Authentic Life

Every Tuesday night, a diverse group of men meet at a local Wichita coffee shop. This group started last September with just a handful of people wanting a place to seek the Lord and find true fellowship. It has now grown to dozens attending each week.

The common word I hear from everyone who attends is “WOW, we had some CHURCH tonight.” I hear it from the pastors who visit or new attendees who have hardly been to a traditional church. What do they mean by that? There isn’t a worship service, communion, or a message. What is it that makes it feel like church to so many? It’s authentic life. It’s raw. It’s real and the presence of God visits our meetings each and every week. No pretenses.

Each week the guys go around sharing either a high or a low from the week. Many testimonies are filled with hope and joy as the Lord is doing some many new things. Parents are being reconciled with their kids, they are being released from their addictions, and many have found new jobs. When someone shares a great testimony suddenly thirty men will break into applause with what the Lord has done.

But then the next brother may share a deep and real struggle and suddenly the same thirty guys are offering their sympathy, prayers and tears. It’s a place where these brothers feel genuinely loved and accepted no matter what situation they may find themselves in.

After the guys share we have a brief time in the Word and then we often close with some powerful prayers of confession and admission as we cry out to the Lord to bring deliverance from our current situations. I am always moved when I hear the guys pray and the roar of the Spirit that fills the room.

Praise God for what He is doing at this coffee shop each Tuesday night. It is just one tiny example of the movement of urban men and women finding freedom all over our country.