28 :: Let Us Worship - New Orleans

Saturday I worshiped at Let us Worship in New Orleans. This event was formed as part protest, part worship event... and in its entirety, it was an amazing thing to experience. The person at the helm of the Let Us Worship tour (this was their 48th city) is a person named Sean Feucht (pronounced like Foyt). In so many ways, this incredible experience added to the texture of this spiritual pivot. The event was akin to things I have seen and experienced before, but it was also very new in certain ways. It lasted for nearly three hours.

I went with Jonah who made quick cameos at the beginning and the end of the event. As a photography student, he had a chance to take some interesting photos and see things that are not ordinary for him (or for me!). Over dinner, he and I discussed what we had seen. He made clear that this wasn't his jam and that he felt out of place. I gave him the idea that faith is like a radio - you can tune into different channels and experience different music.

We had a good discussion, the kind that two adult men can have. Our discussion was not only in the context of father/son, it was as friends. I'm grateful that we were both there, even if we got different things out of the event.

The reader will see that this was an event that looked like other protests we've seen in 2020. People without masks and not socially distanced. As such, it may look alarming. Unlike those other protests, this has been tagged as a "super spreader" event by some in the media. 

Some things were definitely being spread, if it included a lethal virus is to be determined.

In reality, only a quarter of the people in the city of New Orleans were wearing masks. Many, and on some blocks most, of the people were drunk and smoking copious amounts of weed. So, I might offer that the Let Us Worship crowd may have been among the healthiest that I saw during our brief time in The Big Easy.

Regardless of the perspective one can bring to Covid-19 and its transmission, I'll be limiting my human interactions quite a bit over the next two weeks. This will be to remove any possibility of anything happening. It is also done as a sign of respect to those in my life whose risk appetite is different than my own.

With all of the background and caveats done, let me describe what I saw and experienced.

When I arrived, there was a crowd gathering at Woldenberg Park. Just a group of a few hundred people milling around. A very diverse crowd representing different communities, but of one unified community - the Body of Christ.

By 2 pm, the audience had grown considerably. The music started to become more regular. The crowd was starting to move and engage with the music. Hands rose up. Some ecstatic prayer started to occur. The crowd was warming up, but it was only a slight shade of what was to come.

By the end, the crowd had more than tripled in size and at least quadrupled in enthusiasm.

Some pictures of early on:

I made some friends, as I always do. One guy was Echukwu, from Nigeria. He is from the North, the predominantly Muslim part of that nation and the place where Boko Haram is centered. In short, he is from a place where it is dangerous to be a Christian. We talked for a bit about Nigerian politics. He advocated the idea that the current Nigerian government may be hand-in-glove with Boko Haram.

A great, deep and very quick conversation, I seem to specialize in those.

I also met a friend named David. He was a Messianic Jew and one of the guys who sounded a shofar at different points of the experience. He attends church at Jesus in a Bar, a local phenomenon in New Orleans that converts a bar into a church every Sunday morning.

A shofar is a ram's horn used as a trumpet of sorts, from ancient Israel.

Music, prayer and dancing started to take place with more intensity for about an hour and a half. As different speakers came on stage, they spoke in tongues and shouted praises ecstatically. Some of the speakers went into and out of Spanish and English, to the crowd's delight. The crowd started to warm up considerably.

Eventually, there was the inevitable altar call, where people had a chance to establish, renew or deepen their connection to Jesus. Groups of people pushed their way through the large crowd to accolades from people shouting "We love you!" and congratulating them with pats on the back. Many extended their hands in prayer. A mass of people pushed up toward these new initiates as Sean Feucht and the band jammed out amazing songs. Very emotional stuff!

I watched the crowd of people who had gone to the front. One young guy was down on his knees, his hands extended forward as he wept and cried out some deeply felt things that were all his own. As you can see above, he had several friends around him, they were holding and supporting him. 

Sean Feucht and a black pastor were both speaking from the microphone in turns, talking about the unity of the Body and racial reconciliation. All people in the crowd cheered at these words and hugged each other.

The music flowed, the crowd danced, people smiled and wept. A beautiful thing to behold. 

Then some pretty interesting things started to happen.

First, a guy near me started to experience something that caused him movement that was pretty unique.

Here is that:

A small cluster of people in one area started to laugh hysterically, in a way that was unusual. It grew in both intensity and in the number of people impacted. I immediately went over and took part. I watched as a young man and woman fell to the ground and spoke in tongues. Another woman was walking around and laying her hands on people. One guy started to quiver and shake, his whole body twitching in different areas.

While I have seen some stuff in my day, I had never seen anything like this before.

At this point, the entire crowd was dancing and shouting and releasing and absorbing and casting out and inviting in and breaking chains and binding things and generally getting lit up in a very complete way. The music continued to flow. I got lost in it for a while. I can only guess how long that lasted.

