Staying on the Tightrope

A little over a year ago, a young church planter shared his frustration with me about doing church. He said, "Rich, I want to have a church that connects the unconnected with Christ, but I also want to have a church in which people worship God fervently, and experience the power of the Holy Spirit. How do I do all of that?"

I responded and said, "Well, when you figure it out, let me know!"

The reality is that doing church is a continual walk on a tightrope. We constantly want to reach out to as many people as possible. But we also know that if we open our doors and say, "Whosoever will, let him come," people are going to come with all of their baggage, brokenness, and pain. If you are going to catch a lot of fish, you have to clean a lot of fish.

Church life is a continual tightrope walk. I want our services to be absolutely accessible to the uninitiated and disconnected, but I don't want our services to be utterly predictable. I desperately desire that people have surprising encounters with the living God!

And I not only want people to feel God's manifest presence, but I also want a truly human spirituality. I heard someone in England recently say, "What the people in our church need is not another ecstatic experience. What they need most of all is a good night's sleep."

So in speaking with this young church planter, I said, "I deeply believe in not cutting the tension that exists in doing church. We can fall off the tightrope in one direction or the other. But for me, the most exciting thing is doing church on the tightrope - reaching down and outers and up and outers, doing social action and evangelism, growing deep and growing broad, making church services accessible and anticipating God's surprises. I never want to lead a church that doesn't live in the tension."

Over the last six months, we've learned a great deal about the message of the Kingdom of God. We've learned that the Kingdom of God includes words that proclaim the truth of God, signs that proclaim the power of God, and deeds that proclaim the love of God. The gospel is not fully proclaimed until all three dimensions are experienced and understood. The Kingdom is the truth, the power, and the love of God.

To stay on the tightrope as a church, we need to renew our commitment to pursue the power of God. We've recently seen some amazing healings at Vineyard Columbus. I communicated last month about a woman who was instanteously and radically healed of cancer. I've received email reports from other individuals in our church who have been instanteously healed. There have also been some very good reports coming from our Soaking Prayer Teams about individuals who were progressively healed. But there are many in our church who know very little about being filled with the Holy Spirit, practicing supernatural gifts, learning to pray for the sick, or deliverance, or prophecy, etc. There are also a substantial number of people in our church that do not look for or expect God's surprising interventions. As pastor, I desperately desire an atmosphere of high expectation concerning God's intervention when we gather together in our weekend celebrations, or when we meet together in our small groups.

I want to share with you another miraculous healing story that happened in our church over the past year. A couple in our church had been praying for years to be able to conceive a child. They were told by their physician that they were unable to conceive. Edmond Lyatuu, who helps to oversee our small group ministry here at Vineyard, prayed for the couple and sensed that the Lord was going to bless them with the ability to conceive in a very short time.

The wife got pregnant with twins shortly after. They were very excited about the news. But when the wife was five months pregnant, the doctors discovered that one of the twins was not growing as was expected and that there was evidence of abnormality. The doctors believed that there was a heart anomaly, and also serious issues with the development of this twin's brain. As problems developed, the doctors suggested a selective abortion of the abnormal twin in order to give the best chance for the other twin to survive and thrive.

The couple made the choice to not even consider selective abortion. They believed that their children were a gift from God. As such they had no right to give back God's gifts. The couple turned to the church and sought Edmond again for prayer. They also received prayer from one of the soaking prayer teams. Their small group regularly prayed for them.

Two months later, the wife went back to the doctor for a checkup. Additional tests were scheduled which included an MRI and an echocardiogram. Both tests came back normal. The doctor said that he couldn't explain what had occurred, but the baby who was thought to not be thriving was now growing normally.

Recently, the wife gave birth to two healthy twin girls, who are perfect in every way. Both baby girls are home now and are growing wonderfully. Praise God!

As a church, let's not restrict anything that God may wish to do in our midst. The Christian life is an exciting life. It is a continual walk on the tightrope!