Doug Van Pelt

A taste of Heaven

Last Saturday was an event I'd been looking forward to for a few months now. The former Associate Pastor at Mission Hills Church was going to be in Austin around Christmas break and wanted to get together with a bunch of the folks from the Mission Hills Church days. I had blogged about my Mission Hills experience a couple months ago. It was a fantastic church that doesn't really exist anymore. A remnant of the core carried on after a merger with another church and, after two name changes, resides at Red River Church near the campus of UT. This church was kind enough to host this wonderful event that began last Saturday at 11am and that went until 5pm or later (I had to split at 5 for an obligation at my current home church).

First, we prepared the tables for eating. This is what Heaven will be like, for sure. Lots of eating. And, you know what's cool? We probably won't have the same NEED for food in our new heavenly bodies, but we'll eat for PLEASURE. How cool is that? Even the person that only eats for survival and the person addicted to (over)eating will have the pleasure (I assume) of eating just for that reason alone. That sounds cool. I enjoyed a brownie/dessert/concoction that tasted familiar. It must've been what a former Mission Hill-er used to bring to our functions back in the day. Kind of a cookie crust thing with chocolate chips, caramel and maybe some creme cheese (I don't know).

Then we cleaned up, which, as a group, was fun because we were with each other. We went across the parking lot from the gym to the sanctuary and enjoyed an introduction by Maury Millican as to what was planned, which was a microphone at the front and one person from each family ("tribe") getting up and sharing in two minutes or less what had been going on for the last ten to 20 years. One person even used a cookie timer to keep the speakers honest during the "Tribal Update" time. It was neat to see the same transparency, lack of pretense, and joy that reverberated within this body of believers -- even these many years later. The Lord had taken us all through and to different areas. One person pointed out that it seemed that ever single person that shared reported that they were either involved in education, music, or missions/ministry. It was a real cool thing.

Not only had we "done church" together for many years, but we bonded. In a lot of ways we were able to pick up right where we left off. Many of the folks had kids that were grown or growing up. One of our technical experts set up a chat on a mac notebook, which allowed our former pastor, Jayson Knox, and his wife to see us, talk to us (they saw us through a mini-cam and we saw them on a giant flat-screen tv serving as a monitor) and watch.

I don't judge events or growth or truth by my feelings. I know how foolish and dangerous that can be. However, I choose not to cut myself off from emotions -- that part of my soul or spirit or whatever we should call it. I embrace emotions when they come and usually don't police them or shove tears back inside my throat, so to speak. I might have even gone overboard to an extreme and been proud of my tears (gosh, I hope not), but when I'm worshiping or experiencing great joy and a tear flows down my cheek, I won't care. Anyway, I personally shed a lot of tears this day -- tears of joy and also tears I couldn't explain. Singing some of those God-breathed worship songs ... I can barely breath, for some reason. I guess I am trying to maintain composure a little bit at those times, because if I truly let all the way go, I'd be a sobbing mess on the floor. Maybe I should have. Who knows? What I do know is that I was as high as a kite on the joy that God was flooding my heart with. This was good stuff.

I might have been alone and unique in my experience, but I know that others were really enjoying it, too. My wife and I both appreciated that our kids were witnessing one person after another testify about how God was working through their lives. That was cool.

We were treated to a concert with Paul Q-Pek's new band -- Vertical Sound System. I have some hideously crappy and horrid 30-second snippets that I took with my turned-sideways cellphone camera that you can check out (I wouldn't advise it ... I mean, the footage and audio is just pathetic). Between a couple songs, Maury invited anyone and everyone to come to the front, use the microphone and offer prayers, victories, losses... He made a brief comment about how the Christian life was not some fake "oh, I'm SO happy all the time" jump up and down thing, but real life -- with ups and downs. He rattled off about three statements where he emphasized "...YOU (do this)..." and "...YOU (do that)..." and "...YOU prophesy..." It was a cool call and it released everyone there to assume their role as saint and minister, unleashing a body ministry time that was very orderly, laid-back, sometimes tearful, sometimes reading a passage of Scripture, and sometimes testifying, sometimes requesting prayer for healing, and, like everything else that day, just real... It turned a 40-minute set into a 2-hour time of sharing and songs.

We took communion. We hugged. We prayed. Man, I had a great time.

It's a little difficult to put this into perspective. Mission Hills Church (which started out as The Church of the Heart Set Free and changed its name after a year or two due to how weird it sounded, changing right when we moved locations, so it was a perfect time for that) was like a season in our lives -- from 1986 until 1999 or so, depending on your timeline for when the church as a unique entity ceased to operate. Getting back together to share was nostalgic, but it was given leadership that focused it on the thing that united us -- Jesus. That's some Substance right there. Wow.

I just wanted to share that.

Who knows what or if anything will happen with these various brothers and sisters. Maury and Linda have talked to the church that he pastors in North Dakota about re-locating to Austin again. The thought of reuniting as a church probably crossed all of our minds on Saturday, but there is no plan, no agenda. We are all plugged into various other local bodies at the moment; but we've loosely agreed to meet again on the first Saturday of the new year each year. I know I will look forward to the next.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at January 9, 2009 11:55 AM