Eventually, the momentum shifted toward completion and the dust started to settle on the outpouring of the Spirit on the crowd. One of the singers sang an old hymn a cappella. It was Great is Thy Faithfulness. Old, familiar, soothing. 

Here's that:

As the event moved toward some level of closure, people who wanted to get baptized did so. I watched multiple individuals undergo immersion. The strength of this decision was unmistakable in the lives of the people who chose to be baptized at the end of Let Us Worship.

As the event ended, I felt deeply invigorated and peaceful and simply... happy. It had been an amazing experience that left me with more things clarified in my heart and spirit.

And I ended up in the news! There was a story about Let Us Worship that include this photo (look at the red circle).

Overall, this proved to be the most interesting thing that I have done as part of this spiritual pivot. I enjoyed myself deeply.

When Jonah and I had dinner, we discussed what had happened and what he had seen. Jonah made clear that he wasn't in his element. He called much of it into question. He said something akin to, "People like we are at Selwyn don't do things like that." And he had a general sense that many of those people were probably judgmental. Against other people he meant, including people that are like he is.

I certainly didn't try to convince him of anything one way or an other on that question. I also remembered what I was doing at nineteen, and it wasn't attending Holy Spirit revivals with my father. So, I fully relate to his reticence. 

Autonomy is essential in everyone's journey - in the words of a wise woman, "People gotta people."

On the whole, it may be perfectly accurate to think that evangelicals are quick to divide and judge. But I candidly don't know if that is true. It doesn't match my experience. I also think categorizing people - including evangelicals - into generalizations may not be helpful. 

I got the feeling that virtually everyone at Let Us Worship had a story. A story of when they made a pivot from being some sort of mess to moving toward greater wholeness and then completion. Such people tend to be patient with other people who may have things to work out.

That's also my commitment to the world - I want to be a patient and thoughtful ear to everyone, especially to my sons.

I take very seriously that I raised three boys in the church and each is in a phase of deconstructing that so they may claim it back as their own, on their own terms and at their own pace. And part of what they will have to deal with - rightly or wrongly - is a sense that there exists a group of people that claim the name of Jesus Christ and are also quick to make them feel judged.

We are all to be judged, I believe that. 

But the mandate for humans to judge each other isn't very scriptural. Our judgment... and therefore the road to our redemption... are from one single source, and that Source was pouring wildly over a crowd of jubilant and redeemed people in New Orleans Saturday. I believe that because I experienced it. The revival wasn't a place where anyone was walking around with signs condemning anyone or anything. 

This event was the day that it was increasingly clear that Donald Trump had lost the White House, but that didn't merit a single comment from a crowd that very likely included many of his supporters. In fact, the only time race and political parties were mentioned was when Sean Feucht and the black pastor (I wish I caught his name) were on the stage declaring our oneness - "...black, white, Republican, Democrat. We're showing unity and love against the narrative that the media is declaring about our country!"

That type of statement was common. 

The crowd cheered at these sentiments, with black, brown and white people celebrating their shared space for time and eternity.

A glimpse of The Kingdom.

Such lavish love. 

Who are we, that a King would die for us?

Sunday morning, I woke up refreshed and peaceful. The entire experience was one in which I saw things that were exhilarating, strange, exciting and even confusing. Such environments agree with me. I went down to the hotel lobby in search of caffeine. At the coffee, I met an additional friend. Meghan Rachelle Marks [link to her YouTube] is a woman from Canada who is traveling around the US evangelizing on her own. Just going where the Spirit calls her. 

An itinerant evangelist from the Great White North.

You can imagine that this was someone I found interesting and liked talking to. 

I saw her talk to another woman who was getting coffee, learn the woman had an injury on her leg and then Meghan got on her knees and prayed healing into the woman's shin.

Not something you see every day.

Here's Meghan's testimony:

Just to ensure I gave myself the most pensive and transformational twenty-four hours in my life, I decided to listen to an episode of the Unbelievable podcast, with Justin Brierly (it's great!). I listened to a terrific episode on the way home. It was about how atheists become Christians and Christians become atheists. The details were put forward by people who had done large amounts of research into the phenomenon of people utterly changing their worldview.

This is a profoundly interesting podcast episode that offers insights into big questions about how people slip into and out of belief. I'll not elaborate the details of the episode, in case you want to listen. The big take away was that people can often view each other with a sense of suspicion across the believer/non-believer divide, especially now in American culture. And what people really want are answers for the longing of their heart, as well as to be heard and seen. Additionally, people want to feel safe to ask questions without feeling judged.

The episode provided a great set of reminders and things to ponder. Have a listen?

Here's the link to the Unbelievable episode..

In closing, I am moving forward with some things clarified about my life and my role in the world. I don't know how it will call come together, but am eager to see how my path forward can be used to produce a better world. And to break chains. That keeps echoing through my mind, that phrase. 

Here I am, do with me as You will. 

All in.