A Church Isn’t a Building/ Church in A Pot

My reflections from last weekend’s church service …

On Sunday February 18th as 11 of us girls, who have known each other just over 3 weeks gather today, we do church differently then usual. We’re not in a nice building. There is no band, no pastor, no rows of people, no videos or offering, no team of people behind the scenes. Instead we gather in our small little “living room” with yellow walls that are scuffed up and dented, and a blue framed window that looks out onto a broken street in Zambia. We gather in a circle – some girls are sitting on colourful plastic chairs and others on the cement floor. Some girls are still in their pyjamas with their hair unbrushed and haven’t showered since Tuesday and others are in skirts looking put together and clean. Some are coming from a great week of God using them and others are coming from a frustrating week of wondering why they were called here. Some are coming from broken pasts and others are coming from the best places. But as we all gather together this morning – no matter our differences or where we are from – we gather for the same reason; to worship a God who loves us, and who we love, a God who we trust, a God who forgives, a God who protects us, a God who rescues us, a God who we want to serve!
As we gather at 10 am in a small circle with the rain pouring down on the tin roof of our Namatama house, we can hardly hear one another as we begin to worship! This Sunday our band was a small red speaker in a pot in the middle of our circle but that didn’t change a thing for us! We still worshipped with our voices loud and our arms wide open; singing with so much joy for all God has done for each and every one of us. As we listened to a sermon from a pastor’s voice coming from a small red speaker in a pot in the middle of our circle, it was still meaningful and powerful and we learnt just as much as watching a pastor preach on a stage with a room full of people. I took so much away from our “pastor in a pot” which was a message specific to collage age students! As Sahara led us in prayer and we had time to just pray on our own, it was still such a personal time with God! We finished our 2 hour service by singing “What a Beautiful Name”; all of us singing of how wonderful, powerful and beautiful the name of Jesus is. As I look around and see my team members worship, I see so much happiness, so much passion and so much love for God, even though our church service today is only 11 girls in a hot room, surrounded by poverty, and our band and pastor come from a small red speaker in a pot in the middle of our circle.
I realized today that a church truly isn’t a building but it’s people. Our church in a pot was possibly one of the best and most unique church services I have ever been to!