A couple of years ago, the Society of Vineyard Scholars hosted their conference in Raleigh at Raleigh Vineyard Church. Two of my dear friends were coming into town to present papers at this conference. As a part of this conference were worship services. One night I had come to the church to pick up one of my friends (who was staying with me) and I had joked earlier with her saying that \u201cI know you say the service ends at 9pm but you know how you vineyards are\u2026you will probably still be soaking in God\u2019s presence until midnight\u201d. We both began laughing because based on our experiences we knew that could very well be a possibility. At 9:30pm I drove up to the church. I could see that the parking lot was completely full and the foyer of the church was empty. As I drove over to the side of the building I could see the worship band on stage. After I parked, I walked into the building and stood in the back of the church. It was evident by the spiritual presence felt in the room and by the responses of the attendees that God was in the midst. They were not in any haste to end their time of worship due to time but as I had witnessed before they wanted to soak and wait to hear what he wanted to say to us.\u00a0 Some time had passed with everyone just in a posture of worship, a leader at the conference came to the mic and said that the microphone is open for anyone to come and share what they hear God is saying. People began coming up to the mic to share. It was a very powerful moment in the service! I will conclude this story by saying that yes, we did not leave the church until Midnight! ?<\/p>\n
This experience at this service was not new to me per se. Being that I grew up in a Pentecostal faith tradition that consistently taught that God speaks to us and that when He does we should respond. It was reinforced by accounts in scriptureof God talking and engaging with us. For some, it was audible and for others it was an internal still small voice but one thing that all believers can affirm is that He does speak to us. \u00a0American Psychological Anthropologist T.M. Luhrmann explored what it means within the American Christian context to hear God. In her book When God Talks Back: Understanding the American Evangelical Relationship with God<\/em> she discusses her time spent in a Vineyard church community in Chicago. Over the course of a couple years she was a part of the church and spent time observing and engaging with members of the congregation. She discusses her experiences from understanding God’s presence to Spiritual Warfare.\u00a0 In reflecting on the way, the worshippers were connecting with God Luhrmann writes \u201cThis is a God people talk about as being somewhere as well as everywhere; being present at a particular time as well as always. God is of course understood as eternal, omnipresent, and everywhere. If you ask congregants where God is in church, they will look confused. But still they speak as if God has a particular presence and a specific voice. The church behaves as if God will be tangibly present after he has been invited to come.\u201d<\/em>[1]<\/a> The same could have been said about my experience I had during that service or any Sunday service at my local church. Our worship services are structured in a way that does invite God’s presence.\u00a0 The songs we sing glorify the way we God relates to us by describing His connection to us through all of our senses. Despite the skeptisim of the way in which some evangelicals choose to relate to God, even in her observations, Luhrmann grew to understand that to know God is to experience Him. You can read books, study church history, and even read every page of the Bible but to fully enrich your understanding of who God is one must be willing to experience His presence. Luhrmann in her last chapter observed that \u201c[i]n this modern experiential evangelical faith, this way of understanding God insists on a reality so vivid that it demands a willing suspension of disbelief while generating direct personal experiences that make that God real and integral to one\u2019s experiences of self<\/em>.\u201d[2]\u00a0 <\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n