Community

incarnate faith was wonderful tonight. From start to finish everything was so fantastic.

I love leading worship at iF. There's something about hearing all of the voices singing along that makes me lose my intellectual and cognitive connection to the music and really feel it instead. It becomes emotion; a real connection between myself and God and all of the others worshiping along with me.

Then an unexpected person was baptized. I remember him from highschool; I had at least one class with him every year I was at Gilroy High. He's been coming consistently since the if started, and last approached Mike and told him that he was ready to be baptized. sitting in the water he said that he repented of his sins, and believed that Jesus had forgiven him and become his father, because his own father had abandoned him. He said he was ready to follow Jesus.

Sometimes He just reaches out for someone. Someone you might completely write off.

Then Isaac spoke. He talked about how churches and Christians are accused of being fake, and that it's a valid accusation. He talked about the fact that when you come into a church, you are surrounded by fake happy faces, and the fact that churches make people feel like they can't be transparent; that they need to put on a happy face and not open up about the pain and struggles they are feeling. He said it's time for that to change; for Christians and churches as communities to be there for eachother, and to really be a safe place for people to open their wounds and be healed. He cried as he exemplified this by sharing his own struggles with his self image. How he can't look in the mirror without seeing the 250 pound 'ugly' person he used to be. He talked about how Mike (in a previous sermon) had told the congregation that he struggled with clinical depression and communication problems with his wife.

They are truly leading by example. And Isaac is right, the church needs to be a place where people can heal and be healed. Where people can take off their masks and love eachother, unafraid. Where people ask "how are you doing?" without expecting the obligatory "fine, thank you."

I think we can do it.