I have been attending a church called, “Victory World Church,” in Atlanta, GA on Sunday mornings and have been visiting the Victory World Church young adults ministry called Fusion on Wednesday nights. (Victory World Church is pastored by Pastor Dennis and Fusion is pastored by Johnson Bowie.) A friend and I first visited the church a couple of months ago and we noticed that the white/black ratio was about 50/50, this was important because she is black and obviously I am white (surprise!). Later I learned that there are over 100 different nationalities that attend the church and more than 85 of those nationalities attend on a regular basis.
That is unique but what really makes this church stand out is that they take the Bible and make God’s word applicable to your life. For example they teach you how to manage 100% of your money and not just the 10% that goes to them…I mean God. They had a series on how technology is effecting your relationship with God (for the good and bad) and the people are surprisingly…nice. But, what tops the cake and what made me write this article is the fact that Victory World Church allowed their pastor Johnson Bowie to close the doors of Fusion, their young adult ministry, for 2 months to go out into the world and do what Jesus talked about…loving and helping people.
Last night Fusion had its last church service until August 5 and immediately following service we went out and began showing the love of God, not preaching to people. So showed God’s love to people by going to various coffee shops, fast food places, hotels, and grocery stores and paying for random peoples food, rent, groceries etc. Individuals were blown away. If they wanted information on the church we gave them the information but that was not the purpose for our service of love.
In case you did not know shutting down their 20-something ministry for 2 months in a down economy is not the way to meet the budget requirements. And like most churches their size (1,000′s of members) I am sure that they have plenty. But, if you want to be successful in God’s business then you have got to run God’s business the way He wants it ran.
I think that for the most part we have lost focus on the purpose of church? Church is about fellowship, encouraging and loving on people. I used to think that I was a sinner because I could not wait to get out of church to talk to my friends, hang out and share a great time until I realized that this how church began. Now there is a balance in fellowship and receiving the word but hopefully you get my point. Church should be about action and that action should be about loving people. I know that many of you have been hurt by church and I am no different. I have had a male preacher hit on me, one pastor leave his wife and run off with my ex girlfriend, a lay minister put me in a headlock and threaten me for having a conversation with his girlfriend, a preacher lead me into credit card debt, others expose my past sins and reveal secrets and insecurities about me from the pulpit. So I can understand why most of you are done with church and that is why I have so much compassion for people with church hurt because I understand their wounds.
And in reality I will probably get hurt again and so will you because church is full of imperfect, hurting people that are trying to get over their trash just like you and I. But, I was excited to see a church that was willing to take a risk that did not involve a monitary reward. In truth God has many churches out there like Victory World Church but I am blogging about this because I was excited to hear and experience the love of God in a new way and to remind you that in the mist of all of the negative media that their are some churches who are doing right.