An Inkling
I’ve had a number of people
ask how worship was Sunday at Westwood Baptist.
(Their pastor, Michael Black, and I did a pulpit swap.) I can’t speak for the preaching, but the rest
of the service was truly joy filled.
Westwood Baptist is our
closest church neighbor, and we’re now into a third year of a forming sister
church relationship. I hope they are
benefitting even half as much as we are.
Getting to gather with friends
in Christ of a different stripe is instructive in lots of ways. For example, baptism can happen with lots of
water (theirs) or a little (ours). And a
church culture can be formed along African American patterns (theirs) or Anglo
patterns (ours – despite our bit of ethnic diversity). If our sister church were of similar stripe,
it wouldn’t be nearly so instructive – or interesting!
Here is some of what I
observed Sunday. The saints at Westwood
are enormously expressive. They don’t
just sing, they SING, along with clapping and swaying. They don’t just pray, they PRAY, with
boldness and passion. It’s not just
individuals who vary in how they worship best – reserved or expressive – so do
whole congregations.
They have high expectations of
their people, and they state them plainly.
This was clear when it came time for the offering – the call to give a
tithe and beyond was very bold. It also
showed in their announcements. They
don’t just invite folks to upcoming events, they exhort them to be there and on
task. The Westwood saints aren’t shy
about encouraging each other to faithfulness.
They also have high
expectations of their preachers. In a
dozen different ways they told me they expected to hear a word from on
high. We, too, believe that the Spirit uses
the exposition of scripture through preaching to bring God’s word home to his
people. But our friends at Westwood describe
it in ways that told me they really
expected something prophetic. I
found myself both encouraged and a bit intimidated by such high
expectations. But it certainly helped me
to focus on being open to the Spirit and ready to be used by God. That has to be to the good.
May it be that God will use us
to bless the saints at Westwood. I know
he’s using them to bless us!
With prayers for Michael and
his flock,
Keith
