Suffer

Went to the Richmond Outreach Center last Saturday night. I'll say it was different from my expectations.

Let's understand the physical structure before we get too far. It's more of a complex than a church, and actually more of a bunch of sports centers. Lots of parking, lots of buses, lots of people. Baseball field and skate park out front. College to the side (small college) as well as a cafeteria with free meals. Someone also said they house homeless pregnant women. So on the side of the main meeting building (which is a huge gym) is a mural - we're talking the whole side of the building - of Jesus with his arms out. Amazing quality. Going in the front door, I felt like a movie star or the president: EVERY man in the Biker Gang was there, lining the walkway, shaking my hand. EVERY man. Walk in, a small foyer with a bathroom and snack bar. Into the main room was a ton of chairs and bleachers, with a cut out at the far end for the musicians. We had to call ahead and make sure we had a place to sit cause they fill up so much they have to turn people away. We sat on the right side on the bleachers.

Right away, the band starts playing a familiar song (can't remember what it was). There were 3 songs, all of which you would know even if you've never been to a church before (like a rendition of 'Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey) Most of the songs had a old country theme, so everyone was dancing and clapping. One thing that's cool is the quality of everything. Even though it wasn't a bunch of professional musicians, they were all WAY good.

So the rest of the service was also interesting. There was a part where the pastor read a list of all the people that had become Christians in the past 7 days (which took about 5 minutes to list them by which ministry team had how many cards [they have every 'convert' fill out a slip so they can keep track]) The total was almost 550. There was a dance group that did a rap song and danced to it. Very cool. Also had two men share a story about their life and how they became a Christian/came to be at the ROC that night. The pastor told about Jesus (a common theme among these people) and how he lived a life of suffering on purpose. It boiled down to the conclusion that Jesus lived that way so that he could understand us, completely provide salvation, and so that we could copy him in being a suffering people.