last night to get back in touch with things pentecostal at a Friday night jam session.
The place was Whirlwind Ministries. The event was a Gospel jam. Pizza, sound system, plug yourself in and start to sing. Been there, done that, have good memories, and for a moment I got to relive it all again.
In my college days I wasn’t a very good pentecostal. I liked the music, savored the passion, but often found myself alone in a sea of people singing in tongues wondering what it was that was wrong with me. I wanted it to be real but never quite got into the center of things. Yet I loved the people and their desire to be closer to God because it was mine as well.
Flash forward through the years and a part of me is still back in the Assembly of God, if not by faith then at least by feeling. Times have changed. I have changed. Yet the idea of a big God, a God bigger than me, a God who can still waters with a word and is present and powerful, remains. In the Protestant world it seemed the pentecostals were among the few that understood this and its probably why I hung around with them even when it didn’t seem to rub off on me.
Yet my hours at Whirlwind Ministries reminded me of how good it is to be Orthodox. Yes, I can still rock with the praise band but the steady, measured, and ancient hymns are what brings quiet to my soul. And yes I can share the fervor but I realize that I’m in this for the long haul and therefore the moments of emotion are not the substance of faith.
I guess that sometimes you just have to step outside your walls for a while to get some perspective on what you really have.
The Beautiful Path 
Good thoughts. I too had the “what’s wrong with me” experience among the Jesus People… as much as I wanted to, I couldn’t do it, and I wouldn’t fake it. As much as I still admire the zeal and faith, I too am grateful to be here and grounded in something greater than my emotional regard for God.
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