Another extraordinary but totally normal Sunday morning

I wonder how you think of church?  My hunch is that we tend to get used to it.  It becomes normal and therefore rather than being thankful for it we think of it as mundane.  We often fail to recognise what is really happening as we gather, as we sit, as we pray, as we sing, as we listen to God speak to us, and as we rise to respond.

Yesterday was just another normal day in the life of Grace Church.  If you'd been a fly on the wall you'd have seen people setting up, being welcomed, conversations - both mundane and more spiritually significant - being had, refreshments being served, biscuits and Christmas confectionery being consumed, people singing, praying, the Bible being read, and people listening to God speak.  Children playing, singing, acting, laughing and having fun.  It all looked so ordinary.  The church wasn't packed, we didn't have to get out more seats.

But something extraordinary was happening too.  People who would not normally think to darken the door of a church came, felt welcome, heard the gospel and discovered church wasn't so scary after all.  That actually church was for people like them, that people in church would speak to them, include them and care for their children.

There were no blinding Damascus road conversions, no excited queues of people signing up to do Uncover.  Just barriers to the gospel being put silently aside so that people could more easily meet Jesus again.  But we mustn't underplay that, we mustn't forget how significant that is.  In an area where church has so many negative connotations something extraordinary was happening.  Each person drawn there by God as part of his plan at his timing to hear from him.  Each person there hearing eternal truths of cosmic importance yet applicable to them as individuals.  Our prayer is simply that next Sunday would be another extraordinary but totally normal Sunday in our community coming to know, love and follow Jesus.