U R Church

Yesterday was the first service for Miles Brown's new church, U(pper) R(oom) Church; and this is my summary of the service and what I've seen so far in the church.

• The Atmosphere
  There was definitely a buzz in the room; I could feel the excitement and anxiety. My guess was that people were so excited to start doing stuff and get away from all the destructive drama and back-stabbing. There was definitely a sense of unity in the church; and I haven't felt that in months!
  
  
• The Worship
  The worship was good; but it's always good with David Yorty. The energy from the worship was addicting, it made you want to sing. The volume kept going up as our passion went up; you could really feel it! It was, in a word, awesome.
  
  
• The Sermon
  Miles started his sermon with a great reminder: we can not walk in the attitudes of hatred, jealousy, anger, self-pity, or sadness. He exhorted us to treat all of our Christian brothers and sisters as co-workers for Christ and not as opposing players in a game. He also made a quip about 'If you think they're your enemy, take this change to love your enemy!', I thought that was pretty funny. :)
  Miles also brought up the point that there are certain attutudes or mindsets you can "feel" coming from a person; such as anger, jealousy, hatred, love, peace, gentless, etc. These are things that emit such a strong energy that it change the dynamic in a small setting. The negative attitudes need to be combatted, Christians can't be effective if we're allowing these things to control us. He quoted 1 John 2:9 - "Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness"
  

The word they use to describe the church is "charismissional", a combination of the words "charismatic" and "missional". There are certain aspects of the charismatic movement that concern me, such as the creeping sense of superiority I sense over other Christian believers. I'm sure that will all be worked out over time as we work together to sharpen each other's theology.

I highly recommend visiting the church and seeing it for yourself before it explodes, because I really think this church is going to grow - very fast.