House on Fire

The building pictured here is a church. Not much to look at, is it? But it’s what’s on the inside that counts (“Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart,” 1 Samuel 16:7).

Today I saw a display of honest, unfettered, authentic worship to God inside this church. It’s called River of Life and it’s located in the Red Hill informal settlement. Living Hope runs an after-school Children’s Club in the building each Tuesday and Thursday, but I had never attended a worship service there until this morning.

What a powerful experience it was. There was singing. There was dancing in the aisles. People were falling down (no kidding). God’s Word was preached with conviction. Three hours later, I emerged feeling full of the Spirit and ready for a new week of work in what can be extremely challenging conditions.

River of Life is different than any other church I’ve ever been in, which goes to show that there’s no single “right” way to worship as long as Jesus Christ is the center of attention. As Jesus Himself said, “The true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks” (John 4:23).

And to quote an old Tom T. Hall song – because you can apply a good country song to just about any situation – about a barn that was converted into a house of worship: “Comfort came second and Jesus came first / That’s why they called it a church.”