The Jerusalem Church

Saturday here in Israel is probably my favorite day of the week. Even with all of the inconveniences of the entire city being shut down in honor of the Sabbath we have still managed to create a routine that I look forward to. Each Saturday morning we get the boys somewhat clean and we all head out the door to our church. The streets are empty of cars and families can be seen carrying their prayer shawls and their "tefflin" as they return home from the Synagogue. For the first few moments we fit with the crowd as our dark hair, dark eyed family walks the streets just as everyone else. Then, in a moment we blow our cover as we hail a taxi (forbidden on Sabbath) and head off to church.
The ride to church costs us 25 shekels a week ($7) which I figure is what it would cost us to drive to church in America with the current price of gas. On our ride we usually have an Arab driver so we begin the day with small talk about the weather and whatever else we can communicate through the language barriers. 10 minutes later we arrive at church, get out of our taxi in an extremely Jewish neighborhood and walk into the "Baptist House".

To get an idea of what our church is like I thought I would tell you about our day yesterday.

We arrived around 11:00 AM and my boys ate lunch as they waited for their class to begin. One church member was sitting outside and praying with one of our regular attending "homeless" guys who was making up a great story about his life. We finished eating and I sent my kids into their class which usually begins sometime between 11:00 and 12:15. After dropping them off I looked through the glass doors into our "sanctuary" and see one of our friends' kids standing in the aisle playing with a sword. (Kids are not a distraction to anyone at this church). I just laughed as I thought how the ushers in American churches would have handled this boy with a sword.
As I stepped inside church one of our refugees from Sudan was sharing about an update on the conditions in their hometown. (We have several Sudanese regulars in our church and an ongoing ministry to refugees). After he shared we heard from another one of our regulars who leads a ministry that takes kids from Iraq and brings them to Israel for life saving heart surgery. Yes. Doctors from Israel provide life saving medical care to kids from Iraq! Then our guest speaker (who is a Bible professor here in Israel) got up and shared from her heart. The bulk of her message was a reading of a message that a priest gave at his 50th anniversary of ministry. The message was about how living in Jerusalem changed his theology and radical shaped his relationship with God.
Just like every week when the message is over, our Senior Pastor goes to the front and shares how the message effected him. He never preaches because it is not his gift so he allows others to teach. He suffers from Parkinson's Disease so he moves slowly and cautiously but has a very sincere demeanor and always drives home the point. Then we end with a song with the words projected with an overhead projector on a white wall. During the one song I see Sasha, our homeless man from Russia who always cleans up after the service (and who had a snowball fight with my 5 year old), worshiping with his hands raised. I see a family of 12 singing behind a young couple who are both Doctoral candidates here. I see Jewish believers, Palestinian Christians, students from all over the world, and life long Jerusalem residents who have learned to follow Jesus in a land that resists it.
The service ends and then the entire church spends 1- 1 1/2 hours standing on the front lawn talking while the kids run through the crowds of people. Once the crowds thin, I gather the family and we begin the slow walk home while stopping at the park. We arrive home sometime between 4-5 PM tired but glad for a day of rest in worship, in real friendships, and in simply being together.
Yesterday I thought about the day and truly felt blessed. We are a completely unorganized church and no one cares. We are the most diverse church I have seen and it feels natural. We have a Senior Pastor who doesn't preach. We have refugees, missionaries, students, retirees, homeless people, writers, Jews, Baptists, Catholics, Arabs, and even Anglo-Saxons! We don't have great music and we seldom hear amazing teaching but this feels more like a church than anything I have ever seen. Best of all, we have kids playing in the aisles with swords.