Church Today

Today I was late getting up and consequently, I wore jeans and flip flops to church. I know that God doesn't care what I look like when I show up to worship him. Certainly there is a trend in modern churches not to wear "Sunday Best" to church on Sunday. I remember when I was growing up, I was always irritated that I was the only youth at church whose mom wouldn't let her wear jeans to church. I was always dressed in a dress, slip, pantyhose, and "church shoes". I went through a phase in college where I would wear pretty much whatever was clean to church (except when I was on staff at Silver Palm UMC as a youth director, of course I wore Sunday Best to church then). Also, in college was when I was introduced to Saturday night services. The Saturday night service at UBC (University Baptist Church) was the way hip, modern, college age service, so naturally some friends and I would go. I loved Saturday night service because of the aforementioned reasons, but also because I could sleep in on Sunday mornings (something that I never really could do). Well, I would say that a year or so ago, I really began to think on the concept of Saturday night service and the wearing of jeans to church. I realize that some churches have started Saturday night services to accomodate a growing congregation, but I used to go out of selfish convenience. I also wore jeans to church out of convenience: I didn't want to get out the iron to iron my Sunday Best. I decided that I wanted to dress up for God and I wanted to make an effort to go to an early morning service. I wanted to go through the process of planning to go to a service. I decided that the service I picked and the clothes I picked to wear could definitely bring honor to God. However, today I was wearing jeans and flip flops (and my toe nails are in dire need of a fresh paint job).

Anyway, I got to church a little late. Worship was crazy today (crazy in a good way). I missed the first song, but quickly got into the groove of things with the help of the kids who were surrounding me. To my left were a brother and sister without parents (a sight you don't see EVER at Calvary Chapel). They were dancing and clapping and singing along. Just watching them put a smile on my face. Then, the family in front of me was absolutely precious. The family consisted of a mom, dad, and 2 boys (one looked about 11ish and the other about 14ish). The younger boy was clapping and dancing and praising the Lord and so were his parents and brother. It was great! We sang 3 songs with special meaning today: 1. Lord I Give You My Heart (this was pretty much the first song that I busted out and sang harmony on when I was on the worship team at the Wesley Foundation), 2. My Redeemer Lives (I remember when I first learned how to play this song, I was happy! It was a fast and rhymically challenging song to play at first.), and 3. Potter's Hands (this was the first song I ever sang solo on when I was on the worship team at the Baptist Student Union). While I sang those songs this morning, I had all these wonderful memories of my time on the worship teams at both Wesley and the BSU and the great friendships that were born through the worship teams, and I just gave thanks for that time in my life.

Remember that precious family I mentioned? Well, they got even cuter once the teaching began. Both boys were writing down notes like crazy and I watched as the mom and dad kept making eye contact and smiling. It was just the sweetest thing.

Anyway, that's pretty much all I have to say about church today.