I’m going to spend the Advent season focusing on churches I’ve attended in the Batesville area. Not to create confusion, I’m not talking about churches I’ve pastored, but ones that I attended as a typical member. This will be my Advent pilgrimage. Consider it a remembrance of where God has truly been Immanuel in my spiritual walk in this area.
I kicked off this endeavor with the first church of which I attended as a member while taking a brief hiatus from bi-vocational ministry. I know, it’s also the last church I visited while doing my church visits. I’m going to start those up again so stay tuned, I’ll be coming to a church near you.
Fellowship Bible Church is the church to which my wife and I fled for refuge. We didn’t realize others would follow us at the time, but I’m thankful for the refuge the members of this church became for us. We needed a place to heal and FBC provided the atmosphere we needed at that point in our lives.
It’s been a few years since I’ve attended Advent services. Initially due to COVID, but last year because my Xvangelical journey made it difficult to take part. It is still difficult to attend at this point but I’m going to push through because I do enjoy Christ’s people, even if the institutions we’ve built are troubling.
After sharing greetings with several members that I know, and noting the advent family devotionals, I made myself a cup of decaff and headed into the sanctuary to join my son Caleb, who was already seated.
The worship began, as it almost always does, with contemporary worship music led by a band on stage. I didn’t recognize the songs, but chose to participate in the worship by pondering the immensity and intimacy that comes with the title Immanuel.
Immanuel means “God with us” and is one of the most important of the Messianic promises. It is the background that Isaiah 2:1-5 was expounding. I read that passage this morning before heading out.
Following the music the first advent candle was lit with a devotional being read. Advent tends to be a season of lights intended to celebrate the Light of the World, Jesus of Nazareth, coming into our world.
I’m drawn to the lights of Christmas season. Lights have always been one of my favorite parts of Christmas. I love getting the Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving just so that I can unwind and watch the lights flash in the darkness of the early winter. It is such a soothing activity for me.
Maybe God has always drawn me to those lights in the darkness so that I would be drawn to Christ and to being a light in the darkness myself. Although, keeping it real, I have a proclivity for being more of a dim light.
Pastor Dave’s message was inspiring. He was speaking on Genesis 18 & 21 concerning God’s promise to Abraham and Sarah that they would have a child. The miraculous part is that Sarah was 90 and Abraham was 100, both well past child-bearing years. This promise would require divine intervention.
His overriding illustration centered around his strained relationship with his father. Admitting to having said a lot of doubtful prayers about the healing of the relationship, Dave noted that later in life the prayers would be answered. Unfortunately it didn’t occur until around two years before his father’s death. His father would have his heart changed by cancer to the point that he would drive an hour every Sunday to hear his son preach the gospel.
He talked about our tendency to pray in unbelief as opposed to faith. We see our circumstances as either too big or too inconsequential for God so we pray without any expectation that God will intervene in a supernatural way. We limit God by our expectations and skills.
We are more likely to chuckle in our doubt like Abraham and Sarah.
This stood out to me. I know that I’ve said a lot of those unbelieving prayers myself.
My doubtful prayers are rooted in a belief that I struggle to shake. I can’t shake the thought that my life and circumstances really don’t amount to anything more than a small blip on God’s cosmic radar. I’m not important enough for God to even be involved, much less intervene, in my life.
But that is also why I’m intrigued by advent. According to the story of Scripture it should be apparent to me that I matter enough to God that Jesus Christ was sent for me. My hope is found in this reality. Yet, I still can’t pray with this sort of expectation because it feels presumptive to me.
I’m not sure if that’s an excuse or a reason so I’ll just continue to waddle through my understanding of how best to pray like a toddler in a nursery. I’ll trust that God will keep me in the center of His will if I’ll only follow. I guess I could lean my understanding more on God’s character than my own as Dave encouraged us to from Jeremiah.
“Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
Jeremiah 32:17, NRSV
Nothing is too hard for God. Maybe we should all pray with more expectation for that simple reason.
I was blessed and challenged by FBC this Sunday and I’m looking forward to next week, when I’ll do another church visit to continue my advent pilgrimage in 2022.
Grace and peace!
You can check out all my church visit blog posts here.
If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy Mark’s book What He Said: Living The Sermon On The Mount, Transforming American Culture.
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Mark West, Xvangelical 