Real Worship

Here’s Ali’s account of what happened at Exeter this weekend:

We played ‘More than words’ which was well received and then went into a bit of free time at the end. Ali declared that there was freedom and joy in the house and people started dancing and enjoying themselves. Whilst the music was still going, Lola gave a word about God inviting us to ‘Come in into the holy place’

Ali continued this theme by encouraging everybody to ‘lift up’ the name of Jesus in worship and praise and we moved into ‘Be lifted up’, this created an intimate atmosphere in which people were quietly talking to God. Ali shattered that by saying ‘We all go about our lives quite happily and then put on our ‘Church’ face which is serious and glum when it is time to meet with the rest of the body, lets not do that, lets make this a place of celebration and joy’. Ali asked everybody to greet somebody else and say ‘I’m glad you came tonight’, which went down so well that Adrian had to call the meeting to order again as it was decided that the people were having far too much fun (joke!).

Adrian then addressed the congregation about a young Ghanaian man who needed money to stay in hospital and live, without the money he would die as he would be forced to leave hospital. The congregation prayed and saw pictures of a baby being wrapped up in blankets by a loving father. Ali prayed and thanked God for the young man and the fact that God knew him before the dawn of time and that he still sees hi as his child even though the man has grown up and that he would take care of him.

We sang ‘My romance’ and ‘Your love is like the rain’ both of which caused a more intimate setting where Ali whispered down the microphone ‘Come back to me, come back to me, when I look at you I see perfection, when I think of you I smile and I am proud, come back to me and stop running, look into my eyes and feel my embrace, you are loved’ this caused a few teary eyes and the congregation were caught in silent wonder followed by a very quiet version of ‘The more I seek you’