the love of fellowship

{photo by Max Wanger}

So, last night I went to my friends small group and let me just say that I'm so happy that I canceled by date, to go. It was so refreshing to be around 20 and 30 something Christians, who have a desire to serve God in a very real way, without being boring, uppity or lame. It was such a great group of girls and guys; granted there were more females than males but that's how it normally is anyway. But truthfully, it wasn't even about that, it was just about being surrounded by my brothers and sisters in Christ.

We opened up with prayer, had a time of praise and worship, and then we went on to the lesson which was all about our spiritual gifts. We took this spiritual gift assessment test where you labeled things from 0-4. According to the quiz my highest rankings were encouragement/exhortation, serving, and teaching. That was all fine and dandy but then I looked at my lower scores. Giving, (gulp), intercession, (gulp) evangelism (Double gulp!)
I was sorely disappointed with how low I had scored in these area, I mean we're talking 6 and 7 points... out of 20.

When we opened the floor for discussion we all commented how difficult evangelism really seemed. But the more we discussed it the more we realized that Evangelism is NOT just one thing. It's a street preacher, it's a missionary, it's handing out a track, it's going door to door, it's bringing up God in your daily conversations, it's letting your friends know where you stand, it's standing out no matter how awkward or uncomfortable it seems sometimes, it's holding the door for someone, visiting the elderly, writing a blog! We can't keep putting God and the things of God into a box, because He is so much more amazingly larger than that.

I digress. We followed up our discussion with a time of prayer. I mentioned to the group that I was looking to relocate and that I wanted prayer over that. They were all so supportive and encouraging.

After prayer we sat around chit chatting, several of them asking questions about what I did and where I was from. One guy in particular caught my attention. He came in a little late and sat on one of the couches across from me. While we were going through the lesson, he was talkative and vibrant, and brought such an ease to the group. During prayer, he prayed so genuinely, with adoration, and reference. I could quietly hear him whispering, "Yes, Lord" and "Thank you Jesus." And I'm not saying that I'm interested, because it's not even about that. But to encounter a man who's love for God was so apparent and real, well that's the most attractive thing I've ever seen.