I had the most incredible experience last night. A local church in Santa Rosa invited our church to come enjoy an evening of worship and fellowship, so a number of us trekked across town to join in on the festivities. Since I’m on the worship team, I was extremely privileged to play music not only with our musicians but with some of the host band as well.

Not only was the worship time outstanding — we literally showed up, got out our instruments, and began the service with no prior rehearsal (or even a sound check!), and it sounded awesome from beginning to end — but the pastor of the church then initiated a time where their congregation circled around us and laid hands on us to bless us and pray for us and prophesy over us. It was such an amazing picture of what the real Christian Church is all about: unity in the Spirit. We weren’t in competition, because there’s no competition in the Kingdom of Heaven. We were doing exactly what we were supposed to be doing: living together as fully-fledged members of the single, worldwide Body of Christ.

I kickstarted a new category, State of the Church, to use for this post, and I’d like to say one thing: if this is the direction the Church is headed, and I think it is, then the State of the Church is strong indeed.