I visited Hillsong Dominion Theatre today. Scrap that. I worshiped at Hillsong church today. 'Visited' sounds like I went there for tourism. Well, there is a little truth to that, but I seriously was looking for a Pentecostal church to worship at and was glad the Hillsong Dominion Theatre was not too far.
Two weeks ago, I was out on a church hunt. On Googling churches near me, all I could find were St. this, St. that. Though I was brought up Catholic, I have long become a Pentecostal that I feared I might find an Orthodox Church boring. I travelled three miles to get to a Pentecostal church I had seen on Google, but on getting there I discovered the church had moved. Sadly, I reversed my journey and since I was determined to go to church that day, I walked into the Methodist church that was close to my house. I wasn't surprised to be greeted by grey headed men and women. The church was from my perspective 60% black, 70% middle aged and elderly. As expected of an Orthodox Church, we stood severally to sing hymns. There was a sermon which I thought was rather too short. But the people looked happy and united. I was happy I was in the gathering of believers, even though like my guts had suspected, I was bored. Last Sunday, I was outside London. I felt I really needed to be in a gathering of believers. I didn't care what church as far as it was Pentecostal. So I attended a Deeper Life Bible church made up mainly of Nigerians, though there were other Africans and a few white folks. It was immediately I stepped my feet into the church, that I remembered that I was putting on trousers and had my hair uncovered. I thought, 'But this is UK. Does it really matter?' I scoped the premises and found out some women had no covering on their hair, but I was the only one in trousers. Anyway, I just told myself 'Chidiogo, this is your Father's house. Relax.' I actually enjoyed the service. We had a Sunday school, a very interesting question and answer session. I was blessed hearing other believers' contributions to the subject matter. We had a short praise session and I've been singing the first song we sang everyday since then. The brethren were lovely too. I didn't feel out of place with my trousers. I'm sure visiting again when next I go to Cranfield.
So today I decided to go to Hillsong. I knew it was going to be an amazing experience because I've watched their YouTube videos and the worship sessions are Spirit-filled. There was a little bit of a tourist in me, like let's go to Hillsong and be able to say we've been in one of those rapturous worship atmospheres, but by and large, I wanted to be in a gathering of believers. I wanted to see a side of Londoners or White people that I hadn't seen viz. a God-passionate people. Yea, so I went. It was glorious, to say the least. It was amazing to see the number of youthful people in there. Of course the music was awesome as you already know from the videos, but more than that, I experienced true worship. The lyrics were on point with the salvation message. They did not spare the name of Jesus. When I was going I was concerned that the service might just be all about the music. But thankfully, it was not. We had a long sermon and I was marvelously blessed. I have always been one that looks out for The Word in services. I don't care how good your music is, if solid Word ain't flowing, I won't feel like I've found my Rehoboth.
By the way, I would have almost missed my blessing because I got distracted. When the preacher stepped on the platform, first thing I noticed were his tattoos and in my mind I was like 'seriously?'. I tried so hard to see past the tattoos, but I just couldn't. All I could see was the verse in the Bible that says do not tattoo. In my mind all these thoughts were reeling, 'That's outright violation of scripture. Okay maybe he did it before becoming born again, but why display it then by folding up your two sleeves. Younger ones may just want to copy you. This is exactly how some people see my wearing trousers. Oh is not the same, blah blah'. It was not until he started preaching that I completely forgot about the tattoos and was immersed in the Word.
Now this post is getting too long. I should end it here. Let's continue the discussion in the comment section below.
©Radiant~ October 2017
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