Thursday, May 13, 2004

My quiet time - on the other side of the world.

Ok, some of you won't get this at all, and I'm ok with that. To me the possibilities are endless.


Tonight I spent my evening prayer time in church.


Not a physical church, but a virtual church, I suppose, but it looked real to me.


Church of Fools, run by those people at Ship of Fools, and the Methodist church, have opened up a church online. They are planning regular services and, if you have an internet connection, you can attend, if you get there early. There's always a line up.


I've been poking my nose in, checking it out. But tonight I thought I'd go and have my prayer time there. It was cool, very cool. Except that the only persona I could select to look like looked a lot like Ned Flanders...


(That's me kneeling, praying.)


Anyway, I spent my time there in prayer. And it was good. The guy praying beside me put his hand on my shoulder and blessed me, we exchanged greetings.


Is it as good as real people being together in a real location? No, probably not. But I do think an argument could be made that its covered under the "Where two or three are gathered together in my name" thing.


As for the "Some of you won't get this" comment, I do understand. I recall once when there was a Satellite hookup youth worship event. The worship was led in a central city with a full band, etc. It was distributed out by satellite to a number of other cities which ran it on big screens, live. The kids attended those churches with the screens, and worshiped as fully and hard as if they had been there with a live band. The technology wasn't a wall to them, it wasn't a barrier. It was an opportunity to worship.


Many of the parents were amazed. They didn't get it. For many of them they couldn't get past the wall they faced. They couldn't get past the technology. It wasn't a doorway to them, it was a barrier.


While it would be better to be live at such a church, with people from all over the world, gathered to pray etc. I'm glad to even have the opportunity to stop by such a place, even from here in my basement corner, where the computer is.


 

4 comments:

  1. Cool! Guess where I'll be worshipping this Sunday?

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  2. Cool idea, I went a couple of times, found that it was infested with many people who just wanted to spam, blaspheme, and whatnot. I was going to leave, but then upon reconsideration, I figured I would just sit there and pray for them all. Its cool, because even as they disrespected the serious people in attendance, they also, inbetween the swearing and profanity had to read some scripture that was posted, and we all know that Gods word can penetrate the hardest heart. So them being there actually brought me hope for thier souls. =)

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  3. I experienced some of that garbage too, but I found that some of the others would talk with them honestly, then they would soon leave.



    And now I see that they have Church Wardens hanging around. I assume one of their jobs is to help people out who really don't wish to be there anyway.

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  4. MAN!



    I was going to go to bed, but something made me go to the Church of Fools instead. I went in and prayed for awhile, and others joined in, it was amazing. It got better, one guy came to me and started asking about God and what not, then next thing, he's getting saved! Now, I am cautioned that this is the internet, but my heart tells me that it was genuine. We talked for a long time, he had a lot of questions, but in the end, it was an amazing experience. His name was Mike. I will continue to pray for him, for our God is awesome and He made my night! =)

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