everything around me. The beautiful Nigerian woman named Blessing beside me was on her knees – hands lifted in praise. The warm, welcoming British family sharing seats with my girls, because my girls adore their daughters, stood in reserved reverence. It struck me what an opportunity this is for my family and me. We get to experience Christ as He is worshipped in all different ways by His people across the world in one room. WOW!

It was very fitting that the pastor began a series on not trying to put God in a box because of how much of Him we will miss out on.

I never want the wonder of getting a small glimpse of the nations coming together to worship to be lost on me. I know it will be easy to get involved and get caught up in the week to week routine of ‘doing church’. I am excited to have a church family here, but I pray the routine never clouds my ability to be amazed that God is just as real and alive in Poland as He is in Poland as He is in Georgia or anywhere else.