Heart's Journey

Heart’s Journey

“There are no accidents.” Mark Baldwin always says this. So when he was at the Razorback/Alabama “game” and gave his phone to a friend to call “Steve” to find out where he was, the friend called Steve, my Steve, the wrong Steve. During the phone conversation Mark reminded Steve that services at Heart’s Journey begin at 9:15.

We woke up early enough Sunday morning to eat an egg sandwich and to get ready in outfits’ that are clean and descent. Nothing too fancy (Steve was the ONLY one in a tie). We left the house happy, but cutting it close for the for the 25 minute drive to the church. Session one begins at 9:15am. We drove up at 9:14. Others were arriving, and we greeted at the door by Mark who was very glad to see us.

The first session begins with worship music. As we walked in, the lights were dimmed and it was kind of dark. A little too dark to be finding seats, especially as 1st time visitors to a Sunday morning meeting. I was instantly uncomfortable trying to find seats for all of us. Somehow I got in the lead and went to the first group of seats I could find. They were saved. So we were floundering in the dark. Finally with some assistance Steve and I sat with Silas, Zeb and Anna in one place. Abby, Levi and Lydia sat with Mark in a different place. I did not like not being able to sit together as a family. During this time of floundering an unsuspecting lady asked to take the babies out. Steve said they would stay with us. The lady told Steve, “They prefer that we take them out.” It’s really a good thing that I didn’t hear this because I would have walked out immediately. When we were finally situated we focused on the worship music.

The music was live, classic praise and worship style songs with one piano (the piano player also sang), one acoustic guitar, one bass guitar and the lead singer, Esther (my cousin – and she can really sing). The words were projected onto a screen. We knew only one of the songs. As I gazed around the dark room I noticed not many people were singing. However they were nearly all focused on the words on the screen. We stood through all of the songs, uninterrupted that led right into preaching.

The preaching style is very different from typical style of what we are used to – a pastor in a suit behind a pulpit. The pastor of Heart’s Journey sat on a stool behind the communion table with a music stand to his left. He wore tan dress pants and a blue dress tee-shirt. Very casual. He presented a very practical, relevant exegesis of the Scripture. The preaching was very good. Very personal. The Spirit was there. There was a 20 minute break at the end of session one of donuts and coffee. Session 2 began with some announcements and then we went right into more sound preaching/teaching.

A couple of things to note…We saw no flags. Typical Baptist Churches have the American Flag and the Christian Flag always prominently displayed. We’re not saying the absence of flags is a bad thing. It’s not. It’s just interesting, the American way, to have our American patriotism as a framework to our theology.

Also, on the stage hanging to the left and right of the large screen are two praise type banners, with identical serene scenes. The banner on the left read, “Life Hurts.” The banner on the right read, “God Heals.” This is a specific framework. All of the ministries, preaching, music funnels through this focus.

All in all it was a very good experience. The people were welcoming and friendly. And the atmosphere was absent of the legalistic externalism we are accustomed to.