Open the eyes of my church?

These last four weeks I been in Denver, Rapid City, Denver again, and Rapid City again. I will reside and work in Rapid City, SD for the rest of the summer. This city spreads itself out at the foot of the Black Hills and is surrounded by Native American reservations. I have seen many homeless Native Americans wandering the streets of Rapid City. I saw many white and black homeless wandering the streets of Denver. I have been to rescue missions, nursing homes, community rejuvenation projects, mental health institutes, and kids’ day camps. This has taught me about the variety of ministry in the world. But I have also been to three very interesting, very different churches.
Here in Rapid, our home base is Trinity Lutheran Church. Trinity has a small congregation with a big heart. The building is located in downtown Rapid: a hub of Native American homelessness and panhandling. Everyday the church receives homeless people with open arms and gives them some food or a voucher. Many homeless call this place home, meaning that they protect the church because of its great compassion. They know the church serves them, so they want to protect it.
Our first Sunday in Rapid, we went to Trinity’s second service, which is contemporary as opposed to their first which is traditional. They told us that the first service is packed (probably in the neighborhood of 200 people). But the contemporary service only had about thirty people. To me the service was still a mix of contemporary and traditional because they still recited liturgy, creeds, and had us walk up to the front and kneel for communion. Sadly, I couldn’t really follow the sermon. We went on Pentecost Sunday, so he talked about that, and I tried to follow him, but I really couldn’t.
This church has been very hospitable by letting us use their facility for housing, activities and even cooking. Usually our meals waft smells up the stairwells from the basement all the way to the second floor.
On our Sunday in Denver, we went to and Episcopal Church called Church of the Epiphany. The service was very liturgical: we sang five or so hymns all called The Holy Trinity. They rang bells for communion, and we all walked up to the front and kneeled to take the Lord’s Supper. They gave us wine, which tasted really sweet. The Priest/Father gave a fantastic, coherent, and intriguing sermon on John 3. He talked about the meaning of the Greek that we translate to “born again.” He talked about how the concept of “born again” doesn’t mean that we have to go back into our mothers’ wombs, but it is means that the Spirit of God breaths new life into us. He asked us to ponder how the spirit is breathing into our lives now. This church had a very diverse body ranging from elderly, to young marrieds to Tanzanian refugees to families. Their alter boys were all black Tanzanian refugees. After every Sunday service they all eat together. To me this church really represented the community of faith. They take care of each other, eat together, and love one another. During the service, they had a time where you are supposed to go around and shake peoples’ hands and say peace. Well, everyone took about ten minutes to go around and talk with the other members of the church. They love each other, and want to know how each other are doing. This church really spoke to me by demonstrating the community of faith.
About three days ago on Sunday, we attended Hills View Evangelical Free Church. This church met in a reception hall, so they don’t have their own building. However, they are incredibly hospitable. (This just goes to show that you don’t need a giant home or church building to show utmost hospitality. You only need an open heart.) By the end of the service, we had at least three people tell us that if we need anything, that we should just call or email. People who have never met us before are going to let us do our laundry at their home. All four of us received guest gifts, which were Hills View mugs filled with packets of hot drink mixes. As four strangers from hundreds of miles away, we felt completely welcome. We sat at round tables in the reception hall as the worship team (a guy on a guitar and a girl singing) belted out three Chris Tomlin songs. During greeting time I met Jim, who was glad to hear that we were going to get the young people out to do something because “they never get out and do anything, they have too many pizza parties.” They had a long prayer request time with a hilariously humble lady who then prayed for all the requests that the body presented.
My experience at these three churches has taught me volumes about the body of Christ. But I won’t bore you with volumes. The Church is a diverse, hospitable, beautiful people. We honor God with song, prayer, and communion. We honor God with conversation, peace, and gifts.
I always had such a closed view of the church. I always thought that there were maybe three good churches in the world: Faith Bible Church, Indian Hills, and Berean in Lincoln. But after Berean became a mega-church, I wrote them off. Indian Hills told my roommate off for going to a reformed school, so they got the shoe too. Then Faith really hasn’t done much in the way of helping my family out lately. But these last two years, and especially this summer, God has opened my eyes to the beauty and diversity of his vast family of loving children.

Love in the Black Hills

trees grow thick on the hill
like a man's beard on his chin.
the whiskers nuzzle
the smooth face of the cloud
resting on the hilltop.