Church In Tulsa - Oct 18, 2009

On Sunday, Oct 18, we went to church at Daniel and Shelley's church again, All Nations Fellowship.

We go there each time we visit them in Tulsa, and it's a very interesting, non-denominational Christian church.

Their praise team (this Sunday) consisted of a drummer, Daniel on bass guitar, an acoustic and an electric guitar, Shelley on keyboard, and two (or was it three?) female singers without instruments. Shelley and all they guys on all the guitars also sang.

I worked with them for an hour pre-service about ten months ago. Before this, they were pretty much a drum solo with very faint accompaniment by the others. After I worked with them, they began to sound much better, with a better sense of overall balance both from the musicians and Billy running the sound board.

Their balance this Sunday was actually quite good, and we could hear the singers and the instruments very close to just as they should have been.

They opened the service with a tune I don't know. I think the name was "I Want To Be Free." But I could see that most of the about 100 people there knew it, and most were singing along.

This was followed by a greeting and welcome, then they did "Holy Is The Lord," and again, most people sang along.

This was followed immediately by "The Earth Is Full Of His Glory," but then there was almost a minute of dead air.

Daniel then read the scripture for the day while Shelley played some excellent improv on the piano.

Then there was a prayer, followed by "A Sweet, Sweet Sound." Then Kasha, one of the women on the praise team, spoke, but I couldn't make out what she was saying. It might have been due to my tinnitis, but Jan could't make it out, either, so I suspect it was something to do with the sound board adjustment.

There was more dead air after this, then they began a guitar intro, and went into "You Won't Relent Until You Have It All," another song I wasn't familiar with, and it seemed about 80% of the rest of the congregation didn't know it eiher, because only a few were singing along.

Then the music continued while John Taylor (who might be an assistant pastor there) spoke, but I could barely hear him speaking over the guitar, and I couldn't make out his words at all. I think they had a new trainee on the sound board. Eventually, I could make out what he was saying. It was about mission trips to India with his daughter, Lydia, another singer on the praise team. He was very animated and involved.

Following his talk, there was a prayer, then the entire church had a social time for 20 minutes. They had coffee and many kinds of tea, and the locak Panera donates all their leftover pastries from the night (week?) before, so there is always plenty of selection for those who want a munchie. The social time is pretty much unguided. Several people we had met at previous visits welcomed us back, and of course, there were a few discussions about the Florida-Arkansas game yesterday.

After the social, Pastor John Thompson (the same one who came to Jackson to perform Daniel and Shelley's wedding ceremony) gave his message.

It wasn't so much a sermon today as a report from his trip. He had just returned, the day before, from a mission trip to Sierra Leone, and he had some very interesting information about his trip.

On a previous visit to this church, we heard guest speaker Dr. Gregory Bangura, from the Ivory Coast, who was doing mission work there and in neighboring Sierra Leone.

Bangura, along with John Thompson, founded the Global Leadership Institute, with the goal of training new Christians to be preachers and teachers and church-planters.

In the last year (or two?) they have planted over 200 Christian churches in Sierra Leone alone.

Sierra Leone is an English speaking nation that is 70% Muslim and 15% Christian. The nation is NOT anti-Christian, it's just that the Muslims have been more active in building mosques and spreading their faith. There is a mosque in almost every small village, while most of the villages have never even heard of Christianity.

Their car broke down while they were enroute between two cities, and while they waited for the car that was traveling with them to drive to the next city to get the repair part, Bangura and Thompson waited in the house (hut) of one of the nearby village leaders. A woman welcomed them in and got them some refreshment (I didn't hear what) and was fascinated to hear about Christianity. Someone came in the hut while they were there and said something to the woman in the local dialect, and she replied, and the person left. Afterwards, Bangura, who understood them, told Thompson that the person who arrived told the woman to hurry up because she was needed to work in the fields. The woman replied that she wasn't going to go now, because she had never seen a white person before and wanted to hear what he had to say, so she was going to stay while he was here. Interesting, eh?

Bangura also trains Sierra Leone military chaplains. He reported that over the last year, Christianity in their military has grown from 10% to 30%.

It was an extremely interesting talk, and he held the congregation rapt for the entire hour he spoke.

It was a good wakeup call to mission work, mission needs, and mission opportunities.

There was no (live) closing music.

Following church, we went to Steak 'N Shake for lunch, then hit the road for home, arriving back in Mississippi some time after 11 PM.

It was a good day at church, and a good trip.