Jesus Freaks

An institution that I'm a part of is what I call Community. We never actually came up with a name, but basically it's a college age group that meets once a week at the church I go to. Although we have a set day each week, we also just hang out whenever; it's like a family. And when we hang out randomly, I guess I wouldn't call it an "institution", but since church doesn't need a building, I think it works for this assignment. To give a general background, it's a group of maybe 10-15 of us, who have a passion to know God more and give that love from Him to others. Sometimes that means praying for each other, worshipping together, going out into the cities or local restaurants and talking/listening to people, and sharing stories. Sometimes it's just getting together and eating, playing music, hanging out. We all have a similar foundational "handbook" so to say: the Bible, who we believe in. When we get together, it usually always ends up in worship. When I say "worship", I mean like singing, acoustic guitar, djembe, music worship. It isn't limited to that, but that's the generality of it. Now they're all hilarious, and pretty outgoing and real people. It isn't a room full of quietly singing, reserved, secretive people. And there's nothing wrong with those kinds of times! We're all different, but for the most part it's a time full of dancing, singing, shouting, and realness with where we're at. This might sound crazy, but it's just how it is. Reflecting on it, if a stranger walked in, they might not know the songs, or may not feel comfortable joining in the hubbub. It's a smaller group too, so it would probably be intimidating at first to me if I was new and didn't really know what was going on. We focus a lot on relationship and are really close so there are usually a lot of inside jokes. The other night someone felt like we should all stand up and pray for the person on our right, and to hold hands despite how cheesy it was. It was kind of a serious moment, but I couldn't stop laughing, wishing that an outsider would look in at this kumbaya moment. Just ridiculous, but I love it. Another "body practice" we have is going out to eat after Tuesday night meetings. One of the people absolutely loves Green Mill, so we pretty much stick to that and are regulars there, but we branch out once in a while. And when we're out to eat, one of us usually reaches out to the waitress or someone at the restaurant and encourages them or asks them their story or what they think about God. Some of those people are turned off by this or apprehensive, but the majority of the time, people open up right away and are interested because the goal is just to love them, and they're surprised by it. These signs signify who we belong to; who we believe in. We are brothers and sisters and act like it, it signifies a family; sometimes broken and rocky, but sticking together with the same foundational glue.