Saints, I just got to share this testimony from this last weekend on how God is moving in my community of Topanga California.I split my time between two assemblies, one is an AoG church that I got saved in, I teach childrens church there, its many miles from Topanga, but I love the saints there and the pastor is my mentor and a beloved friend.I also am affiliated with a small house church that IS in my community. This house church is the result of an ugly split involving the only building in Topanga that has the word "christian" in its title. (nuff said on dat! ) The house belongs to a dear elderly saint , a 79 year old widow by the name of Miriam, she has opened her abode up and Jesus is in the house.This weekend I got somebody to cover for me teaching the wee ones, as I wanted to be at the house church for my dear brother and sister Rob and Linda are going to be staying at Mimi's and worshipping there on the Lord's day before they leave to preach the Gospel in Indonesia. The Holy Ghost had told me to wash Rob's feet this Sunday, and I told the pastor of the house church, lets call him Pastor Ed, and he said ok. So I went to Home Depot and bought one of those black plastic trays, the kind you put paint in, a dozen hand towels and some fancy liquid soap. Pastor Ed then told me he was gonna do a whole teaching on foot washing, so he spent the day on google researchingpreparing. He also put it into his weekly email. I didnt say a word as I was rather bummed, I didnt want it to be noised about, nor did I feel the Holy Spirit leading to a whole long "teaching" and then some lame forced "demonstration", but I said nothing, coz I'm learning to be in submission and let God handle things.Rob Linda me and the kids had a great week together, fellowshipping, and praying, then came the Lord's day. All Saturday it was raining in SoCal, so we thought we would have maybe 3 people show up.25 people showed up, and there was one person that the Lord did NOT allow through the barricades, and that was Pastor Ed. Now you have to understand, I dearly love Pastor, as a brother and as a friend, but he has a definite firm opinion on how he believes God is to work.I had brought a worship CD to play some of those songs we listen to every single Sunday, and guess what? the CD player at Miriams would NOT work!! Praise His Name!!we started to sing without music, we started to sing from heart memories , we started to praise Jesus. Rob suggested we change the Seating from the traditional rows to a circle. The Holy Spirit started to lead the meeting, as I had invited Him in , in prayer and humbly asked Him to fill the room, and fill the hearts of the saints! Oh, it was wonderful.After prayer and praise, I suggested that we engage in 'worship sharing', if you had a word, or a bit of Scripture, or a prayer request, or a testimony, you were free to speak as the Spirit gave utterance, but only one person could speak at a time, and there had to be a space of silence between two speakers.It was glorious. There was no disorder, or confusion. Prayer moved into praise moved into prophesy moved into Scripture sharing moved into prophesy and more praise, more prayer until finally I read John 13 to the assembly, turned to Rob and asked if I may wash his feet.This morning he told me that to look at the varied expressions on the faces of the assembled congregants was a trip unto itself. There was disbelief and incredulity and conviction and love. Varied. Within the space of an hour, everyone there washed everyone elses feet, and nobody told anybody, 'you wash so and so , and you wash this one'one brother just kept weeping with joy as God dealt with him, nobody told men to wash only mens feet, and women only womens.nobody with a small "n".The Holy Spirit was the Somebody, the Leader of this meeting, and He was in charge......it was truly glorious.We then gathered in Mimi's kitchen to share 3 chickens and pasta with red sauce. We ate together as the true family of God, cast in the mold of a 1st century ekklesia.Next week, Pastor Ed will return, and so will the 25 minutes of 70's-80's worship music, and then 20-25 minutes of sermon, and 3 minutes of prayer.I will go back for 3 more weeks of teaching my kids, and then after that........???What do I do?Pray...yes, absolutely. But I do believe I must say something to my brother, Pastor Ed.You see, in the community where I live, post modern, post christian, "church" in the 20th century mold will NOT work......people are hungry for God, not for "church".what do I do?
