It was Easter Sunday. There was an atmosphere of celebration in the meeting as we remembered the resurrection. There was an exuberant time of worship, with everyone singing with gusto. Tony had spoken a good, encouraging, biblical Easter message, and we had taken communion together. I thought, “that was a good meeting!”
But then I thought “how do we judge what is a good meeting or not?” and this thought – or provocation – has stayed with me over these last couple of weeks. What makes for a good meeting?
There was good worship – people were singing loudly and enthusiastically with a sense of wanting our praises to reach up to the Lord.
There was a good preach – biblical and Christ focussed and Christ honouring.
But I asked myself, “was anybody saved? was anybody healed? were there any gifts of the Spirit in evidence such as prophecy, a word of knowledge or even a tongue?” “Were there any non believers in amongst us? Any people who were still far from God?” There may have been any of those things but if there were, I certainly wasn’t aware.
I began to think “how easily we can be satisfied with good songs and a good message, and not even notice that no one was added or saved, nor visible moving of the Holy Spirit.” Tim Hughes sang “There must be more than this………Consuming Fire fan into flame a passion for Your Name!”
Indeed Lord, let there be more! Let us see the lost being found. Those far, brought near. Those sick, healed. Those oppressed by demons, delivered. Let our meetings be vibrant encounters with the Living God! May we not settle for anything less. Let’s continue from the place of prayer – prayer on Zoom on midweek mornings. prayer in our monthly prayer meetings, prayer in our connect groups. Let’s knock on the doors of heaven loudly and persistently, asking the Lord to visit us with His presence and His salvation.
May “having a good meeting” take on a whole new dimension in the weeks and months ahead. Amen?