Hallelujah Church!

There is actually more than one Church in Blue Creek where we live. There is the EMMC (Evangelical Mennonite Mission Church) where we go, the Gleindemeihn (sp?) which is the old German service on the other side of town and there is the "Hallelujah" Church. Today we decided to visit this last group.

The chairs were in a circle around the Lord's table and the service started off with people reading from the Hymn book. Sometimes in unison and sometimes individually. People were free to put lots of emphasis on the key words and to give a good old "Hallelujah" when they really agree. Then after reading/ praying the Hymn we would then sing it a few times and then go back and read the good parts again.

Then someone would pick the next hymn. There was no designated "leader" as far as I could tell and the worship time just carried itself along as people felt lead. Communion came in the middle with the passign around of the bread and the wine (juice). Once the singing was done we read from a devotional book and people shared their words of encouragement and the messages God has been giving them on it.

The hymn book, Bible translation (Recovery Version), and study plan was written by Witness Lee and published by Living Stream Ministries out of California. Has anyone heard of this group?

My observations.... it was different. It had a sense of spontinuity and freedom where people could go as they felt led but in all this there was a clear rythme and tradition had formed even in the spontinuity. Every line read ended with some form of shouting emphasis on the word that made it sound somewhat "prayer spiritual". There was a very strong emphasis on the unity in the Church and how we are not individual Christians but need to minister together which is much needed in today's day. There was also a lot of emphasis on how this unity comes through "eating Jesus" which is the Lord's table, I don't think they are Catholic in their view but retain that communion is a simple... I even think they connect "Eating Jesus" with reading the Bible regularily.

One thing Cory and I had struggles with is when they sang and talked about becoming divine. One person shared how there is the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and they are all one and so three in one. And how there is Father, Son, Spirit and Body and so four are now one. And how Jesus was God-man and now we are man-God b/c partake of the divine nature. Cory and I had a long talk to help clarify this. We explained how we saw it more that where when we are saved we recieve the Holy Spirit and so we are "filled" with God and partake in Him that way. Our nature, we said, never changes to God and the two are seperate. When we are born again we are not becoming God's begotten children as they suggest by the term "Jesus is the firstfruits [thus we are the secondfruits]" but rather born again spiritually to a new life. I was thankful however that when they talk about divine they at least claim that we do not become part of the Trinity but I am not sure how they are distinguishing it. I warned them of J.W. and Mormon teaching which minimizes the unique Sonship of Christ and puts us all on part with Jesus and of using such a strong phrase as "becoming divine". I also exhorted them to read more books than just Witness Lee and Cory exhorted them not to use words like "become divine" so as not to confuse others; but I am not sure how much progress we made or if we truely understood them.

Thanks again for all your prayers.