One Thursday night, not so many nights ago

One Thursday night, not so many nights ago, I was wandering the halls of the church while my son, Daniel, was at the high school youth group, Elevate. Now, if you don’t know otherwise , you might believe that Northview is fairly quiet in the evening, but au contraire! My partner in my meandering that other night was my two year old percussion obsessed son, Liam. In order to distract him from the allure of the drum kit in the youth center which he had already cast eyes upon, I told him that we were going to look for the “Enchanted Drum Land” which existed somewhere in the depths of the church. So, the quest began.

First, we were drawn by the melodious siren sound of Johnny & his band of merry worshippers rehearsing in Johnny’s office. As we peeked in through the window, it was like peering through the looking glass as we were greeted by a sight of worshipful merriment. If you have not before seen the tight confines of Johnny’s office, the sight was akin to one of those sea going clippers with attending masts & rigging all contained within the narrow embrace of a glass bottle.

Then, Liam & I resumed our quest & the next stop was at the open door of the worship center in which the NBC cast was busily engrossed in theatrical preparations for the upcoming season of dramatic entertainment and inspiration. But alas!! I was startled by a cry from beside me & glancing down at Liam I was shocked by his appearance. Every muscle in his body had gone rigid, his skin had a fevered aspect, his eyes shimmered with a hint of madness and yet were focused intently on something in the worship center. With a shock, I realized that he had spotted the drum kit on the stage, sitting like an exquisite pearl just ready to be grasped. I knew I had to break the spell swiftly or all was lost, so grasping Liam’s shoulders, I began to regale him with details of the Enchanted Drum Land that we would soon find. Thankfully, my efforts were successful and once again we set our feet to the path.

As we turned a corner, we happened upon one of Pastor Shawn’s small groups led by Ben Schmidt.  The young men had broken off from the greater community of Elevate in order to engage in deeper theological discussion based upon Shawn’s message of the night. Liam & I were invited to sit and join them and we were glad for the opportunity to have a break from our quest.  Their conversation was lively and quick as they practiced an evangelistic exercise in which one takes an everyday occurrence and utilizes it demonstrate the Gospel.

Here is a sample as volunteered by Jonah Ott, “I broke a guitar string the other day and as I was gazing upon it, I reflected how my damaged instrument was much like us. To play to its fullest capacity, or to be fully tuned, my guitar requires all of its strings to be complete. Likewise, as a person, I cannot be fully complete without Christ.”

There were murmurs of appreciation and agreement for this simple yet succinct homily. As the dialogue continued, I thanked the group for their hospitality but begged my leave. Then, feeling refreshed by our sojourn,  Liam and I set our backs to the wind and boldly struck forward on our quest for the “Enchanted Drum Land”.

The End