What God is doing in my life...  sounds a lot like some serious church cliché doesn't it?  If you knew me personally you'd know that cliché church lingo is something that you wont find coming out of my mouth.  I almost cringe when I hear people say the same things that we've been trained to say in church every Sunday morning.  In fact I believe its come to the point where people say, “Ill be praying for you” when they have no intention of doing it at all.  In fact I know it happens because I've done it.

I've believed in Jesus for 11 years now.  I have been in the same non-denominational Christian church ever since then.  Its a fairly typical church with extraordinary Pastors whose preaching method I love and whose knowledge of God’s Word I really admire.  I've gone to this church nearly every Sunday, I met my wife in this church, I was counseled and married in this church, I served as a deacon in this church, and I stopped going to it about 1.5 years ago.  Wait, what?  Yeah – unfortunately.  I've never really fit in, but I loved my church.  I could wear shorts every Sunday and no one ever cared... except when we as deacons served communion... no shorts on those Sundays.  But I still had spiked bleached blond hair and people didn't pay much mind.  But recently I really lost desire to go to my church.  Nothing was drawing me there.  The pastor was repeating some sermons I’d heard and the worship was just dreadful for me.

I have never really been a fan of modern contemporary worship.  A few times when the band has dropped out and the church has been filled with voices, I have teared up, closed my eyes and felt very close to God.  But the last couple of years instead of worshiping God the only thing I think about when I’m standing there is the 500 people in the church singing like drones who just don't care.  This has made me very jaded.  I have become ill of being exposed to people who claim to know God and Jesus and then they just act like automated dispensers of catch church phrases and fake smiles.  Maybe that sounds a bit negative but unfortunately most of you reading this have probably experienced this to some extent.  I took my mom to my church after she lost a dear friend and she found no consolation there even though she was looking.  When I take friends there and try to introduce them to people I know it often goes something like this:

Dan: “Hey there Jim, I’d like you to meet my friend Cornelius”
Jim:  “Hey Cornelius its nice to… Oh hey, be right back I have to go catch Renaldo before he leaves!! He has my copy of Grand Theft Auto in his car...”
exit Jim
Cornelius: “Wow… that was... a nice dude...”

You get my point.  All in all the church has kind of left me empty and a fairly useless vessel. (There is another word I learned in church: vessel.  I used to think a vessel was like a submarine.  Is that word even in the Bible?)  I'm sorry for the droning on but I need you to understand something.  I've desired to be closer to God and the church hasn't helped me do that for about 5 years.  It's helped me learn about God, but it didn't get me any closer.  When is the last time you had a real worship experience?  One where you knew the grandeur of God and you felt it - you could have died on the spot, opened your eyes and been standing next to God and it would have been all good.  One year ago?  Two years ago?  Five?  Ten?  Maybe you have never had a real worship experience like that.  Well recently I had one and here is where it went down: Cornerstone 2005.  For the first time in a long time I really feel like God has actually shown me something.  I sound like a hypocrite speaking some crazy church rubbish again but that’s what is so wonderful!  I had an honest to goodness worship experience at Cornerstone and it involved electronic music. God is so good.

On Friday night of Cornerstone 2005 there was an event in the dance barn called RE:Fresh.  It was ambient electronica night with communion and fellowship.  It started at 1am, but we showed up way late at about 2:20am because we had just seen Andy Hunter on main stage and we hung out with him for a long time afterwards.  It was so awesome to see Andy on main stage because he is a brilliant worship leader.  I didn't dance but I let myself get immersed in the music he was playing.  Yet I was still not in a worshipful mindset.  I hadn't been in that mindset for many years and I think a part of me believed that I could never go back there.  I wasn't even looking for it or thinking about it.  Worship for me was dead. 

When we walked into the dance barn it was an abrupt shock.  We were laughing, talking, and when we walked into the dance barn it was pure silence.  There was a slow ambient bass drone and people were sitting on the cold dusty floor of the barn all over the place.  On the projection screen it simply said:  “SILENCE”.  It then proceeded to talk about when the last time you had been silent was.  The last time you shut out the world, stopped everything, and just listened.  Pure silence.  Then the bass cut out.  All you could hear was a silence at a festival with 30,000 + people.  I sat down on the floor of the barn with my wife and near all of my Tastyfresh friends.  I was calmed. 

Earlier in the day DJ Race had asked me if I would help carry a loaf of bread out to the communion table at about this point.  They had multiple different shapes of bread that were being laid out in the shape of a body.  At this point an ambient track kicked in and I was motioned to go get a loaf of bread and stand in line to go carry it out.  Then I realized a great significance.  Everyone holding a loaf of bread was a DJ or producer in the scene we all love and spend lots of time in.  Brian Scroggins, DJ Glow, Cindy Tucker, Hypostatic was leading the communion service, DJ Ellipse, DJ Race... and about 15 others give or take.  We all carried the bread out, the body was formed, and then one by one people began to go to the table, tear off pieces of bread, and kneel. 

The table was intentionally placed close to the ground so you would have to kneel to take communion.  I went up, took bread and dipped it in the grape juice.  As I kneeled there praying and thanking God, listening to a great ambient electronic track, and being surrounded by like 10 of my best friends, it HIT ME like a ton of bricks.  DJ Glow, or DJ Ellipse... someone put their hand on my shoulder while I had my eyes closed and holding a piece of communion bread and I knew it right then and there:  THIS is the church I want to be a part of.  I began to get teary eyed.  I can't express how close to God I felt at that point.  There was a great electronica track chilling in the background, and EVERYONE was worshiping God.  You were not sitting in the barn that night and not worshiping God.  Believe me.  The following night I danced for an hour and a half to Andy Hunters set and I worshipped God the entire time.  This worship was more real than I have ever experienced.

Can you believe that such a church exists?  Well this is my new goal in life - to be in this church.  Every aspect of my relationship with God has been ignited and I can’t wait to get back there again.  I will tell you exactly how I plan on getting back there too: Tastyfresh Groove Fellowships.  We are planning one in Ohio and there are numerous other ones being planned.  All I want now is to get back together with my friends most of whom I know because of electronica and take communion together while we listen to someone spin a nice long set of breaks, trance... it doesn't even matter what they spin.  I want to hear about what God is doing in people’s lives.  I have a genuine desire to pray for my friends again.  I have a genuine desire to be in a church again; a church of people who worship God through electronica. The coming months will be some of the most amazing in my life and I can feel it.  It’s on.  I feel like I've been given a totally amazing blessing.  God really pulled me back to church and I couldn't have dreamed up a better church on my own. 

If you think about it I believe this is how churches really were 2000 years ago.  They didn't get together every Sunday and take communion, go through a routine, then leave and forget about Jesus for 6 more days until the following Sunday.  They genuinely, truly wanted to know God more and when they took communion it was a true celebration.  That’s the real church!  I’m looking to celebrate – and I’m looking to do it in front of some hard-hitting bass.  The best part is, I know it makes God happy. 

It's time to get out of our chairs, get off of our behinds and do whatever it is that makes us come alive.  If you come alive when you are rock climbing, running, or bicycling then do that and surround yourself with people who do it.  If you come alive when you see young children who haven’t eaten in months receive food then dedicate yourself to this cause. And for goodness sakes if you come alive when you hear loud electronic music and you cant resist the urge to move - then get out there, dance the night away and remember that God loves us.