98 :: Comunidad Sin Fronteras, Costa Rica

Today we worshipped at Comunidad Sin Fronteras (Community Without Borders), a church in La Fortuna, Costa Rica. We are here enjoying the beautiful environs around the Arenal volcano in the lush and jungle-filled interior of the country. Costa Rica is a very beautiful place and we are having a great time on this mini vacation, in part because of this church visit.

***

Before describing this experience, a quick aside about our visit to the prayer chapel in Charlotte's airport.

Beth and I had more than an hour in Charlotte Douglas International Airport before our flight boarded. I mentioned that it would be interesting to see the prayer chapel in the CLT airport. Neither of us had ever been to it, but we knew that virtually every airport has one. 

Our city is rightly thought of as a city of many churches and many believers. It is also right to think of those designations as things that are changing. 

Our visit to the CLT prayer chapel verified some of those changes.

As we walked toward the prayer chapel, I mentioned that it was likely that much of the chapel would be given to Islamic observance. I had encountered exactly this phenomenon in Silicon Valley, where PayPal had a "quiet room" for people to use as they needed during the day. I used to spend time in there, routinely in the company of multiple Islamic colleagues who gathered for prayer.

I was in there so often with them that I was put on the PayPal Islamic Employees e.mail distribution. I guess they thought I was praying with them, not for them. To be clear, I was praying for them.

What did we find once we entered the prayer chapel at CLT airport?

As I had predicted, we saw a basket full of Islamic prayer mats, as well as a qibla, which points the direction to Mecca. There was also a Koran on the altar next to the Bible. There were books from different world religions around the room. Some of the books were from the Hare Krishna movement (ISKCON).

There was a schematic on the wall that posited the idea that every religion teaches an essential truth, that of The Golden Rule.

Candidly, we found this place to be drenched in spiritual darkness. The idea that "there are many paths up the mountain" was manifest throughout the room. The prayer chapel cried out the claim that all religions are essentially the same - an idea that is growing in society among those who profess to be "spiritual but not religious."

This schematic on the Golden Rule had been created by the Fathers and Brothers of the Maryknoll Society, a Catholic missions organization of sorts in upstate New York [link]. How this schematic and the idea behind it were furthering the claims of the Catholic Church was entirely lost on us.

"Let's get out of here," I said in a hushed voice.

"Yup, right now," Beth replied in the same tone.

There was nothing for us in this place except as sense of loss that spiritual relativism had conquered even more territory on Earth. In this case, the conquered territory was a small place set aside where people who were about to travel in a plane could bring to God their fear of flying, their grief of flying to another loved one's funeral, or even excitement at taking a trip for which they had worked all of their life. 

And instead of bring those experiences and emotions to a place dedicated to the One True God, they found a room that referenced Allah and Krishna.

It made us sad.

About a half hour later, as we bought a few items in a shop in the airport, we noticed book kiosks that acknowledged the Christian impulse of United States, the Southeast, as well as the city of Charlotte. It dispelled some of the spiritual darkness that we had seen in the CLT prayer chapel. 

The  Bible Belt can occasionally still assert itself against a world increasingly bereft of metaphysical certitude. And that is a very good thing.

***

So, back to our experience in La Fortuna, Costa Rica...

Comunidad Sin Frinteras was one of a few non-Catholic churches in the town of La Fortuna. We found out about it through word of mouth, as we sometimes do. 

How did that happen?

As we are wont to do, we prayed before the trip that God would put someone or something on our path during our vacation. In this case, that someone was a man named Luis at the front desk of our resort, The Tabacon Thermal Resort and Spa [link]. 

We asked Luis if he knew anything about the churches in La Fortuna. He asked multiple times if we were Catholic, trying to establish what we were looking for. After we made clear that we were looking for another kind of church, he told us about a place that he knew. He said he lived in the town of La Fortuna and near his home was a green building where he “…heard people singing around 9 or 10 in the morning every Sunday.” 

He gave us the name of a restaurant near said building.

That was enough for us to start investigating on Sunday morning.

We drove into La Fortuna early on Sunday. At 8:30, we had found a big sign that said Comunidad Sin Fronteras. We felt confident that we were on to something. 

The property was empty with the exception of one young man who was weed whacking the tropical plant life in the church's front yard. I got out of the car, walked up to the young man and we conversed Spanish.

Me: "Hermano, esta es una eglesia?"

The guy: "Sí, signor."

Me: "Cuál tipo?"

The guy: "El tipo... Esta eglesia..."

Me: "Evangélico?"

The guy: "Sí." [smiled]

He told us to come back in an hour.

Beth and I joined them at 9:30.

After we walked into Comunidad Sin Fronteras, we were shown to our seats as the expansive, white auditorium filled up. 

There were mostly families coming in. Everyone was chit chatting with one another, showing a great sense of community. A big banner hung on the front wall of the church that declared 2022 to be Year of the Manifestation of the Holy Spirit. 

There were two boxes for offerings at the front of the church. One was adorned in a way that made it clear that it was for children. The second was golden and had two cherubim on it, giving it the appearance of Mercy Seat on the top of The Ark of the Covenant. A young man and woman were on the stage setting up to perform the music.

