43:: The Gate

 

On Friday night, we worshiped at The Gate in South Charlotte. I say "we" because Beth is not only proving to be the ultimate intrepid worship partner, but she was also very much the catalyst for this whole thing last night! She finds all of the God things, at times. Friday night was clearly one of those times.

Whew! This place was powerful!!! 

As mentioned in my prior post [link], a serene week of silence in a monastery would likely count as a profound and intimate encounter with the Holy Spirit. But there is also clearly an ecstatic, cathartic and fire-based way to experience the Spirit's presence... and The Gate is clearly, clearly one of those places.

Beth had texted early on Friday - I need to worship tonight. 

Acknowledged. 

I thought we would likely have to wait until Sunday before that thirst would be quenched.

Later in the day, Beth sent me another text - I just stumbled across a place while driving by, check it out (link to The Gate).

I replied - Let's do it.

What followed was so wonderful that I can hardly find words to depict the experience. I'll make a basic effort at encapsulating all that happened by saying that places that are saturated with the presence of the Holy Spirit are clearly different from those places that are not. That sounds self-evident, but it is actually a palpable thing. You can feel and experience the presence of the Spirit. Places that do and don't have the Spirit's Presence are truly different from one another, both experientially and qualitatively. They are also very different in terms of scale and depth, as well.

Suffice it to say that it's not easy to describe things like this worship experience, but I will do my best to impart some of it via the written word.

When we got there, we walked in and smiled at people, we had our temperature taken - more or less an ordinary experience when you enter the narthex of a church in 2021. We entered the sanctuary and took our seats. People were streaming in.

Subdued lights. 

A stage bathed in blue lighting. 

Instruments at the ready, no band members yet. 

A good crowd.

The sign at the front told us what we were attending - a worship event simply (and intuitively) named Friday Night. It is held on the first Friday of every month. 

Everything felt nice.  A great setting. The promise of some worship. We were in and we were up for whatever lay ahead. The crowd was filled with people talking and greeting each other. It is always a sign of a healthy church when people are happy to see each other.

I noticed that there was a woman on the edge of the stage painting a lion. In my typical fashion, I was curious and walked up to her. I asked what she was painting. She smiled and explained that she had experienced multiple visions of a prowling lion searching for its adversary.

She pointed out that in her vision the lion's mane had flames coming off of it. She explained that this was the Lion of Judah and that some final reckoning was ahead. She explained some other attributes of her spiritual visions.

Fascinating.

It was then that I realized we were in a bit of a different place. Spiritual visions of cosmic reckoning. The Lion of Judah. Painting on the stage. I loved it!

Candidly, it was merely a small glimpse of what was ahead.

The band eventually came out on stage and started playing worship and praise music. Children were waving flags on the other side of the stage - the side without the painter, of course. As the band kept playing, it was evident that they were in the act of not only worshiping, but also of invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit. Hands were raised across the sanctuary. People left the confines of their seats, with many of the worshipers wandering around while the music cranked up.

Then it happened. 

You could feel the place change. 

The members of the band were showing signs of feeling His Presence. It impacted their demeanor and also the way that they were singing.

Powerful stuff started to assert itself. I felt it. All signs were that Beth did, too. People were bowed down, some were davening (the bowing back and forth that religious Jews do), some were dancing on an athletic level, while yet others swayed back and forth and sang along with the songs. A huge level of spiritual intensity kicked in across the entire place.

Note the escalation that we underwent by watching the series of videos below.

Mounting grace, trending upwards!

At points, the intensity increased far beyond even that level. But this gives you an idea.

This increasing energy level went on for more than an hour and a half. Put simply, I wasn't focused on taking pictures at that point. :)

All the while, the painting of the Lion of Judah continued uninterrupted.

At about the ninety-minute mark, Pastor John Matthew started to get more involved in the worship, taking a more visible role on the stage. As the music continued to play, John stoked the crowd with some words, some ideas, some exhortation. Then he said he could feel some things were on the cusp of breaking, of being loosened, of chains that were to be broken this night. He asked people that were struggling with crippling depression to raise their hands. Multiple hands were raised and the rest of us flocked to them. We extended our hands to them. 

At one point I was standing near a woman who moved here from Brazil with her husband and daughter. The three of them had Covid last summer and she has some lingering health concerns. Her husband is intrigued by worship at The Gate and she very much wants him to join her. (I talked to her at the end of the night and learned all of these details).

As we extended our hands to her, she eventually broke down into sobbing tears. I believe they were as much deep gratitude and love as they were reflective of some unspoken anguish. Then something interesting happened. I felt her pain moving through me, and I began to cry rather intensely; the dissipation of intense emotion. It was a profound experience. 

Another constant feature of this worship service were children enjoying the service and running and dancing together. What a set of memories this will give these young ones! No one was left untouched by the Spirit in this place.

I'm not entirely sure when the evening started to wind down; when I checked the time, two and a half hours had passed in what felt like mere moments. Beth and I sat holding each other at the end. 

Exhausted. 

Exhilarated. 

A woman in the back suddenly burst into holy laughter (I first saw this when in New Orleans). 

We both laughed in response.

Perfection.

As things were wrapping up, a member of the congregation (who is also on staff), Annie, struck up conversation with us. It was awesome to connect with another person with whom we had shared this liminal experience of praising Yeshua.

I don't make an effort to single out many churches while speaking directly to the reader, but in this case I will. If you want to experience community and the presence of God in a way that is rare in its intensity and wonder - go spend time at The Gate. It will be time well-spent.

Simply incredible.