Lifepoint Community Church

I’ve only been in Greenville a couple weeks so I’m still running on Atlanta time where you give yourself an extra 20-30 minutes when you’re driving somewhere because you never know how bad traffic is going to be. Well of course Greenville isn’t like that so I ended up arriving at this church 30 minutes before the service started. Doh!! I sat out in my truck for about 10 minutes and decided to venture in. The band was still rehearsing. In fact they rehearsed right up until about 5 minutes before the service started. Since I’m a musician and have led worship in churches for years, this has always been one of my pet peeves. You should be prepared and ready to go well before the service is about to start. Could you imagine a pastor sitting on the stage putting his final touches on his sermon about 5 minutes before he’s ready to preach? Sound checks are very important and sometimes things go very wrong at sound checks and need time to correct, but they need to be early enough so that you can wrap up well before service is to start and can spend the rest of the time in prayer, or greeting folks as they come in.

The worship was very genuine and sincere. The message was a simple gospel message. No in-depth expository preaching. No 45 minute message about a 3 step plan to living more like Christ. Just a 10 minute gospel message on how Jesus is the way the truth and the life. Paul said in Romans 1:16 "I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile." Oh how I love simplicity. It was awesome to just hear the powerful message of the gospel that day.

One really cool thing they did after the gospel message was to ask if anyone wanted to share what God was doing in their life. They basically opened the floor and let anyone share a testimony. I just about flipped. How many churches actually have an open mic moment and let anyone share what God is doing in their life. The more I reflected on that, I thought,” If God is truly dynamic and powerful as we say He is, why don’t we spend more time during the service sharing about His power, faithfulness, and mercy working in our lives.” John wrote in Revelation 12:11 that, “They overcame the evil one by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony.” I’m not sure the church really understands the depth of that passage. We need more testimony of God's grace and goodness in our church services. During the testimonies, an elderly man stood up and simply shared that he was the most blessed man in the world because all of his children and grandchildren were healthy and they were worshipping God at church with him that day. His testimony rocked my world. How easy it had been for me to lose sight of just how important my family is to God and to me.

I had the pleasure of sitting behind a couple named George and Janice. After the service they gravitated to me and expressed a genuine interest in getting to know me and my situation. When I told them that I was moving to Greenville and my wife and daughter were still in Atlanta, they even invited me to have dinner with them that week. I was blown away. This is what connecting and community is about. We met for dinner that Tuesday at the Wade Hampton Country Buffet. Did I mention that I live in the south? We had an amazing time getting to know each other, sharing our heart for the Lord and for ministry. I learned that George and Janice have a burden for the homeless and have opened up their home to people living on the street. They have had things stolen from them but are still faithful to serve the homeless. Janice shared how earlier that day, she was laid off from her job of 5 years. She had just gotten laid off and they still kept our dinner appointment!!!! What wonderful people who truly have an eternal perspective on life.

What I learned that day….
We hear so much about getting outside the walls of the church. Usually however this is accomplished through a programmed ministry event. Usually a homeless feeding outreach, building a house, a garage sale or car wash to raise money, something where all you have to do is show up, work for a few hours and go home. Not to say there is anything wrong with that, but it is safe and really doesn’t require anyone to get out of their comfort zone. Instead, George and Janice were taking it on themselves to be the church outside of the church. Something as simple as meeting up for dinner with a complete stranger to help me in my transition from Atlanta to Greenville. Most of the time, it’s the little things that can really make a difference in someone’s life. I am so thankful for God sending George and Janice my way.