Before long, church started up. 

As one expects in a contemporary church, the first thing that took place was a set of praise music, which went for nearly an hour. The music was boundless and excellent, though it was mostly performed with recordings since the full band was not in the church this morning. The man and woman on the stage carried the entire weight of the performance and did a fantastic job. 

The last time we were in a Spanish-speaking church was Cuzco, Peru. In that church, the songs were Spanish versions of English praise songs that we knew. Those English songs are composed by Bethel Church in California, Hillsong Church in Australia, Maverick City Music out of Atlanta, and Elevation Worship in Charlotte.

The approach that is often taken is to translate the lyrics of these huge English language hits into Spanish and voilà... you have a song ready to be performed in a Latin American church.

At Comunidad Sin Fronteras, we didn’t recognize any of the music. 

We're pretty sure that these worship songs were composed in Spanish, specifically for Latin American worshipers. If this is right, and we think it is, that means that the rapidly growing ecosystem of evangelicalism in Latin America is starting to hit its stride in creating music that is composed for and by Spanish speakers. 

This is a really positive development!

And the music was very good.

Here are some pictures and videos of the worship music:

It was at about the thirty minute mark that the Holy Spirit had unmistakably come into the church and settled on the worshipers. Beth was on her knees for an extended period of time. People were dancing around the church. Everyone’s hands were lifted up. We found ourselves in a setting that has become very familiar to us - a place filled with contemporary music, heartfelt and enthusiastic worship, as well as a churchwide emphasis on feeling the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

One guy in the back was deep in prayer, his face down toward his seat. There was a good bit of this sort of thing going on.

Eventually, the music stopped and the pastor of Comunidad Sin Fronteras walked onto the stage. As the two singers were leaving the stage, the pastor stopped the male musician and asked him to say a few words to the congregation. The young man took the microphone and started speaking in a style known as "exhortation." One definition of exhortation describes it as “a form of speech that encourages and incites” a hearer.

This was definitely that - encouraging and inciting. The young guy was outstanding.

After the young man left the stage, the pastor started his message. 

It lasted for about an hour and a half. 

It was entirely unscripted. It was an in-depth appeal to our need for salvation as sinners. He spoke in powerful and convicting ways about the cross and the one way to eternal life. It is hard to summarize the full breadth of what the sermon included, since it was so long and so detailed. It was magnificent to see and hear.

He spoke about "fe" (faith) and how God's work was "sobrenatural" (supernatural).

During the message, the pastor did speak in tongues more than once, which helped solidify our understanding of this church's style and theological lens. This was a charismatic church.

One part of his message that really struck me was when he pointed out that La Fortuna was just a small town in a small country, but that people came there from all over the world. He pointed out that people come to La Fortuna from England, France, China, the US, Canada, Japan and many other places. He said it was a profound opportunity for their church to make an impact for Jesus Christ on the multitude of global visitors to their small town.

That is the kind of thinking that can really impact The Kingdom. 

Such a bold perspective. Solid!

At the end, the pastor made an altar call. It's impossible to know who might have had a turn of their heart at that point, but after a sermon like the one that he gave - well, if that doesn't get you to repent, I don't know what would.

Once the message was complete, those of us who were first time visitors were asked to leave the sanctuary and come outside. We sat down at a picnic table and each given some peach juice. We made introductions. Then the rest of the church came out and joined us. We shook some hands and exchanged smiles. It was awesome.

We spoke to the pastor and learned that his name is Leo. We took a picture with him.

As we drove back to our resort, we had a great deal to think about and discuss. 

One main observation we made is that there is a cross-cultural unity in churches, and this is becoming especially visible in contemporary churches. This makes sense, since Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism developed in different places and different times, often during eras when people did not travel far from their birthplaces and had no access to media about the rest of the world.

In contrast to the last two-thousand years, we now all have the ability to watch each other's church services online [link], enjoy the same YouTube videos of the most recent hit praise songs, as well as travel to each other's countries with relative ease. Because of this, there are clear similarities in churches that we have visited in places as diverse as Peru, Costa Rica and across the US in places as different as Utah, New Hampshire and Louisiana.

An example of this was a tattoo that Beth noticed on the back of a worshiper's arm at Comunidad Sin Fronteras. It is the one that stands for "God is greater than the ups and downs." 

It looks like this:

This emblem is on the back of cars all over the Southeast of the US. It is tattooed onto the arms of people throughout the world. It is on tee shirts in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Egypt, India and so many other countries. 

Cross-national faith. Remember, the G at the beginning is for "God," while the Spanish word for the same is "Dios." This in and of itself means that as we come together, English is predominant. As goes the world, so goes the church, in some cases.

One could say that there is a supra-culture developing in contemporary churches that gives a sense of familiarity to locations that have very little in common out in the street. And such a familiarity means that two visitors from the US can feel at very much home in a church in Costa Rica.

Perhaps the most important observation of all is that the Body of Christ is becoming one in the 21st century in a way that it never has before. 

This is so good to see!

Thanks to Comunidad Sin Fronteras for the invigorating worship and a great connection into their bold church community.