The greatest of these

What comes to mind when you think of church?

Old ladies in dresses? Donuts and stale coffee? Or is it rock music and slick mega-churches? I challenge anyone reading this to throw away their pre-conceived notions or prior experiences and consider this: Church is not a building. It's not a service, and it's certainly not a ritual. The church is you. And me. And any one else that comes together to worship God. A super strong church is made up of super strong people, even if there are only two, or three or ten of them. A strong chuch has nothing to do with wealth, or education, or race, or even the past histories of its members. A strong church is strong because it is faithful and committed to constant spiritual growth.

I had the honor of visiting one of the strongest churches I've even been to this past weekend. It is a small, one room storefront church in a very bad section of Inglewood, smack in the middle of Los Angeles. My friend Ron (one of the members of my men's group) and a pastor have been in the area for over a year now, bringing kids in the area to church and ultimately to Christ. After the last building they were in was hit by a car and condemned, they moved to this building. A man they call the Bishop lives there, and has allowed them to continue their ministry from his building.

Friday night Ron did the service and I went along. Two white guys rolling in a honda civic through a neighborhood where guys are selling drugs on the corner, going to pick up a bunch of kids and take them to church. You really can't get any crazier than that.

We sang Christmas carols off key and misprounced almost every word we read out of the bible, but it was one of the strongest church services I'd been to in a long time. Ron had recieved over a hundred and fifty toys to give out, and the day after this service over a hundred kids came to church and sang and danced and got the only gifts many would receive this holiday season.

Stay tuned for more from this little church. You can expect good things to happen here.

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