are we offering "more than" sermons?

where we are living they are putting greater and greater restrictions on Christian worship. obviously the enemy isn't happy with how many "stealings" are taking place out of his demonic kingdom! muslims and hindus are coming to Christ and he is pissed (can I say that?). anyway, I was struck yesterday as my wife and I were leading the youth group meeting (in a new, temporary location because the fundamentalists have essentially empowered a move towards restricting Christians from renting and using villas for their meetings) that some muslims are coming to "watch" the Christians worship. talk about a plan backfiring on the fundys! they are trying to shut us down and MORE muslims are coming to Church. Anyway, what struck me was the fact as we were ending our service, the mosques were all in the middle of their Friday sermons (most Christians meet on Fridays in this part of the Middle East) and I was wondering what the "difference" was between the two services for the most part. Most Christian worship centers around a "sermon" and that is what the mosque also is centered around "a sermon". What bothered me was when I wondered if the muslim "visitors" to our Church anything fundamentally different (apart of course from the lively worship in a mixed gender setting). They seemed to really enjoy the service and even put their kids in the Sunday school, but I noticed that 4 people CAME on crutches and those same 4 people also LEFT on their crutches. That is exactly what you see at the mosque, but (and surely members of this group know where I'm going) shouldn't these muslim visitors have seen those crutches piled up in the front somewhere? People didn't leave Jesus' meetings WITH their canes/crutches and my conviction is that they shouldn't be leaving our meetings with those things either! I was sad when it hit me that these muslim guests to our service didn't see an "accurate representation" of the God's Kingdom. (in case you are wondering, we did get our hands on one of the people on crutches and another woman in a cast). I should also note that we attend a "Charismatic" Church. I love sermons as much as anybody, but if that is all most Christian churches are modeling.....something for us to be thinking about. 


share this with your pastors at your own risk!