Coming Alive

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to spend a few days in sunny Orlando, Florida for the National New Church Conference.  Several of the speakers really challenged me in some suprising ways.  At this juncture of my spiritual life I find myself walking into things like the NNCC with an air of spiritual arrogance.  The first day is typically a dud mainly because if I’m not hit with brand new revelation I am not impressed.

The night following the first day of the conference I sat down to squeeze some time in with God.  What I had anticipated to be a short prayer lasted for several hours.  As much as I would like to brag about this my prayer history doesnt allow it.  Although there was nothing that really stood out in this prayer time beyond its authenticity it laid the foundation for a great second day of the conference. 

During our time of worship an urban mime troupe performed to a couple of songs.  This is not my thing.  I’ve been a mime (in Mexico).  I’ve seen some pretty weak mimes too.  These guys weren’t weak.  It was really good.  Normally my response to this would have been respectful appreciation for their demonstration of worship, but out of my time in prayer over the previous day and a half I found myself in tears as these quiet clowns invoked a real presence of God.