Membership is a 3 class process at Living Hope Community Fellowship. And on the following 1st Sunday of your 3rd membership class you are introduced as family and as an official member before the entire congregation during service. Pastor Joyce Hall preaches that membership to a church is a commitment. Its my declaration into the covenant of the church. Members of a church give tithes, provide of the church, and help the church in anyway possible. Big or small no duty is over looked.
Prior to Spring Break I took 2 out of 3 membership classes at Living Hope and 2 weeks ago I took my final class. Today, on the first Sunday of May, and coincidentally my nephew's birthday, I was introduced in front of the congregation as a member! I am so excited to finally be binded to a church.
In the 3 classes I learned a lot about Pastor Joyce and her vision for the church and about God's vision for all of us. Of all the things we learned some things in particular stand out to me.
1) Denomination is not declared in the name of the church. The church administration describes the church as Pentecostal but I also heard Pastor Joyce reflect on Baptist and Pentecostal but she never declared Living Hope to be one in particular. I have not spoken to anyone about this, but I appreciate that. Learning about various denominations influenced me to let go of my "Baptist" raising. I don't even like telling people i am non-denominational because technically THAT could be called a denomination. I am just a child of God serving my living Almighty God in faith following HIS word the way I believe he wants me to believe it.
2) On the first day of class I was asked on a form if I believed in speaking in tongues... And honestly I didn't believe it because I didn't know what it was. When I was younger my mom dragged me to a Benny Hill presentation in Miami and these Hispanic girls behind me began speaking in tongues and were shaking a little bit with their hands up. In this same class I learned about the gifts and fruits of the Spirit. Corinthians 12:1-11 describes the gifts God has bestowed upon his Christians. One of those gifts are the speaking of tongues. Pastor Joyce Hall comes from a Pentecostal background and has been blessed with the gift of speaking in tongues.
Today we had a guest speaker, minister Janet Greene, and for second service at church she was driven by the spirit to minister something other than what she originally had planned. She discussed the speaking of tongues and I learned a lot about it today. She said that sometimes when we are praying and praising God we exhaust our vocabulary and the Spirit of God takes over with a stirring and over flow in your sides and you begin to speak in tongues. She said you must will it and desire it and it shall be yours. She asked for people who have never spoken in tongues before to come up if they truly desired that gift. I'm not gonna lie I was scared. I have been curious as to what my gift from God would be as I progressed in faith with him but I almost felt put on the spot and so i didn't go up there cause I didn't feel that I truly desired it. Followers of God may have one or many gifts and thinking about my praise and prayer made me think about whether or not this is one of my gifts. I praise through music and singing that's what gets my insides going and that's what brings me magnifying God's name for all he has done for me. And the closer and closer I get to Him the easier it is for me to get emotional just thinking about all that he has done for me. But I do feel that I have a block in me that is keeping me from seeing my finish line with God and hindering my praise. And when I pray and exalt his name I quickly run out of words yet my heart and eyes continuously pour out his praises.
Pastor Joyce announced today that God had spoken to her and moved her to preach about being saturated in the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues on May 27th. And today by the last minute guest minister being moved to talk about the speaking of tongues, Pastor Joyce took that as confirmation from God as to how important this topic of discuss was. She said that this is not something we should fear, and that it is a gift God wants us to have if we desire it. I don't want to fear it but I also don't want it for the wrong reasons. Guest minister Janet Greene challenged us to get up and pray between 3am and 6am and i am going to do that this week and allow God to wake me up from my sleep just for a moment to praise and talk with Him and figure out what is his will. May 27th may be a second chance for me and this gift if it is what God wants me to have.
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