Can I hear a testimony?

The main event of Spring Conference is the singing. I was a bit confused at the progresssion of the evening worship service. There's no bulletin, no order of worship.

"So what do we do?" I asked someone.

"We just sing until we're finished," that person replied.

Oh.

There is some structure, of course. An elder leads the service and announces requested congregational songs and honors requests for small groups and solos. (People can make requests on slips of paper and bring them up to the leader). Each congregation also sings a few songs in a rotation. Toward the middle of the event, there is an offering, passing of the peace, prayer and a message by one of the Seward Peninsula pastors.

There's also time for testimony, which is just what you are thinking. People get up and tell a story about God in their lives or what God has done. It sounds a litte bit come-to-Jesus but it's actually part of their tradition and quite beautiful and moving. I feel blessed to just be sitting there listening.

Last night, one woman sang a song she wrote about her struggles with children and family and keeping on the right path. Another woman told of her grief over losing a good friend/cousin in a nearby village. Though more than a year has passed, she said she hasn't been able to visit the village yet for sadness over her friend.

Others give short testimonies in requests for songs to honor someone who has died. In this way, the elders are ever before them. Think what this does for grieving when church is a safe place to remember those who have died and honor them with song or story. Oh that we could be open to sharing our griefs in this way.

Pastor Rob Wentzein (sorry for the likely misspelling) from Shishmaref gave a message last night that made that point: The church should be a place for safe sharing of griefs, sorrows, pains. Not the I-hate-that-hymn-and-the-new-church-carpet-is-ugly kind of lament but the real stories of our grief and saddness. We don't come to church and pretend that we're perfect. That's called the rest of the world. The church is a place set apart, for a people set apart.

We follow a wounded savior, a slaughtered lamb, a God who came to us as human. Could we be as open with our wounds? Just maybe, our honesty might open another person to sharing. We might be liberated to truly BE the people of God.

So. Can I hear a testimony?