Church Alaska-Style!

Extracted from an email to a friend:

Interestingly enough, the church here has no timelines—that is, zero concern for the clock!!! Sunday School is at 10:00. We start service around 11:00-11:15 and we worship until the Spirit is finished, hear the Word until the speaker is finished, and continue worship around the altar until we are totally saturated! Usually the service ends around 2:00pm and we hang around fellowshipping until 3:00ish. And then lunch… usually no pm service unless something special.

May 31, Sunday morning, Chris preached (after an incredible time of dancing and worship). I mean, at least 10 people, maybe 15, dancing with all their might before the Lord. All my children and me, too. So then Chris spoke on overflow and had me sing “Show Me Your Face” for the altar time of seeking His presence. Well, something amazing happened. I went somewhere in the stratosphere that I’ve never gone before. We started worshiping prophetically and the music was surging in and out. Then Stephen (guitarist) came up and started playing with me. He is a professional band member (Nitengale) and loves to play the sounds of heaven. Then a House of Prayer young woman came up and starting singing prophetically with me—that is, these songs have never been sung before. Then gradually the rest of the band joined us. We crescendoed and I thought “the roof is going to fly off this place!” Everyone was singing/shouting/basking in the presence of Almighty God!

OK, get ready for this, we sang this new song for an hour! This was one chord, many melodies, and counter melodies, and harmonies all flowing as one for an hour! I started playing stuff that my fingers have never played. It was so free. Truly Spirit-led. The altars were filled with standing, kneeling, crying, praying, singing on-your-face seekers.

I remember thinking in the middle of this, “what is going on?” I was looking around to see the angels. One lady had a vision of the open heaven over us. She confirmed everything Chris had taught and we had sang. And the cool thing of it is, I had prayed for confirmation that morning in my prayer time. How FUN! God is not dead; God is not boring; following Him is a ride!

Well ... I will keep an expectant heart to see you dancing with us one Sunday am! If not here in Alaska, in spirit wherever you are!