Quote:
Originally Posted by seguidordejesus
I had a relative visit Christ Church about 5 years ago, and they reported that it was "dead, with no spirit"...it's good to hear otherwise.
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I am not saying this is what happened with your relative but I can tell you that many times UPC type folks come to a place like Christ Church or Kenneth Phillips Promiseland Church with a closed mind.
When we first moved to Austin in the early 80's and were a part of KP's World of Pentecost church we would have our UPC relatives come and visit church. It usually consisted of them looking around with stoic faces while the Holy Spirit was moving as they judged the way people looked. They were so busy taking note of the makeup, cut hair, jewelry, etc that they could not have plugged into the presence of God if their life depended on it.
Happily many of them eventually got past the differences with their paradigm and began to enjoy the services and the presence of God. In particular one relative had a "come to Jesus" ephiphony during a service at WOP. She had visited numerous times and as usual this time while praise and worship service was going on she was looking around judging folks in her mind. She was observing a woman with raised hands singing and praying and noticed her mascara was running. She thought to herself "how can she think she is worshipping God with that mascara running on her face!". At that instant she said God spoke to her and said something like "So who is right with God? The woman worshipping and enjoying my presence or you who is sitting in judgement and ignoring my presence?" That moment changed her forever and from then on she began to be blessed and enjoy the presence of God at WOP. She was a UPC preachers wife and it was pretty funny because she came to love KP and became a huge defender of his when she would be in situations with UPC preachers ,etc and they would start to criticize KP or his church.
If someone visits CC expecting shockamoo they are going to be disappointed. If they are sensitive to the awesome presence of God in other ways then most times they will be blessed. Have we ever had a totally "dead" service? Yup but I could count them on one hand over the eight years I have been here.
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