My Church, My Family

Over the past few months I have made mention quite often of things that we get up to at church and things that our Pastor has said, but I have not actually said much about church itself. I belong to the Hillsong Church London family, and I LOVE my church!

There are many reasons why I love my church, probably too many to mention, but I will tell you a little bit about it, and hopefully you will get some understanding.

I started going to Hillsong in March 2004. We were still meeting in the Mermaid Conference and Events Centre then, a theatre that seated about 600 people. The first time I walked through the doors I thought we had gone to the wrong place- the energy and excitement I felt the moment the doors were opened for us were not what I had been expecting. Not at church anyway. People were genuinely happy to see us, and they welcomed us into their house very graciously. Now, after spending a year in London it was something of a shock to walk into a room where people were actually FRIENDLY. They made eye contact and said hello. I almost didn't know how to respond as I had learned very quickly that if you make eye contact in London, or if you smile at people they think you are some kind of psychopath who wants to decapitate them or something. This is especially true on the underground!

Anyway, so there I was in a brighly lit foyer with great music and an amazing atmosphere, but best of all there was a big sign on the wall that said 'Welcome Home'. I nearly cried. I felt like I fit in, like I belonged, and I had only been there for 5 minutes. This was all before the service had even started.

After the first time, I could not keep myself away. I wanted to be there more than anything in the world and I found myself counting the days until Sunday. I was meeting amazing people every week and I was learning more about myself than I was necessarily comfortable with, but I could not bear to not be there. I felt at peace when I was at church and for the first time I knew what it meant to be in relationship with God. I was building realtionships with people who really believed in me and who wanted to see my life grow and flourish. People who did not feel threatened when I was doing well but were excited for me and with me. I started to see what it meant to be part of the family of Christ because these people were, in every aspect of the word, becoming my family. I was also learning that Christianity was about more than going to church on a Sunday, it was about every part of your life from Monday to Sunday and I learned that it was a walk that I could not walk alone. I started to get involved in our midweek activities where I got to build my relationships with people around me and got to learn more about God and his Word. The thing I found most amazing was how the changes that were happening in my life were actually affecting other people in my world as well. The joy that was in me was rubbing off on my friends and work colleages - finally I was seeing what it meant to be salt and light.

The Worship Team

It is now 2 years on and I can tell you that the last 2 years have been the best of my life. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it's all been easy- in fact they have probably been the most challenging as well, but I have grown in the challenges and been stretched in the difficult times.

Just as my life has grown, so has the church and we now meet in the Dominion Theatre in central London - a great theatre that seats about 2200 people. I cannot imagine what life would have been like had I not gotten into such a fantastic church where I hear great teaching every week and where I have the opportunity to contribute to the house of God with my time and my resources. I love that there is such a sense of ownership in our house. Every person plays a role in making the week and week-end work, whatever that looks like. You may contribute with your time, with your finance, by bringing people along or quite simply just by your enthusiasm.

The Dominion Theatre

Another thing is that by being able to serve the vision in our church has enabled me to begin to realise my own dreams. Realising that God has a plan and a purpose for my life has allowed me to dream things that I would never have allowed myself to do before. Knowing that he wants to give me the desires of my heart and that he plans things for me that no mind has ever imagined has given me a boldness in my approach to life. In fact, I almost feel that it's an insult to God to NOT dream big dreams, because he desires great things for us, not a life of mediocrity.

Hillsong United

Though probably the biggest lesson I have learned yet is that my life goes beyond myself. I am not here to appease myself (or people, for that matter). I was created by God and for God. My purpose is to be in relationship with him and to help other people get in relationship with him. I would never have learnt that by myself, without other people. So basically I have come to grips with the two most important commandments- Love God and Love people.

I guess in a lot of ways our mission statement has become my mission statement, and our vision has become my vision. Though my guess is that that is exactly how it is supposed to be.

Hills Mission Statement:

To reach and influence the world by building a large Bible-based church, changing mindsets and empowering people to lead and impact in every sphere of life.